Formative assessment practices by grade 12 business studies teachers in King Cetshwayo District
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Date
2023-05-12
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Abstract
Assessment plays a vital role in students’ learning whether in basic education or tertiary education. It provides information to both teachers and learners about learners’ progress in their education. The teacher’s understanding of the use of assessment in teaching and learning is one of the factors to be taken into consideration. However, teachers sometimes experience challenges when it comes to the implementation of formative assessment. The successful implementation of formative assessment in Business Studies needs teachers to have the necessary knowledge, skills, and attitude. The aim of this study was to explore the practices, understand the experiences and investigate the challenges of Grade 12 Business Studies teachers regarding the implementation of formative assessment in the King Cetshwayo District. Data was collected from five participants who purposefully selected, the participants were Grade 12 Business Studies teachers from schools under Mhlana cluster. Semi structured interviews were used to collect data. The findings of the study revealed that teachers are aware of the importance of the use of formative assessment, for instance they use it to establish prior knowledge and they also use various activities to implement formative assessment. The research results also revealed that formative assessment activities done during the lesson enhance learners’ performance, help to improve learner involvement and participation and that results in students participating meaningfully in their own learning. Participants revealed that formative assessment assist teachers to accommodate leaner diversity using different assessment activities. The study also revealed that there are challenges that were encountered by Business Studies which include the learners’ lack motivation which has a negative impact on teaching and learning. The other challenges that were encountered by teachers and hinder the effective use formative assessment in schools include, overcrowded classrooms, heavy teacher workloads and limited resources. The study recommended that teachers need to be continuously developed and capacitated on effective strategies that can be used to implement formative assessment effectively.
Description
A dissertation submitted in fulfilment of the academic requirements for the degree of Master of Education in the Curriculum and Instructional Studies in the Faculty of Education, University of Zululand, 2023