Assessment Practices of Economics Teachers of Senior Secondary Schools in Maiduguri Metropolis, Borno State, Nigeria

Abstract

The study examined assessment practices of Economics teachers of senior secondary schools in Maiduguri Metropolis, Borno State, Nigeria. The objectives of the study were to: (1) determine how Economics teachers plan assessment, (2) find out methods and procedures followed by Economics teachers to conduct assessments, (3) assess how Economics teachers give assessment feedback to students on their performance: and (4) assess how Economics teachers utilize assessment feedbacks.  The study used descriptive research design. The population for the study was all the twenty (20) Economics teachers from eight (8) senior secondary schools where Economics is taught in Maiduguri metropolis. Census sampling technique was used in the sampling of respondents because of their small size.  The instrument for data collection was a questionnaire tagged “Economics Teachers’ Assessment Practices Questionnaire” (ETAPQ)” developed by the researchers. The questionnaire had a Cronbach alpha reliability index of 0.78 and consisted of twenty-eight (28) items. The items on the questionnaire were responded on a 5-point scale ranging from always to never. The researchers administered the questionnaire to the respondents at the schools and were retrieved the same day. The data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistics (mean and standard deviation) to answer all the research questions. The findings of the study revealed that Economics teachers plan assessment by ensuring that assessment tasks align to learning outcomes, consider the six levels of cognitive outcomes in the Bloom’s Taxonomy and align classroom assessment tasks with what has been taught. The findings of the study also revealed that Economics teachers conduct written assessments in the class, provide assessment tasks that allow students to achieve at a high level and engage students in group projects, provide face-to-face feedbacks to whole class, on-the-moment feedback as students are still engaged in the tasks as well as feedback in written or print form which included comments on students ‘assessed work. The result of the study also indicated that teachers utilize assessment feedback to evaluate teaching strategies, determine appropriateness of instructional materials, identify students’ difficult learning areas, but Economics teachers do not sample assessment from the entire theme of Economics curriculum, they do not give feedback at the end of each assessment and they do not utilize assessment feedback to determine students’ promotion to next level. Based on the findings of the study it was recommended that Borno state Ministry of Education should ensure that Economics teachers in senior secondary schools go for further training and take more courses in assessment to improve their assessment skills.

Keywords: Assessment Practices, Economics, Teachers, Senior Secondary School