Knowledge and Attitude of Secondary School Teachers Towards Continuous Assessment Practices in Esan Central Senatorial District of Edo State

Abstract

The study investigated knowledge and attitude of secondary school teachers towards continuous assessment (CA) practices in Edo Central Senatorial District, Nigeria. The study was undertaken to determine the influence of gender, age, years of experience and area of educational specialization on teachers’ attitude towards CA practices in secondary schools in the district. 543 teachers were drawn from the population of 1084 teachers across the district. However, 512 questionnaires were recovered and used for analysis. Mean ( 15X"> ) and standard deviations (S.D) were used to analyze the research questions while the t-test statistics was used to test the hypotheses. Findings showed that majority of the teachers, perceived CA practices as a systematic and comprehensive system of evaluation but have inadequate knowledge of its cumulative and guidance oriented characteristic. Results also showed that teachers’ attitude towards CA practices was negatively skewed. Result of hypotheses showed that years of experience and teachers’ area of specialization are the only significant predictors of teachers’ attitude towards CA practices among other variables (gender and age). It was recommended that guidance counsellors need in schools to sensitize teachers on the relevance of CAs as a road map for appropriate guidance and decision making among students.

Keywords: Knowledge, Attitude, Gender, Continuous Assessment, Area of Specialization