SELECTED SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS’ PERSPECTIVES OF THEIR TEACHERS’ GROUP WORK ASSESSMENT PRACTICES

Abstract

Group work is an educational tool designed to develop learners’ cognitive and social skills at different levels of education across various subjects. We felt that it is important to see learners’ perspectives of group work assessment as they are clients that stay with teachers the whole year. To this effect, the study aimed to examine grades 11 and 12 students’ perspectives of their teachers' group work assessment practices in Southern Nations Nationalities and Peoples’ Regional State (SNNPRS), Ethiopia. The study adopted a descriptive survey research design as the purpose of the study was to survey and describe the assessment practices. To achieve this, 270 students were selected with a systematic random sampling technique for a questionnaire survey. However, only 212 students filled the questionnaire properly. To examine whether the expected mean values were statistically significant or not as compared to the observed mean scores at both an item and scale levels, a one-sample t-test was applied. The results showed that the assessment of group work focuses on the assessment of group product with little consideration of group process and individual contribution to the group work. Besides, the teachers used to employ limited groupbased assessment tools such as group presentations, written group reports, and paper-pencil tests (tests, quizzes, examinations) which are aligned with the assessment of group product while tools that may foster group process and individual accountability like individual written reports, presentations, portfolios, demonstrations, and debates were inadequately used. Based on the findings, it was recommended that SNNPRS Education Bureau has to organize induction for teachers on group work assessment skills. Keywords: assessment practice; assessment tool; group assessment; group process; group outcome