KALITY SECONDARY

SCHOOL

Research Proposal Submitted To Kality Secondary

School Class Of Social Science Department Of
Economics
To reduce the problem of imposing minimize score
assessment of the grade 11G-2014 students,in case of
Economics subject

November 03, 2021

Ethiopia, Adis Abeba
By teacher: Yusuf Mohammed

Submitted to: Kality Secondary school

Contents
Acronomy.....................................................................................................................................2
CHAPTER1. Introduction............................................................................................................3
1. 1. Background of the Study......................................................................................................3
1.2. Statement of the Problem......................................................................................................4
1.3. Objectives of the study..........................................................................................................6
1.3.1. General objective...............................................................................................................6
1.3.2. Specific objectives.............................................................................................................6
1.4 Significance of the study........................................................................................................6
1.5. Scope of the study.................................................................................................................6
CHAPTER 2. Review of Related Literature................................................................................7
2.1. Definition of Continuous Assessment...................................................................................7
2.2. Types of continuous assessment.........................................................................................10
2.2.1. Formative Continuous Assessment..................................................................................11
2.2.1.1. Techniques of FCA.......................................................................................................13
2.2.2. Summative Continues Assessment..................................................................................20
2.2.2.1. Techniques of SCA.......................................................................................................22
2.3. Purposes of Continuous Assessment...................................................................................23
Chapter 3. Methodology............................................................................................................24
3.1. Introduction.........................................................................................................................24
3.2. Research Design..................................................................................................................24
3.3. Population of the study.......................................................................................................25
3.4. Sample of the Study............................................................................................................25
3.5. Sampling Techniques..........................................................................................................25
3.6. Data collection instruments.................................................................................................26
3.7. Data analysis.......................................................................................................................26
CHABTER FOUR.....................................................................................................................27
4.1 Work Plan............................................................................................................................27
4.2 Logistics...............................................................................................................................28
REFERENCES...........................................................................................................................28
APPENDIX................................................................................................................................30
KALITY SECONDARY SCHOOL..........................................................................................30
DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS..........................................................................................30
QUESTIONARIES FOR KALITY HIGH SCHOOL EMPLOYERS AND STUDENTS.......30
Acronomy
CA- Continuous assessment

FCA- Formative continuous assessment

SCA- Summative continues assessment

IHLC- Intermediate and Higher Learning Competency

MOE- Ministry of Education

AED- The Academy for Educational Development

ICDR- Institute for Curriculum Development and Research

GECFWDD- General Education Curriculum Frame work Development Department

CHAPTER1. Introduction
This chapter deals with the following five major subtopics: the first section presents background
of the study. The second topic focuses on statement of the problem. Third topic is about
objectives of the study. The fourth topic deals with significance of the study. The last topic
presents about scope of the study.

1. 1. Background of the Study

While assessment has potential to improve learning for all students, historically it has acted as a
barrier rather than a bridge to educational opportunity. Furthermore, it has been used to label
students and put them in dead end tracks. Thus, traditional test have been soundly criticized as
biased and unfair to minority students. After years increase in the consequence of poor test
scores, many educators have begun to criticize the measures used to monitor students’
performance and evaluate programs. Generally, Airasian (1997) strengths these statements
saying that traditional assessment instruments and techniques tend to measure narrowly defined
characteristics do not facilitate integration of skills or processes and are frequently artificial in
their nature that does not give the trust possible picture of each student’s knowledge, attitude and
skill.

As a result, the term “Continuous Assessment” came in to existence as a reaction to an older

educational practice of examining students only at the end of the educational cycle. In older
assessment practice, students did not receive adequate feedback along the way about their
learning and did not know how well they were progressing until the educational cycle was
finished and it was too late. To correct the short coming of this older practice, educators now
advocate assessment that is more frequent so that students and teachers have more feedback
about learning progress. This more frequent assessment is called Continuous Assessment (ICDR,
1999).

Curzon (1990) describes continuous assessment as a comprehensive term, which refers

particularly to enquiring into the learner’s competence, knowledge, attitude and skill through
various students profile using different assessment methods to improve learning.

In the same way, Gronlund (1981) briefly defined Continuous assessment as making observation
periodically to find out what a student knows, understands and can do.
Thus, CA is the records of the students’ performance in nearly everything a student does through
the course that the three interrelated categories of educational domains of learning (cognitive,
affective and psychomotor) are assessed.

With this understanding, the Ethiopian Education and Training Policy statement has suggested
continuous assessment as one of the most important strategies for implementing the new
curriculum. The Policy (TGE, 1994) affirmed that CA in academic and practical subjects
including attitude tests will be conducted to ascertain the formation for all round profile of
students at all levels. As the result of this policy, students learning outcomes in all school levels
are supposed to be assessed using CA procedures in relationship to three primary domains:
cognitive, affective and psychomotor. Hence, we now realize that CA is a class room strategy
implemented by teachers to ascertain the knowledge, understanding and skills attained by pupils.
ICDR (1999) also pointed out that, CA is being used increasingly as an alternative to terminal
examination because it provides more reliable information than one shot examination. In
addition, it builds up a picture of a students’ performance over a prolonged and representative
period. Therefore, schools in this day are turning to CA so as to build up a record that is much
more complete and reliable.

1.2. Statement of the Problem

The teaching and learning process needs continuous follow up to achieve its objectives. Hence,
continuous assessment is essential to check the realization of instructional objectives. In general,
the significance of using continuous assessment in teaching and learning process to improve the
quality of education is unquestionable. Supporting this idea, Gronlund (1981) pointed out that
evaluating pupils learning on a continuous basis by focusing on basic instructional objectives
plays important role in maintaining the quality of education. Therefore, teachers need to ensure
that assessment tasks are as effective and fair as possible. Because, it has been argued that the
assessment process may either facilitate or inhibit transfer of learning depending on its nature,
systems and procedures (Cree et al, 1998).
In addition, Boud (1994) suggest that students can escape from the effects of poor teaching;
however, they cannot escape the effects of poor assessment.
Furthermore, poor assessment may affect decisions about grades, advancement of learners,
instructional needs and curriculum design. Therefore, the need for this research arises from a
number of concerns over the existence of a gap between policy intentions and the actual
assessment practices in the Ethiopian schools.

TGA (1994) pointed out that, the educational policy of Ethiopia adheres the implementation of
continuous assessment at all educational levels. But, there seems to be problems of
implementation related to various factors. Some researches have been conducted regarding the
implementation of CA at different educational levels in Ethiopian context. For example, Aberra 
Aseffa (2009), Gemmechu Abera (2008), Tamene Olana (2007) and Muluken (2006) revealed
that teachers do not use CA in their classrooms effectively. According to the above researchers,
there are plenty’s factors that hinder the implementation of CA effectively. Some of these salient
points are: large class size, tight schedule, broad course contents, teachers’ negative attitude,
pupil absentee, inadequate teaching and learning resources, bias of teachers’ based on sex, race,
personality and etc.
Taking these factors in to consideration, the researcher would like to fill a gap, which is left
untouched. That means these researchers do not assess the teachers’ assessment practices based
on the methodology of continuous assessment. They only focus on factors that hinder the
implementation of it. Hence, this research work tries to assess whether teachers include all
necessary principles and elements of methodologies of CA in their assessment practices
neglecting those recognized hindrances.
Of course, teachers face challenges while they assess students’ work in an educational setting
where they have not enough access to the type of assessment information that will enable them to
carry out the continuous assessment accurately and fairly. Pierce (2002) disclosed that most
teachers feel unprepared to assess in the way the institution or the department requires them to
do. They further continued, for instance use the same type of assessment techniques their
teachers used while they were at school.
That means their assessment does not measure learners’ performance in a holistic manner.
Therefore, it is important to investigate the existing practice of CA and develop strategies that
lead to effective use of it to enhance students learning out come.
1.3. Objectives of the study

1.3.1. General objective

The main purpose of this study is to reduce the problem of imposing minimize score assessment
of the grade 11G(2014EC) students,in case of Economics subject.

1.3.2. Specific objectives

Specific goals of this study are:
I.To identify the case that reduce the problem of imposing minimize score assessment of the
grade 11G(2014EC) students,in case of Economics subject.
II. To discover for what purposes do teachers use Continuous Assessment.
Thus, to accomplish these objectives the researcher tries to answer the following two
questions:      
1. Do teachers use appropriate techniques of Continuous Assessment?
      2. For what purposes do teachers use Continuous Assessment?

1.4 Significance of the study

The result of this study will be of great benefits for the following bodies: on the part of the
teachers, it will furnish them with necessary information on areas and methods their assessments
are to be employed for effective implementation of continuous assessment. The school principals
also can be able to take corrective measures on the problems of teachers’ failure discussing on
the strengths and weaknesses of the existing assessment practices. Last but not least, this study
will liberate learners from the impact of poor continuous assessment practices.

1.5. Scope of the study

Due to time constraints and unmanageability of the data, the study is confined to Kality
Secondary School which locates around Cheralia, Woreda Seven Akaki Kality Sub-city
administration in Addis Ababa City government.
CHAPTER 2. Review of Related Literature

This chapter reviews some related literatures. Depending on the level and type of schools,
various issues related to continuous assessment are raised for discussion. Hence, the aim of the
study and the research questions are used as the frame work for the review of literature. Wiersma
(1995) also asserted that, the review of the literature provides background and context for the
research problem. Thus, it should establish the need for the research and indicate that the
researcher is knowledgeable about the area. Therefore, since the aim of the study is to investigate
the use of CA effectively and focusing on teachers’ practices to use it, the following themes were
considered as paramount:

2.1. Definition of Continuous Assessment

Before discussing CA, it is important to clarify the confusion that we have in the use of different
terms that are related to CA. Some of these commonly used terminologies with reference to CA
are:

A. Test: according to Gronlund (1981), test refers to the presentation of a standard set of
questions to be answered by pupils or it is also an instrument for appraising samples of a
person’s behavior. Here, quizzes and examinations are related to a test; but where a quiz is given
without formal plan and only covers small portions of a lesson, an examination is given at the
end of a program and it assesses comprehensive learning out comes as well as contents.

On the other hand, based on purposes and formats they use, pedagogical tests are classified into
the following types (Airasia, 1997):

 Achievement test – This measures what the student has learned or the students’ present level
of accomplishment.

 Aptitude test- Cruikshan, et, al., (1999) describe it as a measure of the potential, natural or
general ability of a person.

 Objective test- it is a test that measures factual information and they can be consistently
scored. For instance, true-false, multiple choice, and matching tests.
 Subjective /essay /test – it mostly focuses on measuring the ability to generate, organize and
express ideas.

 Diagnostic test – it focuses on determining the students learning deficiencies and problems.

 Readiness test – these measures the students’ prerequisite knowledge, background skills and
information so as to go to the next step.

 Performance test – this test typically measures the level at which student can demonstrate
practical skills. Performance test usually uses checklist and rating scales.

 Self-report test- self-report test measures areas related to pupils’ attitude, feelings, opinions,
interest and appreciations. This type of test measures the affective area of pupils’ behavior
and interpersonal communication skills.

B. Measurement: Measurement refers to the process of assigning numbers or test scores to a

person’s behavior collected through a test, project, observational technique, home-work and
laboratory works. It mostly describes a given behavior in terms of test scores, amount, size or
quantity. Hence, measurement is simply a quantitative description of human behavior (Gronlund,
1981). Used in this sense, measurement then contains test as one means of gathering information
for measurement. Example, when we say, “Bontu obtained 12 out of 20 in English test,” we are
talking about measurement.

C. Assessment: assessment is the process of collecting information about students that to use it to
make educational decisions about them. According to Airasia (1997) and Cruikshank, et, al.
(1999); assessment refers to the process of collecting information (through paper-and-pencil
tests, observational techniques and self-report devices) and interpreting it to aid in decision
making. Thus, teachers assess their pupils for a variety of purposes, such as:

 Monitoring their learning

 Provide feedback and incentives to motivate them.

 Identify and diagnose learners’ learning difficult.

 Place pupils in groups.

 Plan and conduct instruction in the classroom.

 Judge, grade and promote pupils academic performance.

Generally, assessment information can aid the teacher make sound decisions related to:

 Pupils

 Instruction and

 Classroom climate (ICDR, 1994)

D. Evaluation: according to Gage and Berliner, (1998) evaluation refers to the process of using
information to judge the goodness, worth or quality of students’ achievement, teaching programs
and educational programs. Thus, evaluation is the process of making judgments of a product, a
response or a performance based on criteria. Hence, evaluation is simply the quantitative
description and qualitative description of a behavior plus value judgments. Therefore, as Derebsa
(2004) said, evaluation is more of judgmental and is a more comprehensive term than
assessment. As a result, evaluation is an overall judgment of student performance based on
assessment. Evaluation generally comes at the end of a semester, a term or a year.

Now, let us see the definition given to continuous assessment by scholars. Thus, as explained in
BESO, (2005); EQUIP 1 (2003); and Oggunniyi (1984) CA is a classroom strategy implemented
by teachers to ascertain the knowledge, understanding and skills attained by pupils. This means,
for collecting information to check students’ attainment of the required learning outcomes, the
progresses students have made the problems they experienced in learning and the effectiveness
of teachers’ teaching methodologies.

In addition, Brookhart and Nitko, (2008) explain that CA is the conduct of frequent assessment
for purposes of deciding how well students are achieving the learning outcomes and what the
teacher and they might do to improve their learning. Continuous in this context means obtaining
information about students frequently (i.e., often) instead of obtaining information only rarely
(i.e., occasionally).
Generally, the term “Continuous assessment” came into existence as a reaction to an older
educational practice of examining students only at the end of the educational cycle. Under this
older practice, students did not receive adequate feedback along the way about their learning and
did not know how well they were progressing until the educational cycle was finished and it was
too late. To correct the shortcomings of this older practice, educators now advocate assessment
that is more frequent so that students and teachers have more about learning progress. Thus, this
more frequent assessment is called continuous assessment.

On the other hand, although CA implies frequent assessment of students, teachers should realize
that frequent assessment alone does not improve teaching and learning. Teachers must use the
assessment results specifically for improving teaching and learning. This means, teachers must
use the assessment results to give students feedback that tells them how to improve, not simply
give them a mark or identify the questions they missed on a test. Hence, if teachers discover
information from an assessment that the students did not understand some of the materials,
teachers will need to use this information to modify their teaching (Brookhart and Nitko, 2008).
Generally, doing continuous assessment and not using that information to help students improve
their learning is a big waste of time.

2.2. Types of continuous assessment

As described in BESO, (2005); CA is divided into two major types. These are: Formative
continuous assessment /FCA/ and summative continuous assessment /SCA/. FCA is an ongoing
process for checking learners’ readiness, understanding, difficulties, and effectiveness of
teaching approaches and so on. Thus, FCA is not a one shot activity. Generally, FCA means
collecting information to help teachers form students like a potter forms the clay to make a jar.

On the other hand, SCA is a process for collecting information about students’ learning that is
used to make decisions about certifying, grading, reporting to parents, and promoting. It is
usually done at the end of a unit, a course, a semester or a program. Hence, SCA means
collecting information to help teachers sum up what students have learned from their lessons.
2.2.1. Formative Continuous Assessment

Brookhard and Nitko, (2008) suggested that teachers should think of FCA as part of their
teaching process. Because, when teachers use FCA in their classroom practice, they look for the
information they need to adjust their teaching and to help students improve learning while the
lessons are happening. In this sense, FCA informs both teachers and the students about students’
understanding at a point when timely adjustments can be made. These adjustments help to ensure
that students achieve the lessons learning outcomes.

Therefore, FCA is an ongoing process for checking learners’ readiness, understanding, difficulty,
effectiveness of teaching approaches and so on. We say “Ongoing” because it is part of the
instructional process as it unfolds information that is very helpful for improving students’
learning as well as improving the instructional process.

Generally, as explained in AED, (2010); the main reason for FCA lies in what teachers actually
do with the information they gather. This means, FCA is mainly about what teachers do with
information to help students. Here, many assessment techniques can be used, but it is not the
technique that makes assessments formative. Hence, FCA helps the students improve their
learning. Additionally Puhl, (1997) and Eggen and Kauchak, (2001) mention that FCA improves
students’ learning for a various reasons. For example:

I. FCA helps teachers and students identify what students can do with help and what they can do
independently.

II. Asking students to participate in FCA encourages active-learning, keeping students on task

and focused on learning goals.

III. FCA, especially peer and self-assessment, help students with the social construction of
knowledge.

IV. FCA allows students to receive feedback on precisely the points they need in order to
improve. It shows them what to do next to get better.

In the next sections, different ideas concerning FCA will be presented. Thus, Brookhart and
Nitko (2008) explained the following major ideas about FCA. These key ideas are:
 The Learning Benefits of FCA

In FCA, teachers use their personal knowledge of the students, their understanding of the context
of the classroom and their understanding of the lesson’s learning outcomes to identify particular
learning needs of the students. FCA is assessment for learning as compared to SCA, which is
assessment of learning. Teachers carry out FCA in the middle of learning, usually more than
once, rather than only at the end. Their FCA helps teachers to interact with the students and they
providing assistance as part the assessment. In this way, teachers come to understand why a
student is not mastering a learning outcome. Information from FCA helps teachers to provide the
feedback to students in the form of guiding them to achieve the next steps in the learning
process. Further, FCA depends on teacher’s diagnostic skill to make it works. More specifically,
information from FCA can help in the following ways:

A. Sizing up: FCA information can help teachers to form initial impression of students’ strengths,
weak nesses, beginning of the year or course.

B. Diagnosing individual students learning needs: FCA information can help teachers to identify
what the students have learned and what still needs to be learned, as well as to decide how
instruction needs to be adapted to the students.

C. Planning instruction: FCA information can help teachers to design and implement appropriate
learning and instruction activities, to decide what content to include or emphasize and to
organize and manage the classroom as a learning environment. BESO, (2005) further explained
this saying that, when teachers conduct FCA, teachers collect a wide range of data so that they
can modify their teaching and the work for their students. They craft assessment tasks that open a
window on what students know and can do already, and they use the insights that came from the
process to create the next steps for observation, work sheets, questioning in class, students-
teacher conferences or whatever mechanism is likely to give them information that will be useful
for their planning and teaching. Any marking that teachers do is not for grading the students, but
to highlight each student’s strengths and weaknesses and to provide the students with feedback
that will further their learning.
D. To motivate the learners

FCA is well recognized as a major motivation of students learning (Gibbs,1992).Students self

assessment is important to their learning. If teachers teach them to use the criteria that they have
aligned with the learning outcomes and show them some examples of previous students’ work,
the students can use these to evaluate their own work perhaps; they can provide themselves
feedback on why their work does not meet the criteria and what they can do to improve it. The
more the students participate evaluating the quality of their own work, the better learners they
will become. In addition, it might be wise to encourage a student with a grade, rather than to
discourage them. Because, success at a challenging task is particularly effective in stimulating
future motivation (Atkinson & Raynor, 1974).

2.2.1.1. Techniques of FCA

As explained in AED, (2010) and Airasia, (1997); FCA is mostly informal and used for
monitoring pupils learning process. These informal techniques consist of teachers’ casual and
impromptu observations and judgments of students’ progress in learning the lessons’ outcomes.
This is necessarily so because the information about students learning comes very rapidly as
teachers are teaching. Hence, teachers must be constantly alert to how well the students are
progressing and use whatever clues they can obtain while they are conducting the lesson. Here,
many informal assessment techniques can be used, but it is not the technique that makes
assessment formative. For example, teachers may think that “Observation” is a FCA technique.
Well no, it is not-unless teachers use information from those observations to help form or shape
the student learning improves. Therefore, what distinguish FCA from SCA is not their formal or
informal techniques. Rather the distinction lies in the purposes for which the results are used:
FCA techniques focus on gathering information that helps teachers to monitor and guide
student’s progress through the curriculum. The information from these techniques assessments
are not used as a basis for official term or year marks or grades. Generally, informal techniques
are techniques that will allow teachers to assess students’ previous knowledge and skills,
monitoring their learning, identifying what errors they may make and the cause of these errors,
providing practice for students and motivating students.
Pasigna, (2001) lists some of these informal techniques of FCA as follows:

A. Observation: when you want to assess the students’ ability to work with others, the best way
to do this is to observe the students during group work. If teacher want to find out if he/she has
developed good habits of study or work, the must observe the students white he/she is working
on an individual project or doing an assignment. Teachers may also ask the student’s parents to
observe him/her at home and ask them to informally rate the students’ behavior/attitude/work
habits. Here, teachers must be sure that they provide very clear guidelines on how this rating is to
be given (Tharp & Gallimore, 1988). Generally, observation and listening are used to assess
students as they read, work cooperatively with others, carry out assignments or solve problems to
understand the nature of the errors and misconceptions they have.

B. Impromptu or Spot checks during a lesson: A good teacher always tries to maintain eye
contact with the students in order to- catch early signs of confusion or learning difficulty that
they might show during the lesson. The alert teacher, who spots students looking confused or not
paying attention, prevents more serious learning problems by immediately and quickly asking
questions to check for comprehension. When the spot check shows that many students are “not
getting it”, the teacher must then clarify or give concrete examples to help the students learn. For
example, if one of their students does not seem to be paying attention, ask him/her a question
about what they have just explained or what classmates just said. In general, talking with
students to determine how well they understand a concept or how they think a problem should be
solved and using that information to determine why they are making errors or misconceptions is
a very important technique. Thus, sometimes teachers may have to ask students to explain why
they are doing what they are doing and determine the point in the process where they are making
mistakes.

C. Giving informal oral or written quizzes: short quizzes can be given by the teacher that
requires oral or written responses from individual students. When given quickly at the beginning
of the class period, these quizzes are useful for finding out if the students still remember what
was learned in the previous day’s lesson before the class goes on to the new lesson or to
determine how completely they understand as compared to how well they can repeat a set answer
during the lesson.
In addition to individual quick quizzed, teachers can give a quiz that is fun and game like to
which the whole class or groups can respond at the same time which can be a very efficient
assessment situation. After the teacher ask students to quickly write their answer on any piece
of paper, the teacher then goes around very quickly looking at the written responses and writes
down the names of the students who pe4rsistently give wrong responses. Thus, these are the
students who will need some remedial help.

D. Self-assessment: the students can be given a simple checklist with criteria that they can use to
assess themselves. Although they may not be as reliable as direct observation by the teacher, self
assessment or self-report can be used for assessing attitudes’ work habits, etc.

E. Role playing: role play is a powerful tool for assessing attitudes and for changing attitudes.
Students can be trained to “walk in the other person’s shoes “i.e, try to think, act and speak like
the other person to understand that person’s feeling or attitudes and appreciate different point of
view”. Tolerance, compassion and respect for difference in culture, opinions and tradition can be
‘learned’ and assessed through role playing.

F. Dramatization: one way of assessing reading comprehension is by having the students “retell”
a story through dramatization. This usually involves two or more students, but it can be done
individually through “pantomime” – e.g., a single person acting out a simple story without
saying word. Thus dramatization is use full for assessing one’s comprehension of safety rules
practices.

G. Reviewing home work and seat work: to understand why students are making error or having
misconceptions. Homework is usually the student’s first attempts at developing their skill and is
used for practice.

To sum up, a good teacher uses many different ways of assessment to makes sure that every one
of his/her student’s is learning. However these informal techniques of FCA only contribute to
formative purpose to the extent to which the teachers use information the obtain from the to
adapt their teaching: speeding up or slowing down the pace, giving more positive examples and
negative examples to clarify ideas and making continuous judgments and decisions about how
to proceed with the lesson.
 If teacher’s purpose is to obtain information to help students learn, they do not need to
mark/scare or count these assessment results. On the other hand, if teachers do not use the
information they gathered from these assessment in ways that will help them to improve their
learning, teachers are not doing FCA and it is just a big waste of time. Thus, teachers must use it
to keep a systematic record of their students’ progress and help them to memorize any learning
problems they discovered (AED, 2010).

Remediation and Enrichment

A teacher who believes in continuous assessment believes every child can be a successful
learner. This means that some children take more time to learn an idea than the other children.
Thus, while the teacher is helping the “slower” student, the “faster” students must be doing
something worthwhile, too (AED, 2006).

A. Remediation:

Remediation is a way of helping students overcome a learning difficulty. When a learner has a
problem learning something, the teacher must provide remedial instruction or remediation. Thus,
students who have not learned after instruction need remedial help. However, in deciding on the
most appropriate remedial activities for students with learning problems, the teacher must first
identify or find out why they did not learn. Thus, here are some reasons why children don’t
learn:

I. The child may be a “slower learner” in this area. Some children need more time to learn certain
skills and concepts. They learn more slowly than other in some learning areas .it is important to
remember that a student can be a fast leaner” in one and be a “slow learner “in another area.
II. The child may not have the “prerequisite” skill or knowledge to be able to learn the new
lesson. A prerequisite skill or knowledge is something that the child must already know in order
to learn something new. This is sometimes called “relevant previous knowledge” required to
learn the new lesson. If they lack these prerequisite skills, children will not be able to learn the
new skill or concept.
III. The teaching of the lesson may not have been effective. If many students did not learn the
new material, it may be because the lesson was poorly taught. Very often, students do not learn
because the teacher used a teaching method that was not suited to their needs and ability levels.
IV. The student may be a “faster learner” in this area and may fell that the lesson is too easy.
Student who think they already know the material that is being taught quickly, get bored. They
lose interest and do not pay attention and so they don’t do well in the lesson. Bored students may
be come restless and disruptive. They may develop even more serious problems if they are
constantly neglected.

V. Some children may have emotional problems that make it hard for them to pay attention to the
lesson. Sometimes there are problems at home that make the child worry so much. The child may
not be able to eat or sleep because of the emotional problems. These emotional problems may
keep the child from learning because he/she cannot pay attention in school.

VI. Some children may have difficulty learning because of some physical problem. The child
may be sick; the child may have poor eye sight and cannot see what is written on the blackboard.
The child may be hard of hearing and so does not understand what the teacher or classmate is
saying. The Child may live very far from school and is too tired from the long walk to pay
attention in class.

VII. A Child may have a mental or neurological problem such as mental retardation. Here, even
the class room teacher’s help may not be enough ( Harmer,2001)

Generally, the remedial activities that can be done in the class room or at home are those that are
appropriate for children whose learning difficulties can be corrected through instruction. This is
because the class room teacher does not have training required to deal with learning problems
caused by mental, physical, neurological or emotional problems.

Why do teachers provide Remedial instruction?

Teachers provide remedial instruction to students with learning problems, because:

a. They care about the success of every child in their class.

b. They believe that every child can be helped to become a successful learner.

c. They believe that one of the most important things they can give to the child is the opportunity
to succeed.
Thus, it is very important that children with learning difficulties helped as soon as possible so
that their problems do not pile up and become more difficult to correct.

Some ways of providing Remediation

I. Re-teaching : This can be done in two ways:

a. Simple re- teaching, i.e, teaching the lesson again using the same methods and the same
materials.
b. Modified re-teaching , ie, teaching the same lesson using a different methods and different
materials

Here, the modified re-teaching approach is usually preferred. It makes sense to try other
strategies and techniques if the initial teaching methods were not successful.

I. Re-reading: Students who can read well enough to learn by themselves can simply be
assigned to read the same text book again. Or teachers can look for another book that
teaches toward the same objectives but presents the content in a slightly different way.
II. Peer Group learning: the students study together in small groups of 3-5 members. They
help each other when questions come up. Students with the same learning difficulty will
belong to the same group. They are given the appropriate materials and instructions on
how to work together.
III. Games and play activities: supervised games and play activities are good because they
are fun and make learning “painless”. Students get involved and learning becomes more
fun.
IV. Drill and practice: Children may be given flash cards, worksheets or other material.
Independent drill and practice can be very helpful if the child understands the concepts,
but makes some errors.
V. Self-study: Self study works only with motivated students who are good readers. It
simply means the teacher gives the student materials to study by him or herself. Here,
self-study must following steps:
- The teacher selects or writes remedial materials for them.
- The teacher writes clear directions for using the package.
- The teacher goes over the material with the learners.
- The learner works alone on the tasks.
- The teacher has a test included in the task.

B. ENRICHMENT:

While the teacher is helping the “Slower” Students, the “faster” students must be doing
something worthwhile, too. Here, enrichment lessons are not “busy work”. Good enrichment
lessons are chances for the students who have mastered the basic material, to learn even more
about this same concept or skill. They need to be as carefully planned as the remedial lessons.
And also enrichment lesson can be given to small groups or individual students (AED,2006).

Approaches to Enrichment:

There are several different methods the teacher can use to do enrichment. They are:

I. Using knowledge in different way

- Change the conditions: take the material the children understand and have them think about it
from a different point of view.
- Classifying: Looking at the relationship between pieces of information or between objects.
Children could look for similarities in groups of objects. Thus Children can be asked to rank
objects from the biggest to the smallest, from the fastest to the slowest, etc.
II. Reading: Students can be given additional books or other materials to read. These should
have exercises attached to them, so the teacher can see how well the students understand
the material.
III. Games and puzzles: games and puzzles can be used as enrichment activities. Examples
are: Card Games, Board games, Bingo, dice, crossword and picture puzzles.
IV. Making materials: students can be asked to make materials to be used by the other
students. This could be helpful to both the faster and slower students. The “Masters” will
benefit from the need to be sure the material is exactly correct. The “Slower” will benefit
from using the materials.
V. Peer group learning: “Masters” can work together in small groups. They need to have
clear direction about what they are to do. They need to have follow-up exercises so the
teacher can judge how well they have understand the material.
VI. Tutoring: “Masters” can be asked to tutor the less able students. As with any tutor, the
teacher must be sure to be clear directions, plan the activity and check on the tutoring.
Using masters as tutors can work very well because children are not likely to be “Scared
“of another student.
VII. Original art work: any original creative work can be used for an enrichment activity.
Children can be given a topic and be told to write story about it or draw a picture that it
suggests to them. What the activity is, is less important than how much originality and
creativity it calls for.

2.2.2. Summative Continues Assessment

As described in BESO, (2005) and AED (2010) summative continuous Assessment is a process
for collecting information about students learning that is used to make decisions about certifying,
grading, reporting to parents and promoting. If is usually done at the end of a unit, a course, a
semester or a program. Thus SCA is a meaning to collect information to help teacher’s sum up
what students have learned from their lessons.

As cited by Amedahe, (2002) SCA is an occasional comprehensive sum-up or summary of a

students’ achievement of the learning outcomes. Thus, there is no need to have a comprehensive
sum-up every day. Rather, teachers sum-up a student’s learning, for example at the end of a long
unit, at the end of the semester or at the end of the year. It is also important to report a summary
of every student’s learning to the students, the parents and the educational authorities. Generally,
teachers use the SCA results to provide a summary that evaluates the quality of students’ work,
with the goal of marking and grading. This means it is required that teachers mark or grade
students and report their evolutions to school officials and parents. Puhl and Carol, (1997) make
the clear distinction between SCA and the traditional assessments. They explain that, same
sometimes teachers ask why SCA is called continuous assessment since it does not occur every
day. It is true that SCA does not occur as frequently as FCA. However, it occurs more frequently
than the old style examinations past years that occurred only at the end of the year. Today, SCA
occurs every time to give end of year. Today, SCA occurs every time to give an assessment that
will count toward a grade. For some teachers this is two or three times a semester, for others it
occurs every week. The point is, from the perspective of the history of education, SCA is much
more continuous than the single end- of- year examination. Hence, SCA came to be known as
one type of continuous assessment.

Purpose of Summative Continuous Assessment

Ogunniyi, (1984) describes SAC as assessment of kerning rather than assessment for learning.
The summing-up purpose of SCA focuses on certifying learning and reporting to patents,
students and others about students’ progress in school. Thus, the focus is on evaluating learning
after instruction is completed. Therefore, SCA doesn’t provide information for improving
learning but only information of the learning that is already completed. As a result, we can say
that SCA are not assessments for learning, but rather they are assessments of learning.

Generally, AED, (2010) mentions three major purposes of SCA:

i. Assign grades for report cards- teachers record their evaluation of each student’s learning
progress so that the evaluations mat be communicated to students, their parents and responsible
educational authorities.
ii. Place students into remedial or advanced courses- sometimes teachers are able to adapt
instruction to individuals’ needs when teaching is group based students who do poorly in the
class may be placed in to remedial classes that provide either alternative or supplemental
instruction that is more suitable for the students’ current level of educational development.
iii. Evaluate teachers’ own teaching- this requires teachers to review the learning that students
demonstrate of after the lessons are complete, to identify which lessons were successful with
which students and to modify their teaching strategies so they will lead to improved students
performance that next time the lessons are taught.

2.2.2.1. Techniques of SCA

According to Gronlund and Linn, (1995) SCA are very often formal (i.e., done in an organized
and precise manner), since the results of SCA become part of student accountability system.
Thus, the SCA procedures teachers use need to be crafted with deliberation and care so they can
align them with student profiles, MLCs and intermediate and upper learning competences. As
mentioned in Du Plessis, et,al., (2003), formal and more structured assessment and testing are
usually done at the end of lesson, a topic or a unit, at the end of a school term and the end of the
school year.
 McTighe and Ferrara, (1998) present the following different types of formal assessment:

a. Objective assessment activities

b. Subjective assessment activities
c. Performance assessment activities and
d. Product assessment activities
a. Objective assessment: is a form of questioning which has a single correct answer. There are
various types of objective questions type such as true/false, multiple choice or multiple-response
and matching questions.
b. Subjective assessment: is a form of questioning which may have more than one correct answer
(or more than one way of expressing the correct answer) subjective question include extended
response questions and essays.
c. Performance assessment: this technique involves learners using what they know to come up with
an answer. Here, learners asked to demonstrate or perform what they know from what they have
been fought. This often requires learners to spend more time on the assessment activity. Octal
reports, role plays, debate and dramatizations in language are ways to ask learners to perform
and show their knowledge and skills.
d. Product assessment: product assessment can be described as tangible (can be touched with the
hands) objects created by the students and can be viewed by the teacher. Product assessments
differ from performance assessments because they are physical pieces of students’ work that can
be touched.

Generally, Harrison, (1983), Heaton, (1991) and Hughes (1989) suggest that, there are an infinite
number of ways to assess learners. It all depends on the creativity of the teacher. Good
assessment activities also need to be good learning experience for the learners not punishments
or tricks. Thus, assessment is not to filter students out of educational opportunities. Therefore, all
assessment /especially SCA/ must be valid and reliable to accurately and appropriately assess
student achievement based on learning outcomes.
 2.3. Purposes of Continuous Assessment
According to Chan, (2004) and BESO, (2005) CA can serve a number of different purposes. The
most frequently used purposes are:

 To provide teachers with feedback about pupils’ progress: such feedback enables teachers to
consider how effective their teaching has been in achieving its intended learning outcomes. In
particular, it may highlight certain problems or misunderstandings that have arisen, that require
remedial action in their subsequent teaching.
 To provide pupils with educative feedback: assessment enables pupils to relate their performance
to the standard expected, to use detailed feedback to correct and improve their work and to
appreciate more clearly the requirement of the tasks set.
 To motivate pupils: Assessment activities can act as a spur to pupils to organize their work well
and to learn what is required so as to achieve well at this activities. The spur may be largely
based on intrinsic motilities. The spur may be largely based on intrinsic motivation, extrinsic
motivation or mix of both. Feed back of success at a challenging task is particularly. Effective in
stimulating future motivation.
 To provide a record of progress: regular assessment activities enable teachers to keep a record of
pupils’ progress over a long period. This can then form the basis for their decisions about
individual pupils’ current and future educational needs, particularly if a cause for concern arises.
 To provide a statement of current attainment: a specific assessment activity or group of activities
can be used to identify the standard of attainment achieved at a particular point in time.
 To provide evidence of teacher and school effectiveness: pupils’ performance in assessment
tasks provides evidence of their progress and hence acts as a useful indicator of teacher and
school effectiveness.
 To meet the students’ expectation.
Generally, as clearly indicated in BESO, (2001) there are three reasons that government
documents often present for using CA:

i. Improving teaching

ii. Improving student learning and

iii. Improving the accuracy and fairness of students evaluation.

Chapter 3. Methodology

3.1. Introduction
This chapter discusses the methodology that will be used in carrying out the study. It is divided
into five sections. Under the first two sections, the research design, population and sampling
procedure will be discussed. Under the third section, the instruments that will be used for data
collection will be discussed. Then the fourth section looks at the data collection procedures. The
final section will discuss how the data collected will be analyzed.

3.2. Research Design

The design of a research is the basic plan for the study (Punch, 2006). This study is a descriptive
research. Descriptive research is a type of research that specifies the nature of a given
phenomena. Therefore, this research will assess and describe teachers’ practices of continuous
assessment. Thus, descriptive research determines and reports the way things are (Jack and
Norman, 2003).

Accordingly, this study is based on two research questions. The research questions survey
teachers’ continuous assessment practices and the purpose why teachers use continuous
assessment.

3.3. Population of the study

Population refers to the name for the large general groups of many cases from which a researcher
draws a sample (Neuman, 2003). Population is the entire group of persons that have the
characteristics that interest the researcher. Thus, the target population for this study is all teachers
at Kality Secondary School.

3.4. Sample of the Study

A sample in research study refers to any group from which information is obtained (Jack and
Norman, 2003). Researchers will prefer to study the entire population in which they are
interested. However, this is difficult to do. Because, most populations are large, diverse and
scattered over large geographical area. Thus, to locate or contact all members within a particular
population can be time consuming and expensive.
Due to this, researchers often select a sample to study. Therefore, the sample for this study will
be twenty teachers. These teachers are randomly selected from the four departments: language
department, natural science department, social science department, math’s department. In
addition, based on the school teachers ratio of male-female, four male teachers from each
department and one one female teacher from each department are selected. Therefore, sixteen
male teachers and four female teachers are totally the sample of the study.

3.5. Sampling Techniques

The way the sample is selected is known the sampling procedure. Deflem (1998) indicates that
sampling refers to the systematic selection of a limited number of elements (persons, objects or
events) out of a theoretically specified population. This selection is systematic so that bias can be
avoided. There are two main sampling procedures: the random (probability sampling) and the
non random (non- probability sampling).

Thus, non-probability sampling is used for this research purposely to select all English teachers
as sample of the study. The reason behind is that the researcher is also from among the language
teachers where the problem is found.

3.6. Data collection instruments

Cohen, Manion and Morrison, (2000) indicate that the collection of information in research
involves one or more of the following data gathering instruments: structured or semi structure
interviews, self-administrated or postal questionnaires, standardized tests of attainment of
performance, and attitude scale. Thus, questionnaire and interview will be used as instruments of
data collection.

Questionnaires will be used as data collecting instruments for this study. The construction of the
questionnaire is guided by the purpose of the study, available literature and further by the
research questions for the study. The questionnaire is used because they can be given to large
number of people at the same time. These questionnaires are also self- administered by the
researcher.
3.7. Data analysis
Data will be analyzed by making use of the research questions. Thus, tables and percentages are
used to describe the responses
CHABTER FOUR

4.1 Work Plan

Each activity of the research will be carried out according to the following plan. The whole
activities are supposed to take about ten months.

No Activities Month
S O N D J F M A M J
1 Title selection X
2 Review of related literature X
3 Designing instruments of data Collection X
4 Proposal writing X
5 Proposal reporting X
6 Getting in touch with the subjects X
7 Gathering data X
8 Data tabulation and analysis X
9 Writing the draft and editing X
10 Finalizing the research and submission. X

4.2 Logistics
The rough estimation of budget needed to carryout the study process will be scheduled as
follows.

Unit cost Total cost

Birr Cents Birr & cents
No Item Quantity
1 Paper 200 sheets 1 .00 200.00
2 Pen 3 20 .00 60.00
3 Internet data Two weeks _ _ 300.00
Total 560.00

REFERENCES
Aberra Aseffa (2009). Challenges facing physical education teachers’ implementation
continuous assessment in secondary schools. MA thesis: Addis Ababa University
(unpublished).
AED, (2006). Continuous assessment and how to use it. Teacher’s module 3: Addis Ababa,
Ethiopia.

AED, (2010). Teachers handbook on formative continuous assessment in the ESL classrooms.
Vol 35, No           2.

Airasian, P. (1997). Class room assessment (3rd ed.). New York: MC Graw Hill.

Brookhart, S.M. and Nitko, A.J. (2008). Assessment and grading in class rooms. Upper saddle
River;           prentice Hall.

Cruikshank, et al. (1999). The act of teaching (2nd ed.). Boston; Mc Graw Hill College.

Curzon, H. (1990). Teaching in further education: An outline of principles and practice. London:
Cassel           Education Ltd.

EQUIP1, (2003). Continuous assessment. USAID, Vol. 1. No 1: Malawi.

Gemmechu Abera (2008). Assessing factors affecting the implementation of continuous

assessment in selected government TVET college. MA thesis: Rift Valley University
College (unpublished)
Gibbs, G. (1992). Improving the Quality of student learning. Bristol: Technical and Educational
services.

Gronlund, N.E. (1981). Measurement and evaluation in teaching. (4th ed.). New York: Mac
Millan          publication.

Harmer, J. (2001). The practice of language teaching. Cambridge University Press.

ICDR. (1999). Teachers education handbook: Institute for Curriculum Development and
Research. Addis          Ababa Ethiopia.

McTighe, J. and Ferrara, S. (1998). Assessing learning in a classroom. Washington, DC:

National          Education Association.
Muluken (2006). Teachers’ perception and practices of continuous assessment in selected
government             first cycle primary schools of Addis Ababa. MA thesis: AAU
(Unpublished).

Oggunniyi, (1984). Educational measurement and evaluation. Nigeria: Longman Group Ltd.

Pasigna, A.L. (2001). Continuous assessment in basic education: A peer group learning module.
Bloomington, Indiana. Author.

TGA, (1994). Education and training policy. Ministry of education: Addis Ababa Ethiopia.

Wiersma, W. (1995). Research methods in education: An introduction. (6th ed.) . Boston: Allyn
and Bacon.
APPENDIX

KALITY SECONDARY SCHOOL

DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS

QUESTIONARIES FOR KALITY HIGH SCHOOL EMPLOYERS AND STUDENTS

Dear respondent, the questionnaire is prepared for the study being conduct on to investigate
students’ high score learning method incase of variation behavior of student in Economics
classes. Your response will be used only for the purpose of the study and will be keep
confidential. You are not asked to write your name. Thank you for filling the questionnaires’.

PART 1: General Information

1. Your Age: 20-25 26-30 31-40 41 and above

2. Sex Female Male

3. Educational background
None Educated Diploma Degree and Above

PART 2: Please circle your answer

1. How do you see the potential understanding of Economics cources?

A. Increasing B. Decreasing C. remain constant

2. What percent of the students do you think use in library and other subject measures?

A. 50% B. Greater than 50% C. Less than 50%

3. From the following which of learning method is applicable in your surrounding?

 A. Cause of student problem B. Cause of teacher problem

C. Cause of government problem D. Cause of student text problem

4. Which problem is the main and cause of stuy area?

A. Cause of student problem B. Cause of teacher problem

C. Cause of government problem D. Cause of student text problem

5. In which of the following reason is high proplem of study area?

A. Behavior of student B. Lack of text

C. vacancy of teacher D. Minner of government planning

6. Which sex is more effective in Economics cource?

A. Male B. Female