Observations as assessment tools in Nigerian secondary schools

Abstract

This study investigated the use of observations as techniques for assessing secondary school students in Ekiti State, Nigeria. The participants were 360 teachers selected from all the secondary schools in the 3 Senatorial Districts of Ekiti State, Nigeria using simple random sampling technique. The instrument employed for data collection was a 36-item self-constructed questionnaire. The data collected was analysed using mean scores, standard deviations and one way Analysis of Variance. The findings revealed that majority of the teachers do not usually employ observations as tools for assessing the students. There were significant differences in the use of anecdotal records, rating scales and systematic observations as assessment tools with rating scales the most frequently used while systematic observations the least. Also, there was no significant difference in the use of observations as tools for assessing cognitive, affective and psychomotor domains of learning. It was recommended that observational techniques be incorporated into the curriculum of the pre-service teachers’ programmes, the serving teachers and assessors be exposed to workshops and seminars so as to equip them with skills in observation and they should be encouraged to always employ observations to assess the students.

Keywords: Observation, assessment tool, behaviours and traits, records and data.