THE UTILIZATION OF CONTINUOUS ASSESSMENT AMONG BIOLOGY TEACHER IN SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOL
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
This chapter highlights the
background of the study, problem of the study, purpose of the study, objectives
and research questions. The scope of the study and significance of the study
are also explained in this chapter.
Background of the Study
This section present historical,
theoretical, conceptual and contextual background of the Study.
According
to Kellaghan and Greapy (2003) during 20th century among the many countries and
states even among local government area that engaged in examination reform were
some countries like Nigeria and Ondo State as a case study following the World
Bank (2012) policy paper, “Education in Oka Akoko South West sub section in Ondo
State” which recommended, “a renewed commitment to academic standards
principally through strengthening examination system “.
The
first plenary meeting of the Donor to Africa Education (DAE) now called
Association for Education Development in African (AEDA) that are rapidly
develop in Ondo State educational system. Now reflecting the mood and
development in many countries, addressed the need to improve education quality.
This led to the establishment of the working group on school examinations in
recognition of the important role examination could play in quality improvement.
That
is why the White Paper (2002) on the education for National Integration and
Development recommended that schools should maintain cumulative record card on
continuous internal assessment including class performance. Since then,
teachers have continued to carry out continuous assessment in senior secondary
schools classes as often as possible and without waiting until the end of each
term or year.
Ivan
Pavloo (1929-1936) in his conditioning theory of classical conditioning
concluded that a dog learnt to salivate whenever a bell was rung. He undertook
many trials and each time the ball was sounded the dog salivated and food was
simultaneously presented. The conditioning theory has therefor been adopted to
inform this research because it was assumed that in senior secondary schools
obtained good grades whenever subject matter/content was taught, followed by
many continuous assessment (trials) exercise. Paviloo suggested a Conditioned
Response (CR) that refer to student’s reaction that develop as result of
training/teaching in this study. A Conditioned Stimulus (CS) refers to
incentive that evoke CR through teaching. In this study, it was assumed that
students’ attainment of good grades was the conditioned response (CR),
Continuous Assessment was the Conditioned Stimulus (CS), and teaching was the
unconditioned stimulus (US).
Greancy
(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 learner.
Assessment
is therefore a process through which the quality of an individuals’ work or
performance is judge. When carried out as an ongoing process, assessment is
known as Continuous Assessment (CA). CA is a formative evaluation procedure
concerned with finding out in a systematic manner, the overall gains that a
student has made in terms of knowledge, attitudes and skills after a given set
of learning experience.
According
to Aggaiwal (1999), CA is not simply continuous testing, continuous assessment
does not solely depends on formal test. CA is more than giving a test, it
involves every decision made by the teacher in class to improve student
achievement.it may take different forms such as formal questions given to
student during class, take home assignment and recapitulation exercises.
Assessment
is either internal or external. Internal assessment refers to school – base
assessment, which includes class assignment, teacher – made tests, recap
exercises, project, field studies and all these tools form part of the
classroom utilization of Continuous Assessment.
A
utilization of Continuous Assessment refers to the different tools/procedures
used in the classroom to understand the academic achievement level of learners
in term of their knowledge, attitudes and values.
According
to Kellaghan and Greany (2003), that kind of assessment is subjective,
informal, immediate, on – going and intuitive as it interacts with learning as
it occur. For instance teacher teaching senior secondary school three (SSS 3)
are required to assess their student regularly using different assessment
strategies/utilization of assessment so that learners could memorize the
subject content taught to them during the final examination. The downside of
this approach is that students’ are encouraged to exercise rote memorization of
facts and craning of information rather that acquiring problem solving skills.
This study was therefore conceived, designed and undertaken in order to analyze
the various classroom assessment practice and find out whether there was any
relationship between C.A practices with students’ performance on the final
examination which is a proxy for students’ acquisition of functional skills and
knowledge.
Statement of the Problem
The urgent need to promote learning
and improve performance in senior secondary schools in Oka Akoko South West
Local Government resulted into a range of related but different developments in
Continuous Assessment in biology teacher in senior secondary schools. The
resultant feature has been inconsistent performance of student in senior
secondary schools. What therefore remains disturbing is whether a relationship
between utilization of Continuous Assessment adopted by biology teacher in
senior secondary school in Oka Akoko South West with students’ performance in
final examination.
Purpose of the Study
The purpose of this study
was to established whether a relationship existed between utilization of
Continuous Assessment among Biology teacher in senior secondary school in Oka
Akoko South West local government area in Ondo State.
Objective of the Study
i. To find out the
utilization of continuous assessment among Biology teachers in senior secondary
school in Oka Akoko South West local government area in Ondo State.
ii. To find out whether there
was a relationship between continuous assessment utilization and student
performance in senior secondary in Oka Akoko
South West in Ondo State.
iii. To find out the Biology
teachers' perception of whether student exposed to various continuous
assessment strategies perform better in the final examination than their
counterpart.
Research Questions
i.
What are utilization of Continuous Assessment among Biology teachers
in senior secondary school in Oka Akoko South West in Ondo State
ii. What was
the relationship between
utilization of Continuous Assessment
among biology teacher and student performance in senior secondary school in Oka
Akoko South West in Ondo State.
iii. What were the Biology
teachers Perception on whether student exposed to various utilization of
Continuous Assessment performed better in the final examination than their
counterpart?
Scope of
the Study
The study covered five
senior secondary schools in Oka Akoko South West local government. The schools
are:
i)
African Church Grammar School, Oka – Akoko
ii)
Ola Oluwa Grammar School, Oka – Akoko
iii)
Christ High School, Oka – Akoko
iv)
Ojomirin High School, Oka – Akoko
v)
Ogoso High School, Oka – Akoko
The major emphasis was
put on Biology teachers and student in senior secondary schools.
The study also revolved
around Continuous Assessment utilization among biology teacher and student performance in senior secondary
Schools in Oka Akoko South West local government.
Significance
of the Study
The finding of this study
might contribute in the following ways:
i.
The research results would
inform the teacher trainers of
the numerous ways of utilizing
Continuous Assessment in
senior secondary school in Oka Akoko South West.
ii.
The research would provide knowledge and information to the inspectorate
Department about the performance of student in schools that result from the
classroom practice.
iii.
Teacher would be informed of the alternative UCA that would be used
to enhance biology students’ performance.
iv.
This research will act as a foundation for further research that
will benefit researchers.
