Abstract:
The study investigated public school junior high mathematics teachers’ conceptions of
assessment and their practices of it. It intended to find the extent to which the teachers’
conceptions of the assessment practices reflect assessment for learning, assessment as
learning and assessment of learning. It also put to bear the assessment tools that the
teachers use in assessing mathematics learning outcomes. The study employed the
concurrent triangulation mixed research design within the pragmatist world view.
Using a multistage sampling procedure, a sample size of 58 public junior high school
mathematics teachers was used to collect questionnaire data. Out of this, 6 teachers
were purposively selected for interview and 7 teachers were also purposively selected
for observation data. The questionnaire data were analysed using the Statistical
Package for Service Solution version 25 (IBM version 25). Descriptive statistics such
as frequencies and percentages were used for the item-by-item analysis of the
questionnaire. The observation was also manually calculated using frequencies and
percentages. Again, thematic analysis was used to analyze interview data. Findings
from the study emerged that the mathematics teachers conceptions of assessment
practices highly reflect assessment of learning (83.9%) and assessment for learning
(81.7%). The qualitative results failed to confirm the teachers conception of assessment
as learning. The study also revealed that the mathematics teachers used more
traditional assessment tools than alternative assessment tools through the exploration
whereas the quantitative results provided contrary results. The study again discovered
that the mathematics teachers use class tests, written exercises, homework,
examinations, oral questioning, project work and observations as mathematics
assessment tools for assessing learning outcomes in their classrooms. It was uncovered
that teachers centre their assessment processes on gathering of data and offering
feedback. It is therefore recommended that the heads of the junior high schools and the
Bongo Directorate of Education should organise in-service training for mathematics
teachers on assessment as learning and the stages of mathematics assessment process.
Description:
A thesis in the Department of Basic Education, Faculty of Educational Studies,
submitted to the School of Graduate Studies
in partial fulfillment
of the requirements for the award of the degree of
Master of Philosophy
(Basic Education)
in the University of Education, Winneba
