Factors Influencing Assessment Conceptions among Basic School Teachers: A Multiple Analysis of Variance

International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS) | Volume V, Issue XI, November 2021 | ISSN 2454–6186

Factors Influencing Assessment Conceptions among Basic School Teachers: A Multiple Analysis of Variance

Shani Osman
Department of Social Sciences, Tumu College of Education, Ghana

Abstract: This study examined teacher variables that influence assessment conceptions of basic school teachers in the Sissala East Municipality of Ghana. Gender, academic levels, class assigned, teaching experience, age and assessment-based training were investigated to determine the effects of these individual variables on the teachers’ conception of assessment. The data for this study were collected and analyzed using a strictly quantitative approach. Teachers Conception of Assessment III was used to collect data from 204 teachers. Using multiple analysis of variance (MANOVA), out of the six variables included in the study, the results revealed that the main effect for gender was significant, Wilks’ Lambda = .95, F (4, 198) = 2.53, p < .05; multivariate η2 = 0.05. A follow-up Bonferroni adjustment analysis, the dependent variables were verified individually, and the only variable to attain a difference in statistical significance was improvement assessment conception, F (1, 201) = 6.56, p = .011, partial eta squared = .03. An analysis of the mean scores revealed that females recorded marginally higher levels of improvement conception (M = 4.84, SD = .55) than males (M = 4.63, SD = .59). It is therefore recommended that stake holders should ensure the development of ways to improve the assessment literacy of especially male teachers.

Keywords: assessment, conceptions of assessment, Ghana, Multiple Analysis of Variance.

I. INTRODUCTION

Teaching and assessment are inextricably linked. Assessment is the “gathering, interpreting, and using evidence of student learning to support teacher decision making in a variety of ways” (McMillian, 2018, p.14). On their part Okyere, Kuranchie, Larbi and Twene (2018) view assessment as an act of obtaining data about students’ learning, analyzing and synthesizing information to advance the quality of their learning. Assessment can be explained as a system of interpreting student achievement information utilizing a number of approaches or practices (Brown, 2011). National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NaCCA) (2019) explained assessment as a process of of gathering and analyzing learners’ information and using it in the decision-making process to enhance learning. This suggest that there can be no perfect decision making about students’ learning and effective teaching bereft of classroom assessment. This is due to the fact that assessment is an essential component of any educational process.

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