Use of Assessed Curriculum to Strengthen Competence Based Learning: A case of Junior Secondary Schools

This presentation presents on use of assessed curriculum to strengthen competence based learning

1. NECTA’S CONFERENCE ON 50 YEARS ANNIVERSARY Exploring the use of Assessed Curriculum to Strengthen Competence-Based Learning: A Case of Junior Secondary Schools, Kenya Presented by Samuel Ojode Oluoch St. Mary’s School, Yala Kenya

2. Introduction Background Education curricula globally undergo changes from time to time to meet certain demands and changes in the world. Curriculum is defined as the planned interaction of pupils with instructional content, materials, resources, and processes for evaluating the attainment of educational objectives ( Glatthorn & Glatthorn , 2012). Ministry of Education (2019), reports that there exists a connection between the education system and the curriculum and this is considered important for provision of quality and relevant education system.

3. Introduction… Background In an attempt to continue improving quality and relevance in the education provided, the Ministry of Education (2019) highlights that the 8-4-4 curriculum initiated in 1985 when there was a shift from the 7-4-2-3 as explained by Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (2016). Changes in curriculum may not seal all gaps in the education system, hence it can be claimed that, as the process of translation and implementation goes on, more changes in the curriculum will always come up in an attempt to meet the demands of the curriculum. The demands of the curriculum are the new ideas that arise, and drive the curriculum change, while translation can be said to be the process of unpacking and making meaning to these demands.

4. Strengthening competence based learning, requires that teachers conduct an assessment process that directs learners’ attention, encourages thinking, promotes real learning and identifies a learner’s abilities and talents. However, teachers still end up with difficulty in practicing assessment processes that may not promote real learning beyond what is provided within the texts, and not bringing out a learner’s abilities and talents It is therefore not clear the assessment practices which teachers carry out to establish competence based learning, and what drives the teacher to carry out these practices. This motivated this study that sought to explore the assessed curriculum as key to strengthening competence based learning. Problem Statement

5. The study therefore will focus on perception of teachers and education leaders on competence based assessment, context dependent factors that shape competence based assessment, use of assessment feedback. The purpose of this paper is to explore the role of assessed curriculum in strengthening competence based learning, as implemented in junior secondary schools in Kenya. Problem Statement…

6. Research objectives 1 2 3 To investigate the perceptions of teachers and education leaders on assessment of competence-based learning To investigate the context dependent factors that shape assessment of competence-based learning To examine the use of assessment feedback to shape competence-based learning design and pedagogical actions.

7. Related Studies This study therefore explores the perceptions on teacher capacity to carry out a competence based assessment as intended in the curriculum, policy document, that is not reported in the previous study. Assessment as defined by Mussawy et al., (2021) is a systematic process of obtaining information about learner progress, understanding, skills, and abilities towards the learning goals . The demand of the assessed curriculum in relation to competence based curriculum is that teacher assessment should be reinforced, and the teacher assessment capacity should be developed ( Marope et al., 2018).

8. Related Studies… This therefore calls for reinforcing teacher assessments such that teacher designed continuous assessments can be used for monitoring learners’ progression in the development of competence, known as developmental progression. One perception on the CBA is that it requires the use of a range of assessment tools . Alemayehu et al. (2021), argues in favour of using a variety of assessments, without much concentration on traditional written assessments, the time constrained unseen exams, and emphasizing more on tools that measure the students’ abilities to use the material they have learned in live situations.

9. Related Studies… This study examined the aspects of this perception in the context of junior secondary schools that was implemented later when these perceptions were already in existence. It is also perceived that with the competence based curriculum, teachers understand what developmental progression means , and students must demonstrate their ability to apply knowledge, generate new insights, and develop essential abilities and attitudes (Lee et al. , 2023).

10. Related Studies… This study investigated the influences which the considerations of contextual factors have in the construction of assessment tools, carrying out of the assessment, reporting the feedback, and the performance award system In the process of translation of the curriculum, there are contextual factors that could also influence the translation of the curriculum at the assessment stage. One that can be argued to influence the translation is the assessment policy, defined by Rob et.al (2020), as an organizational structure of assessments within a course, describing the criteria utilized to decide on students’ academic progress.

11. Related Studies… This study investigated the ways in which the different contexts shape the assessment practices and teachers’ ways of coping with developing and using diverse assessment tools and practices in different contexts. Another aspect of context in assessment includes school, classroom context and the larger community . There could therefore be context dependent factors that tend to shape assessment practices under the competence based assessment . The study by Chand (2017b) highlighted implications of policy on teachers, as syllabus completion and lesson durations.

12. Why this study In addition to the above methods, this study seeks to also use semi-structured interviews and widen the respondents to not only have the instructors and teachers, but to also include the learners. This study also focused on Junior Secondary School as opposed to the other studies Most of the studies were either based on grade 1 to 5, secondary schools or college levels. The methods employed also included majorly the use of survey questionnaire, where data was analyzed both qualitatively and quantitatively. The studies were further based on perceptions of only teachers and instructors

13. Methodology… This study is based on the interpretivist paradigm, in which the reality of practicing competence based assessment is to be understood and interpreted. The study is exploratory in nature based on a qualitative study approach. Qualitative approach is commonly used in education and enables for flexibility in the data collection process as highlighted by Creswell (2007) and Merriam (2009). Owen (2014) claims that an interview aims at finding out the peoples’ perceptions about an event, occurrence or object.

14. Methodology… Therefore, my main aim was to seek the interviewee’s understanding of the competence based assessment practices in grade 7. The advantage is that it investigates an event from the participant’s perspective rather than a third party’s interpretation of the context, therefore, attempts to ensure trustworthiness have been done.

15. Sample selection Purposive sampling method was used for selection of four teachers and six students, in each selected school in Siaya County, and four education leaders, as the study participants. Palinkas et al. (2015) argues that purposeful sampling involves identification and selection of participants conversant with a phenomenon of interest. In this study, a criterion was involved that identifies, and selects all cases that meet the predetermined criterion

16. Data collection methods Semi-structured interviews and document analysis were used as the methods of data collection in this study and the qualitative data underwent thematic analysis. The semi-structured interviews were conducted on the students, teachers and education leaders to extract in-depth information on practice of competence based assessment. Document analysis was carried out on assessment tools, schemes of work and meeting minutes.

17. Research instruments The interview guides consisted of instructions to guide the interviewers in capturing background information about the subjects and aspects of classroom questioning. The interviews were conducted face to face, and on phone. Document analysis protocols were also used in the collection of data. The document analysis guide lists the documents required for analysis.

18. Data analysis Thematic analysis of data was employed in this study. Owen (2014) defines thematic analysis as a process that involves segmentation, categorization, and re-linking of aspects of the data prior to the final write-up, usually employed near the end of the data collection process.

19. Data analysis… As argued by Jugder (2016), thematic analysis facilitates an investigation of the interview data from a data driven perspective and a perspective based on coding in an inductive way, and from research questions perspective to check if the data were consistent with the research questions.

20. Findings and discussions The findings of the study were presented into a thematic framework, which is a web-like illustration summarizing the main themes that constitute a given text. In this study, basic themes were identified, put into organizing themes, summing up to a global theme.

21. Thematic framework

22. Teacher perceptions The teacher perceptions on the assessed curriculum are seen to be on selection of assessment activities and implementation of the assessment processes. Based on the responses given from the interviews, the respondents seem to pay more attention to grading other than enabling learners to be competent through careful engagement of practical assessment tools.

23. Responses When asked about their view on the paradigm shift in the competence based assessment, one participant responded as follows “..CBC is highly involving, such that it requires a lot of assessment and paper work…. but we have a large population and few teachers so our assessments may not consider the individual targeted competencies...” [ Liam, personal communication, September 11, 2023 ] Another respondent said as follows, “…for us to be able to develop real competences, we need to align our assessment to the competences. The design of the assessment tasks should be such that we engage our learners with the application of real knowledge, that is to say, application of the knowledge in the very way they would apply it in handling real world issues outside school ….”. [ Liz, personal communication, September 11, 2023]

24. Discussion on teacher perceptions From these responses, it is evident that there is a paradigm shift in the assessment, from one that requires display of competencies as opposed to just responses on paper. This is consistent with the highlight from Ministry of Education (2019), that through competence based assessment, an enabling environment will be created for performance-based learning, and transformation of assessment to check knowledge, and other competences required for performance of certain tasks. This is further supported by the arguments of Chu et al, (2018) that teachers are required to change from norm referenced to criterion referenced judgment of learners’ capabilities or competencies. This points to a paradigm shift with the implementation of the competence based assessment.

25. Discussion on teacher perceptions Some respondents however perceive that from the paradigm shift in competence based assessment, there is increased paper work, which could be interpreted to point to more assessment tools being developed, and a lot of assessment activities being used now. This is also consistent with Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (2017), that competence based curriculum requires the use of a range of assessment tools, some of which include, observation, checklists, rubrics, project work, questionnaires, portfolios, written continuous assessment tests, and progress report cards. These are perceived as extra paper work and more tools. It can therefore be argued that there is a paradigm shift in terms of assessment of competencies and use of a range of assessment tools that were not engaged previously. However there can be concluded that there is some lack of clarity on the teachers on what competence based assessment actually entails.

26. Context dependent factors As evident from the responses, these contextual factors that influence competence based assessment include, achievement reward process, school and national policies. There is influence of earlier approach to teaching and use of assessment tools from the previous 8-4-4 system on the development of assessment tasks.

27. Context dependent factors Asked about this factor, a learner responded as follows . “…those questions can make us understand more than we were to understand before and also how questions can be set differently and how they can be twisted and varied in an examination situation ...” [ Jackson, personal communication, September 11, 2023 ] “…. they get sample papers for agriculture concerning the question he asked in class in order to make us understand more on what he said during the explanation….” [Victoria, personal communication, September 11, 2023 ]. “So maybe the questions he is asking are those that mostly are set in the examinations” [ William, personal communication, September 16, 2023].

28. Context dependent factors It is therefore evident that a contextual factor that influences assessment is the previous culture of considering past revision papers and not interest on learner competencies. This can be argued to be an influence of the previous approach to methods of teaching and assessment. This is however not consistent with Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (2017), which argues that the competence based curriculum demands that teachers design and assess tasks that are valid, reliable, and able to specify clear assessment criteria so that learners understand what they need.

29. Context dependent factors Chu et al. (2018) also argues that the revision process should involve a shift in paradigm from content-based to competence-based. It can therefore be argued that other than have learners revise past papers for learning, teachers should design assessment tasks based on the desired competencies and relevant to the learning context.

30. Assessment feedback It can be argued that assessment feedback can be used to improve the competence based learning, and to identify learner competencies. When asked how they would use assessment feedback as evidence for accountability, one participant responded as follows ; “…during the teaching and learning process, it is important that we record the learners’ competences during the process of learning, and this is where some of the assessment tools come in handy….” [ Liam, personal communication, September 11, 2020]

31. Assessment feedback In addition to this, another responded indicated the need to continuously record student scores and use the progress records to plan during the learning process. The respondent said, “..The score of students need to be continuously recorded and the progress records kept. The progress records should then be used during the learning process….”

32. Assessment feedback From this response, the participants feel that the assessment feedback is an important as, will be used to plan for instructional activities, and monitor learning progress in terms of competence development. This is consistent with Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (2017) which suggests that teachers’ capacity on how to analyze learner feedback and use insights gained and results to improve their practice well so as to engage more effectively with learners and other educators, should be enhanced. Lang et al. (2022) on the other hand argues that student performance should also be visualized in relation to that of the local peers, other than just the normative standards. It can therefore be argued that the feedback records can be used to continuously monitor the progress of learners in terms of competence development.

33. Assessment feedback The format of reporting feedback was also a factor that that came out to be that which influences competence based learning. When asked about how assessment feedback is reported a respondent said “…….once an examination is administered we record marks, work out the totals and rank our students, then award the best performing in the different learning areas …..” [ Liam, personal communication, September 11, 2020 ] This points to the fact that an examination is administered and scored for all the learners in the same way with no regard to the different competences and ranking done.

34. Conclusions From the findings it can be noted that there is lack of clarity on the competence based assessment practices of the learners and teachers. Therefore strengthening competence based learning through assessment requires that teachers’ capacity on competence based learning be increased.

35. Conclusions… It has also been found out that assessment practices may influence policy decisions even at school level. It can therefore concluded that competence based assessment can be used to strengthen policies that support competence based learning.

36. Conclusions… It has also been found out that reward system follow the criteria of using overall marks, and school mean in whole learning areas. It can therefore be concluded that the point of awards shift from subject based to individual-based competence based areas of assessment.

37. Conclusions… It was also found that teachers still grade the whole learning area as has been happening with subjects in the norm referenced feedback. Strengthening competence based learning needs to bring the grading to the level of competence acquired, thus feedback to take format of transcript for the final results.