The Effect of Continuous Assessment on Academic Performance of Students in Home Economic in Secondary Schools
CHAPTER ONE
Purpose of the Study
Purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of continuous assessment in teaching and learning of Home Economics in schools: specifically this study am,
- To identify the extent to which continuous assessment techniques has been of great gain to the school system.
- To examine the capabilities of schools using the Continuous assessment technique and to proffer solutions based on the observed problems on how to make the technique more indigenous and reflective of our local needs especially in our schools.
- To determine the problems created by the introduction of continuous assessment technique in our school system.
CHAPTER TWO
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
The review is presented under the following sub headings.
Conceptual Framework
- Concept of Continuous Assessment
- Characteristics of Continuous Assessment of continuous assessment
- Techniques used in the administration
Theoretical Framework
- Behaviorist learning theory
- Cognitive, constructivist theories of learning
Empirical Studies
Summary of Literature Review
Conceptual Framework
Concept of Continuous Assessment
Continuous assessment can be seen as taking into account the child’s all round performance in the cognitive, affective and psychomotor during a given period of schooling using a wide range of instructions according to (Ebon: 2011) continuous assessment is the process of assessing a student in the cognitive, affective and psychomotor domains of behaviour over a period of time using several techniques in order to help him fully develop his ability. According to (Ajuonuma, 20010), it is a process of gathering and fashioning data into an interpretable form of making decisions. This process involves data collecting which will be used in making value judgment concerning the quality of a person, object, group or an event. A good continuous assessment can make the following contributions, promote the development of reading skills and encourage long term habits through reading, listening etc. These learning habits form the key to continuous success in school and to the personal enrichment of leisure (Obi, 2013).
Study habits are learning tendencies that enable students to work privately. It is also an adopted way and manner a student plans his or her private readings after classroom learning so as to attain mastery of these subjects .Good study habits are good assets to learners because the habits assist students to attain mastery in areas of specialization and consequent excellent performances (Azikwe, 2010). Senior secondary school is a post secondary school educational level in Nigeria 6-3-3-4 system with 3 years duration stAnambra south es, it is the final stage of secondary school level whereby a learner that has already gotten the necessary and basic foundation in cognitive affective and psychomotor domain of knowledge in junior secondary will be allowed to choose which areas to concentrate on, be it science, arts, commerce or technical. All senior secondary school students have to sit for a Senior Secondary Certificate Examination (S.S.C.E) which can be West African Senior secondary certificate examination (W.A.S.S.C.E) and National Examination Council (N.E.C.O). This is the final state before university education. Students must pass this examination before being admitted into any university.
Teachers are those people that deliver education programs, assists student’s participation in an educational program, administer consistent and substantial leadership to an educational program prescribed under the educational program. The teaching must be in a school or in another setting delivering an educational program prescribed under the education curriculum. They must possess professional certificate in the subject area of teaching having great enthusiasm interest and focus on the area of teaching, demonstrate content knowledge and pedagogy competency, assisting students out of class time to understand better and showing patience during question sessions.
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHOD
This chapter presents the research design, area of the study, population of the study, sample and sampling techniques, instrument for data collection, validation of the instrument, reliability of the instrument, method of data collection and method of data analysis.
Research Design
The research design adopted for this study was a survey design. According to (Iketaku 2011) it is one in which a group of people or items are studies by collecting and analyzing data from only a few or items considered to be representative of the entire group. This design is used to elicit different opinions of people on an issue of wide concern. This is the overall plan scheme or programme of the research. It is a design that enables us to describe a number of decisions which need to be taken regarding the collection of data before ever the data are collected. These decisions must undertake a systematic or scientific process. According to Kerlinger (1979) research design is the plan.
CHAPTER FOUR
DATA PRESENTATIONS AND ANALYSIS
This data collection for the study was presented and analyzed in this chapter based on the research question that guided the study.
CHAPTER FIVE
DISCUSSIONS OF FINDINGS, EDUCATIONAL IMPLICATIONS, LIMITATIONS, CONCLUSION, RECOMMENDATIONS, SUGGESTIONS AND SUMMARY
The research finding based on the data presented in chapter four are interpreted and discussed in this chapter. The outline of the chapter is as follows:
Discussions of Findings
RESEARCH QUESTION ONE – To what extent does continuous assessment techniques has been great gain to the school system. The responses found revealed that teachers always give home work to pupils, teachers motivate pupils after teaching while some of the pupils agreed that teachers motivate pupils while teaching and also teachers ensure that assessment scores are published after it.
RESEARCH QUESTION TWO – To what extent can the capability of school using the technique more indigenous and reflective of our local needs especially in our school. The responses shows that Government should try and enroll the teachers in workshop on continuous assessment importance and also Government should ensure that necessary instructional materials needed for teaching and learning are provided. When it was also revealed that government should ensure provision of facilities such as laboratories, electricity and conducive learning environment to be made available in the secondary schools.
Educational Implication
The basic reason for good continuous assessment can make the following contributions. Promote the development of ready skills and encourage long term habits through ready, listening and etc those learning habits from the key to continuous success in school and to the personal encouragement of leisure this throughout line. Assessment is not merely testing (Osokoya, 2006), it is a process through which the quality of an individual work or performance is judged (Mwebaza, 2010). In relation to school setting, Greaney (2001) defines assessment as any procedure or activity that is designed to collect information about the knowledge, attitude, or skills of the learner or group of learners. Thus, in the context of education, assessment can be defined as a predetermined process through which the quality of a student’s performance in the three domains of educational objectives (cognitive, affective, and psychomotor) is judged. Assessment of students learning of curriculum contents in the area of knowledge, skills, and values is a major pre-occupation of many educational reforms.
Limitation of the Study
The researcher observed that there are some limitations which might have influenced the results of their findings, these limitations include: in as much as the findings of this study have provided good guides for explicative stAnambra south es in other populations, the results are most applicable in Anambra south Local Government Area.
- Efforts to secure financial grants to increase the samples for this study were made but to no avail. The researcher therefore has to rely on his meagre earnings to undertake the study. This is one major reason why the sample size was limited to only the schools in Anambra south local government area.
Conclusion
This study was aimed to evaluation of continuous assessment techniques in secondary schools in Fegge in Onitsha South Local Government Area of Anambra state and its effects on academic performance. The literature review indicates that rapid technological changes, innovations and knowledge explosion necessitate redefinition of the role of learning and teaching, which in turn necessitates a revisit of assessment strategies and methods. The teacher, through teaching, has to make learners aware of the fallibility of knowledge. Both the teacher and learner have to find out how the knowledge is constructed. One way this could be achieved, as mentioned earlier, is by assessing of learning and examining of alternatives assessment practices. Continuous assessment is used to test the learners’ knowledge although cognizance is taken of the fact that a particular method of assessment may serve more than one purposes. It should be stressed that all aspects of teaching, learning and assessment are interwoven and cannot be divorced from each other. Assessment in schools is an issue of quality assurance and thus it is a tool used as away to ensure quality educational outcomes. Therefore, negligence and or lack of planning for assessment in schools will compromise and counteract the quality of educational outcomes.
Recommendations
Based on the fore-mentioned educational implications of the findings of this study, the following recommendations were made.
The ministry of Education or its relevant agencies should organize seminars and workshop for Home Economics teachers at least once in a term in order to update their knowledge on the practice of continuous assessment.
The Ministry of Education or its relevant agencies should train and post enough professional guidance counselors in the area of to schools in the zone.
Secondary schools in the zone should set up continuous assessment committees to perform the duties currently performed by Examination committee. Such duties include:
Oversee the keeping of various assessment records.
Develop time-table for assessment of pupils in the school. The committee is to be headed by the vice-principal (academics); members to include, the school guidance counselor, Head of social science section, Head of science Education sections.
Suggestions for Further Studies
Further studies could be carried out on the following:
Developing effective and psychomotor assessment skills in teachers for effective teaching/learning.
The role of Information and Communication Technology in the implementation of continuous assessment.
Summary of the Study
In summary, continuous assessment practice evidently changes the role of teachers as an assessment to one who enters into dialogue with the learner being assessed to find out their current level performance in their different course of study. Based on the research made, it was reviewed that the success of continuous assessment depends on teachers’ will, abilities and skills. The impact of continuous assessment helps to adjust the mind of teachers who were used to holding traditional way of assessment.
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