Basic Teachers’ Perception and Practices of Formative Assessment in the Cape Coast Metropolis of Ghana

Abstract

Students learning outcomes are bound to improve if the practice of formative assessment is seen as a vital component of the School Based Assessment in the classroom. In the classroom, formative assessment plays a critical role as it provides information to be used as feedback to adjust the teaching and learning activities in which students and teachers are engaged. The study investigated public basic school teachers’ perception and formative assessment practices in the Cape Coast Metropolis of Ghana. The study employed the descriptive survey as well as the multistage sampling procedure to select 300 teachers from the six (6) circuits in the Cape Coast Metropolis. Data were analysed using frequencies, percentages, means, standard deviations, and Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient. The results showed that basic school teachers have a positive perception of the usefulness of formative assessment in the classroom. It was also revealed that dominant practices that basic school teachers usually engaged in included ensuring effective class participation, discussing feedback with students, use of question and answer during instruction, making formative use of summative assessments, giving students home assignments, and engaging students in activities like role play. Results further indicated a positive relationship between basic teachers’ perception and their formative assessment practices. It is recommends that, short-term courses, workshops, seminars and, other necessary in-service training activities should be organized by the Ghana Education Service (GES) and the Cape Coast Metropolitan Directorate of Education for basic school teachers. At such courses, teachers could be exposed to other forms of formative assessment practices, which they can adopt to enhance students learning such as exit/admit slips, four corners, individual whiteboards and kinesthetic assessments.