Integrating Assessment with Instruction: Science Teachers Practice at East Gojjam Preparatory Schools, Amhara Regional State, Ethiopia

Abstract

This study was aimed at investigating science teachers’ practice of integrating assessment within their daily instruction to improve students’ learning at East Gojjam Preparatory schools, Amhara Regional State, Ethiopia. Both quantitative and qualitative methods were employed to gather the data. The subjects of the study were all of science teachers in the randomly selected schools. From 186 science teachers, 153 of them filled the questionnaire. Moreover, 8 purposively selected teachers were included in the interview and observation sessions. To analyze the data collected through questionnaire, frequency, percentage and mean were used. For the qualitative data content analysis was used. The results of the quantitative and qualitative data showed that the practice of integrating various assessment tools for the sake of learning in the selected schools was very low. Most science teachers administered tests, home works, assignments, and class works at the end of the lesson to consolidate what they taught and to collect marks. Most teachers less likely use different assessment for learning strategies as a part of their instruction to assess higher order thinking and to collect evidence to identify learning gap for future learning. Such activities have negative implication on the quality of science education. Thus, school administrators, teachers, and researchers should do more on the area to effectively implement formative assessment to improve students’ learning.