CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

CONTINUOUS ASSESSMENT

23.1 Objectives

By the end of this chapter, you should be able to:

        i.            Explain why C.A was introduced into our school system

      ii.            Define the concept of C.A

    iii.            Characteristics of C.A

    iv.            Advantages of C.A

23.2 Introduction

C.A is a veritable tool because of the decisions you will make about student learning and your teaching. Every day in your school time, you will be called upon to make decisions before, during and after teaching. All of your assessment decisions taken as a whole will direct and alter students’ learning outcomes. Teaching and learning can be enhancing through assessment.

23.3 Reasons for C.A in our School System

The Federal Government of Nigeria has been made aware of the deficiencies of the previous one-time summative evaluation of student performance, which has led to the implementation of ongoing assessments in our institutions. The method of evaluating students' ability or performance will replace the previous one-shot provided at the conclusion of each term or school year for the purpose of class advancement. Similarly, at the conclusion of a program or course of study, an external agency (such as WAEC and NTI) administers a test for certification reasons.

In the previous method, only intellectual capacity (cognitive) is assessed, ignoring other domains, such as the emotional domain, which deals with the learners' interest, attitude, motivation, emotion, and worry. Also, the previous method seldom considered the psychomotor domain in its whole.

In the old one-time summative review, there was no plan for assessment. In several schools, evaluations were conducted hastily. Learners view the final examination as a life-or-death situation because the previous method provided only a single evaluation and was extremely stressful. This results in examination irregularities and a wide range of standards.

In the previous system, there was no method to address obstacles such as illness or other obstacles that prevented students from sitting the final examination. This sometimes left students at a disadvantage, since they were had to redo the full year or course. External examination bodies perform the final examination for certification of students, therefore teachers are not engaged in its administration. You will support the establishment and implementation of continuous assessment in schools based on the aforementioned arguments.

23.4 Definition of Continuous Evaluation

Continuous assessment (CA) has been characterized in a variety of ways by various academics. According to some experts, CA merely refers to periodically assessing or weighing student performance in order to identify the progress achieved in teaching-learning activities. It is a sort of educational testing that examines the students' development or performance during the course of their schooling. CA requires the continual and systematic maintenance of accurate records on each student. It offers feedback to mathematics teachers about their performance and measures pupils' learning progress.

Importantly, since instructors construct, administer, and evaluate continuous assessments on topics of class teaching that are relevant to them, there is a high possibility that they will use the results for their personal benefit. With these definitions, CA provides an overall assessment of the educational system. In other words, decisions are made based on the facts acquired and examined throughout the evaluation. Therefore, judgments are more scientific and less speculative.

23.5 Qualities of Continuous Evaluation

There are defining characteristics of CA. These key characteristics include exhaustive, cumulative, methodical, learner-centered, guidance-oriented, and predictive.

        i.            Systematic: CA is considered to be systematic since it needs an operating plan that specifies what types of assessments will be performed and when they will be utilized.

      ii.            Comprehensive: The CA is considered comprehensive since it assesses not only cognitive ability, but also emotional and psychomotor domains. Thus, there is a comprehensive evaluation of the student. This also raises the responsibility of the instructors who look at the full three domains while assessing.

    iii.            Cumulative: CA is considered to be cumulative since records are added as the work of the term proceeds. The majority of documents maintained during and during the time were not disregarded. The old, one-shot method, however, tended to focus solely on the evaluation at the end of the term or even the year, ignoring the maintained data.

    iv.            Oriented toward guidance: The record obtained via CA is utilized to guide an individual student's profession choice depending on his or her aptitude.

      v.            Learner-Centered: CA focuses teacher and student attention largely on monitoring and improving instruction. It gives instructors and students with information to assist them in making modifications to enhance learning.

    vi.            Prognostic: CA is prognostic in the sense that information gathered during diagnosis can be utilized to forecast how well a student will do in the future on comparable tasks or on problems that are entirely different.

23.6 Benefits of Continuous Evaluation

Now, let's review the benefits of CA. This will allow us to comprehend the implementation of CA in schools.

        i.            CA takes into consideration the actions and performance of pupils during their whole academic career. Therefore, it is a better indicator of pupils' overall ability.

      ii.            It gives the possibility for practical teachers to be directly involved in the final certification of pupils. In order to maintain the reliability and validity of student certification, teachers are urged to be creative and devoted in the classroom, as well as to apply CA with the utmost honesty.

    iii.            CA generates complete data for rectifying students' learning shortcomings and providing suitable advice and counseling services.

    iv.            It supports the instructor in enhancing the instructional process. For instance, the feedback compels the instructor to periodically evaluate the educational approaches in order to enhance the teaching procedure.

      v.            It helps pupils to cultivate effective study habits.

    vi.            CA fosters entire growth of pupils since all parts of learning experiences, behaviors, skills and all other activities are being examined.

23.7 Issues with Continuous Evaluation

As part of the 6-3-3-4 education system in Nigeria, continuous evaluation was implemented. Due to the fact that it is a novel innovation, complications are inevitable. Consequently, let's consider a few issues with the implementation of continuous evaluation in our institutions.

i. Creation and Application of Standardized Instruments

Comparisons of results among Nigerian schools are hampered by disparities in the quality of evaluation instruments and methodologies employed in various schools, as well as scoring procedures. Again, instructors in the school system frequently lack enough training in the preparation and implementation of exams and other instruments, resulting in varying institutional practices. There is a challenge in implementing and developing a standard tool with unqualified teachers. Therefore, they operate in the shadows and identify all of their actions as CA.

ii. Improper Record-Keeping

Teachers in the school system are frequently too occupied with conventional and extracurricular activities to dedicate sufficient time to correctly record student tests. They appear unmotivated to maintain such documents and the amount of effort required in CA, which exceeds their remuneration.

iii. Storage Facilities

We need room for documents related with CA for safety keeping but regrettably such space does not available in many schools. As a matter of fact, most elementary and secondary schools have such difficulty, and the records are not effectively guarded.

iv. Large Class Size

In many of our institutions in Nigeria, the practice of CA is hampered by the large number of pupils per classroom. The teacher-student ratios are not adhered to, preventing a comprehensive assessment of each kid in the class across all behavior categories.

v. Computational Ability

Inadequate computational ability is another issue with the application of CA. The present practice of CA necessitates the translation of scores into a standard form; yet, a significant proportion of teachers are unable of doing this work. Therefore, individuals rely on the approach with which they are familiar.

vi. Lack of Authenticity

Teachers are deemed insincere if they assign grades to pupils based on favor or in exchange for a reward. All of these actions demonstrate a lack of dedication to the adoption of CA practice.

Student Activity

1.      List four ways assessment was done in the old system

2.      Explain what is meant by one-shot assessment

3.      Mention two disadvantages of old system assessment

4.      List four advantages of continuous assessment

5.      Give two definitions of continuous assessment

6.      Give three reasons for introduction of continuous assessment in school system

7.      What do we mean by bringing records of assessment forward?

8.      Enumerate five characteristics of continuous assessment

9.      There is the problem of unqualified teachers to implement the continuous assessment. Discuss

10.  List five problems of continuous assessment implementation in Nigeria.

23.8 Summary

The following are points to note in this chapter:

§  Continuous assessment was introduced in the school system to replace the old one-shot system of assessment. It based on three educational domains.

§  Continuous assessment is a commutative about performance of each student in the class. It makes the student to work hard not just toward the end of semester or term.

§  Continuous assessment makes use of different instruments, such as test, observation, socio-metric, project and questionnaire.

§  Continuous assessment has major characteristics which are it is comprehensive, cumulative, systematic, guidance oriented, learner centre and prognostic

§  Continuous assessment has been surrounded with several problems that affect its smooth implementation, such development and use of standard instrument, large class size, storage facilities, lack of sincerity, inadequate computation skill and so on.