Educational Assessments and Measurement

The aim of the study was to evaluate the implementation of competency based assessment (CBA) in chemistry subject in secondary schools in Singida Municipality, Tanzania. A cross-sectional survey and case study designs were adapted in this study. The study was guided by five evaluation questions which aimed at determining teacher’s perceived knowledge in implementing CBA, usage of CBA strategies and related skills, teachers and students attitudes towards implementation of CBA, challenges encountered and possible solutions for effective implementation of CBA. Four evaluation hypotheses were tested. Stratified sampling was used to select 10 secondary schools from a population of 22 secondary schools in Singida Municipality. While a sample of 115 students were selected by using stratified sampling, a total of 3 heads of schools were selected purposively. All 43 chemistry teachers found in selected secondary schools were included in the study. A total of 168 respondents from 10 secondary schools in Singida municipality participated in the study. Questionnaires, document analysis, focus group discussion and in-depth interview where the data collection procedures employed in this study. Instruments were pilot tested and the reliability coefficients were calculated. The likert scales from teacher’s and student’s questionnaires had Cronbach Alpha reliability coefficients of 0.795 and 0.862 respectively. Quantitative data were analyzed and presented in terms of frequencies, percentages and means while qualitative data were transcribed, coded, and presented in terms of participant’s excerpts. One way ANOVA and independent t-tests were deployed in hypotheses testing. Findings indicated that chemistry teachers had insufficient knowledge and skills in implementing CBA. It was also revealed that chemistry teachers had rarely applied CBA and its associated skills. Also, it was revealed that chemistry teachers and students had positive attitudes towards implementation of CBA. Further findings revealed that implementation of CBA was impeded by various factors such as lack of in-service trainings to chemistry teachers, inadequate teaching and learning resources and lack of well-equipped chemistry laboratories. Results of hypotheses testing indicated that usage of CBA strategies did not differ significantly among teachers with different working experiences (F(3,35)=0.676, p>0.05), and usage of CBA strategies did not differ significantly among teachers with different professional qualifications (F(3,35)=0.277, p>0.05). It was inferred that usage of CBA strategies did not differ significantly among chemistry teachers from private and government secondary schools t(41)=0.934, p> 0.05 ). Also, teachers and students attitudes towards CBA did not differ significantly (t(156)=0.531, p>0.05). From the findings, it was concluded that, CBA seems not to be effectively implemented in chemistry subject in secondary schools in Singida Municipality. Therefore, it is recommended that, comprehensive CBA in-service trainings should be organized to chemistry teachers. Also, educational stakeholders should ensure enough availability of teaching and learning resources in secondary schools for enhancing effective implementation of CBA in chemistry subject.

At this age of accountability, it is acknowledged that assessment is a powerful lever that can either boost or undermine students learning. Hitherto, much of the regular institutional and instructional practices show that assessments remain inhibitory or void rather than constructive as these lack the assessment formative aspect. This denotes that assessment is either not well understood or not done in a principled educational framework across all educational levels. This is due to some inherited dysfunction of the past, which calls for the urgency of a moratorium. The current article attempts to enhance the EFL practitioners' educational assessment practice as a form of expanding awareness. It attempts to establish a founded theoretical framework for the main concerns that might have been troubling novice and professional EFL practitioners with regard to understanding the working mechanisms of such a perplexing task that has long been delegated to them. Particular aspects of the current review target the definitions of the concept of assessment, the value, functions and purposes of assessment, levels where assessment occur, assessment research literature synopsis, and classroom assessment research (CAR). CAR presents detailed knowledge about the potency of assessment, research on classroom assessment practices, research on alternative assessment, research on formative assessment, and finally quality control criteria for effective classroom assessment. The article culminate in the pedagogical potency of formative assessment and some of its classroom procedural applications inspired from research into formative assessment and how that might contribute to the enhancement of pedagogic practice. Keywords: educational assessment – accountability – alternative assessment – formative assessment – assessment practice 1. Introduction To carry out research on educational assessment (henceforth EA) in higher education, it will be supportive to have some theoretical considerations at hand. Central to EA are the dichotomous concepts like testing, evaluation, assessment, and examination. A rich body of literature on CA (practice) research has been reviewed in order to establish a founded theoretical framework for the main concerns that might have been troubling novice and professional EFL practitioners with regard to understanding the working mechanisms of such a perplexing task that has long been delegated to them. Particular aspects of the current review target the definitions of the concept of assessment, the value, functions and purposes of assessment, levels where assessment occur, assessment research literature synopsis, and classroom assessment research (CAR). CAR presents detailed knowledge about the potency of assessment, research on classroom assessment practices, research on alternative assessment, research on formative assessment, and finally quality control criteria for effective classroom assessment. Stated below are the questions that were chosen to drive the theoretical search: 1. What does the EA literature say about assessment of student learning? 2. What makes a classroom assessment effective? 3. What quality control criteria that language teachers need to assure to make an assessment of high quality? It is worth noting that even though the body of the literature that was reviewed is not directly related to the practice of EFL testing in higher education as most of the (research) publications available to the researcher target the issue of assessment in primary and secondary levels, I believe that the same principles could apply to EFL testing at higher levels of education.

At this age of accountability, it is acknowledged that assessment is a powerful lever that can either boost or undermine students learning. Hitherto, much of the regular institutional and instructional practices show that assessments remain inhibitory or void rather than constructive as these lack the assessment formative aspect. This denotes that assessment is either not well understood or not done in a principled educational framework across all educational levels. This is due to some inherited dysfunction of the past, which calls for the urgency of a moratorium. The current article attempts to enhance the EFL practitioners’ educational assessment practice as a form of expanding awareness. It attempts to establish a founded theoretical framework for the main concerns that might have been troubling novice and professional EFL practitioners with regard to understanding the working mechanisms of such a perplexing task that has long been delegated to them. Particular aspects of the cu...

Information about students’ learning is necessary for educational decision making. Therefore, classroom assessment, comprehended as the procedure in which students’ reactions to spontaneous activities are
used to draw inferences about their knowledge and skills assumes a significant role in education. In higher education, students’ learning is more impacted by their originations of the instructive condition than by the real instructive practices. In China, which has a long history of examination-oriented education, an assessment reform
in basic and higher education was kicked off by the Ministry of Education as part of the New Curriculum Reform in 2001. This paper reviews literature on students’ upheld conceptions of assessment and then reports a study into Chinese students’ conception of assessment. Literature reviewed revealed that students conceive of assessment in
at least four major ways (i.e., assessment makes students accountable; assessment is irrelevant because it is bad or unfair; assessment improves the quality of learning; and assessment is enjoyable). The findings of the study also indicated that students conceive assessment as being for improvement of learning and assigning grades.

Test, measurement, and evaluation are concepts used in education to explain how the progress of learning and the final learning outcomes of students are assessed. However, the terms are often misused in the field of education, especially in Ghana. The objective of the study was to thoroughly explain the concepts to assist educationists and researchers in the field of education to better apply them in educational discourses. The study also suggests best practices in setting test items in measuring students’ learning outcomes while showing policy directions to assist educationists and researchers in the field of educational evaluation.

This paper presents research and provides a method to ensure that parallel assessments, that are generated from a large test-item database, maintain equitable difficulty and content coverage each time the assessment is presented. To maintain fairness and validity it is important that all instances of an assessment, that is intended to test the same subject content, are presented to each test-taker without bias. The method described demonstrates how each test-item in an item bank (i) is assigned a difficulty rating using a recognized test-centered legally defensible cut-score determination method, (ii) assigned to either hard, moderate, or easy categories, and (iii) then selected in a stratified random selection fashion, by content and difficulty, to ensure equal content coverage and difficulty level within an acceptable range of the calculated cut score.