Teachers’ and Students’ Perceptions towards the Practice of Assessment of Learning: Implication for Future Job Performance of Would Be Graduates

Melkam Zewdu Ayalew^1,

¹Department of Psychology, Bahir Dar University, Bahir Dar, Ethiopia

Cite this paper

Melkam Zewdu Ayalew. Teachers’ and Students’ Perceptions towards the Practice of Assessment of Learning: Implication for Future Job Performance of Would Be Graduates. American Journal of Educational Research. 2016; 4(12):872-877. doi: 10.12691/EDUCATION-4-12-4

Abstract

This study investigated teachers’ and students’ perceptions towards the practice of assessment of students’ learning in the Faculty of Educational and Behavioral Sciences (FEBS), Bahir Dar University, Ethiopia. To realize their perceptions, therefore, survey design was used. A close-ended questionnaire item with five point Likert scale was administered to twenty four teachers and one hundred students. In addition, to substantiate the data obtained through questionnaire, two FGDs with students, nine participants in each group, were conducted. And, interviews with 6 experienced instructors were also held. The quantitative data was analyzed using one sample t-test and independent samples t-test. One sample t-test was used to determine the status of teachers’ and students’ perception towards the practice of assessment. The independent samples t-test was employed to see whether there is significant difference between teachers and students in their perception towards the assessment practice. The qualitative data which was collected using interview and FGDs was described qualitatively using narrative analysis. Results of the one sample t-test revealed that teachers’ and students’ have unfavorable perception towards the practice of assessment. They perceived that the practice of assessment in the faculty was more of theoretical and most of them assumed that students need further practical training to perform to the standard in the actual job situations. The findings also indicated that there was no statistically significant difference between teachers and students in their perceptions towards the practice of assessment. Regarding the factors that affect the practice of assessment, almost all the student participants believe the following are main factors: heavy influence of the earlier approach to methods of teaching and assessment (behaviorist) which is usually practiced by teachers; teachers give more attention to grading instead of enabling students to be competent through careful engagement of practical assessment tools; some teachers are not professionally competent; on the other hand teacher participants of the study enlisted the following as main factors: students are not responsible for their own learning; students give priority to passing exams rather than developing competence; lack of clarity on competence-based assessment among students and teachers. Large numbers of respondents held the view that the practice of assessment was not in line with future job requirements of the graduates. Based on the findings obtained, recommendations were forwarded.

Keywords

assessment, competence- based assessment, perception, Ethiopia

Copyright

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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