Effects of Portfolio Assessment Technique on Students’ Attitudes and Reading Comprehension Achievement in Crisis-Affected Public Senior Secondary Schools in Bokkos LGA, Plateau State, Nigeria

Abstract

Continuous attacks on citizens keep students out school who are either running for safety or the schools serve as IDP camps. The study investigated the effects of portfolio assessment technique on students’ attitudes and reading comprehension achievement in crisis-affected public secondary schools in Bokkos LGA of Plateau State, Nigeria. Quasi-experimental research design, specifically pre-test, posttest control group design was adopted for the study. Two public secondary schools were selected out of the 22 public secondary schools in Bokkos LGA and labelled as schools A and B. School A served as experimental group and had 83 students with 41 males and 42 females. School B was the control group with 76 students consisting 32 males and 44 females. Four research questions and four hypotheses were used for the study. Simple random sampling technique was adopted in selecting and assigning the two schools to experimental and control groups. Intact classes of SSII students found in the two schools served as sample of the study. Three instruments namely: Attitude towards Reading Comprehension Questionnaire (ARCQ), English Language Comprehension Achievement Test (ELCAT) and Portfolio Attitude Questionnaire (PAQ) were used for data collection. Data were analysed using means, SD and t-test for independent samples. The findings of the study revealed that portfolio assessment helped improved students’ attitudes and achievement in reading comprehension. Portfolios significantly improved students’ attitudes and achievement in reading comprehension. The study recommended that Plateau State Ministry of Education should organize seminars and workshops for teachers on portfolio assessment. It recommended that teachers should use portfolio assessment in teaching reading comprehension.

Keywords: Portfolio Assessment Technique, Reading Comprehension, Students’ Attitudes, Crisis-Affected Areas.

DOI: 10.7176/JEP/17-6-03

Publication date: June 30^th 2026