Transforming Assessment in Response to COVID-19

2021 ◽  
pp. 246-265
Author(s):  
T. Dhurumraj ◽  
Sam Mabune Ramaila ◽  
Ferhana Raban
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Performance Feedback ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Assessment Practices ◽  
Continuous Assessment ◽  
Learner Engagement ◽  
Pedagogical Content ◽  
Empirical Inquiry ◽  
Professional Capacity

Assessment plays a critical role in teaching and learning. Continuous assessment advocates for a sustainable learner engagement in a cyclical manner that provides information on performance, feedback, as well as critical support that serves to engender mastery of skills. Continuous assessment encapsulates the use of both formative and summative assessment. COVID-19 compelled teachers as agents of educational change to fundamentally rethink the enactment of assessment within the context of remote teaching and learning. This chapter reflects the transformation of assessment practices adopted by purposively selected teachers at South African schools in response to formidable instructional challenges induced by COVID-19. The empirical inquiry is underpinned by the technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK) framework. While teachers expressed fundamental appreciation of the key pedagogical affordances of technology integration in remote teaching and learning, they bemoaned the lack of professional capacity required for a meaningful enactment of technology-mediated assessment.

Could There Be Deleuzian Assessment in Music Education?

2019 ◽  
pp. 121-136
Author(s):  
Lauren Kapalka Richerme
Keyword(s):  
Music Education ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Music Educators ◽  
Assessment Practices ◽  
Continuous Assessment ◽  
Education Policies ◽  
Philosophical Inquiry ◽  
Music Making ◽  
Musical Practices ◽  
Contemporary Education

Authors of contemporary education and arts education policies tend to emphasize the adoption of formal, summative assessment practices. Poststructuralist philosopher Gilles Deleuze’s emphasis on ongoing differing and imaginative possibilities may at first glance appear incompatible with these overarching, codified assessments. While Deleuze criticizes the increasing use of ongoing assessments as a form of control, he posits a more nuanced explanation of measurement. This philosophical inquiry examines four measurement-related themes from Deleuze’s writings and explores how they might inform concepts and practices of assessment in various music teaching and learning contexts. The first theme suggests that each group of connective relations, what Deleuze terms a “plane of immanence,” demands its own forms of measurement. Second, Deleuze emphasizes varieties of measurement. Third, those with power, what Deleuze terms the “majority,” always set the standard for measurement. Fourth, Deleuze derides continuous assessment. His writings suggest that music educators might consider that assessments created for one musical practice or style should not transcend their own “plane of immanence,” that a variety of nonstandardized assessments is desirable, that the effect of measurement on “minoritarian” musical practices must be examined carefully, and that it is essential to ponder the potentials of unmeasured music making.

scholarly journals Reconsidering the Assessment of Self-Regulated Learning in Foreign Language Courses

2014 ◽  
pp. 443-459
Author(s):  
Kristen Sullivan
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Learning Strategies ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Self Regulation ◽  
Assessment Practices ◽  
Learner Engagement ◽  
Self Regulated Learning ◽  
Regulated Learning ◽  
Language Courses ◽  
Foreign Language Courses

This paper addresses the issue of how to assess learners’ engagement with activities designed to develop self-regulatory learning strategies in the context of foreign language teaching and learning. The argument is that, if the aim of these activities is the development of learners’ self-regulation, then the assessment practices used must also reflect this orientation. The problem herein is that traditional assessment practices are typically normative in nature, endorsing understandings of intelligence as fixed and failure as unacceptable. Using such approaches to assess learner engagement with self-regulated learning activities will undermine efforts to promote learner development, and may demotivate learners. This paper will discuss these issues through a critical reflection on assessment practices used to evaluate EFL learners’ engagement with an assessable homework activity designed to develop their self-regulatory strategies. It is argued that learning-oriented assessment principles and practices are most suited to the evaluation of self-regulated learning in EFL. Potential issues related to the application of learning-oriented assessment in EFL contexts are also discussed.

scholarly journals TECHNOLOGY INTEGRATION IN NATURAL SCIENCES TEACHING AND LEARNING IN SOUTH AFRICAN TOWNSHIP SCHOOLS

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sam Ramaila ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Technology Integration ◽  
South African ◽  
Scientific Literacy ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Survey Design ◽  
Natural Sciences ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Design Data ◽  
Pedagogical Content ◽  
South African Township

This study examined technology integration in Natural Sciences teaching and learning in South African township schools. A mixed method approach was adopted as part of an exploratory descriptive survey design. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews, classroom observations as well as administration of open-ended survey questionnaire. The study involved purposively selected grade 9 Natural Sciences teachers and learners as participants. The empirical investigation is underpinned by technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK) as the underlying theoretical framework. The participants demonstrated a positive disposition about technology integration in Natural Sciences teaching and learning. In particular, technology integration was perceived to provide opportunities for the enhancement of meaningful Natural Sciences teaching and learning in township schools. Digital resources were largely viewed as essential educational tools that can be deployed to demystify abstract scientific concepts with a view to enhance scientific literacy. Theoretical implications for technology-enhanced teaching and learning are discussed.

scholarly journals Predicting students’ final grades for regulating the supervision of academic activities: A model of continuous assessment practices, teaching effectiveness and students’ personal studies

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 51-58
Author(s):  
Monday Ugiagbe Agbonkpolo ◽  
Thaddeus Ifeanyi Mamah ◽  
Bridget Oyamendan
Keyword(s):  
Multiple Regression ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Teaching Effectiveness ◽  
Regression Coefficient ◽  
Assessment Practices ◽  
Continuous Assessment ◽  
Scientific Model ◽  
School Students ◽  
Edo State ◽  
Final Grades

The study was conducted to determine the predictive strength of a model of continuous assessment practices, teaching effectiveness and students’ personal studies for predicting students’ final grades. Thus the study investigated the influence of continuous assessment practices, teaching effectiveness, and students’ personal studies on the test scores of some selected junior secondary school students in Health and Physical Education in Egor Local Government Area of Edo State. Three null hypotheses were formulated to guide the study. The hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance. The population of the study was 4,042 while the sample size was 200 randomly selected from JSS III in Egor LGA of Edo State. The instrument used for data collection was the questionnaire with reliability co-efficient of 0.89. Data collected were analyzed using the Pearson Product Moment Correlation Statistics and the multiple regression statistics. The major findings of this study were are as follows: The multiple regression coefficient of prediction of students’ final grade with ratings of continuous assessment practices, teaching effectiveness and students’ personal studies is significant (R = 0.65, p ≤ 0.00). The net regression coefficient of prediction of students examination grades with ratings of continuous assessment practices is positive and significant (B = 0.54, p ≤ 0.00). The net regression coefficient of prediction of students final grades with ratings of students personal studies is positive and significant (B = 0.31, P ≤ 0.00). The net regression coefficient of prediction of students’ final grades with ratings of teaching effectiveness is positive and significant at 0.05 alpha level (B = 0.46, p ≤ 0.00). It was, therefore, recommended that the ministry of education and school administrators adopt the use of this scientific model to predict students’ final grades, for regulating the supervision of teaching and learning process for optimization of students’ academic achievement.

Is isiZulu a ‘problem or a ‘resource’? Engineering students’ perceptions of teaching and learning in a multilingual context

2021 ◽  
Vol 54 (1) ◽  
pp. 123-149
Author(s):  
Hloniphani Ndebele
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
South African ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
African Languages ◽  
University Of Technology ◽  
Perceptions Of Students ◽  
African Higher Education ◽  
South African Higher Education

Research and praxis in the field teaching and learning in the South African higher education context has been characterised by calls to expand the languages of teaching and learning through the inclusive use of African languages in higher education. Such calls are based on the realisation of the critical role that students’ home language can play in cognitive and linguistic development, among other things, in education. The focus of this paper is to ascertain the perceptions of students about the inclusive use of isiZulu, an African language, as a language of teaching and learning. Data were gathered through a survey which employed a questionnaire  targeting 120 students from a Faculty of Engineering at a South African university of technology. The study found that students’ understanding of the use of isiZulu for teaching and learning conflated issues of language as ‘problem’ and ‘resource’. The study also discovered elements of language ambivalence. The paper argues that helping students to shift their perceptions from a ‘problem’ viewof language to a view of language as a ‘resource’ could enhance their learning. Keywords: African languages; IsiZulu; Teaching and learning; Higher education; South Africa

Integration of E-Learning into Curriculum Delivery at University Level in South Africa

2013 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 53-65 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rabelani Dagada ◽  
Agnes Chigona
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Research Approach ◽  
Pedagogical Content ◽  
E Learning ◽  
Learning Platforms ◽  
University Level ◽  
Curriculum Delivery ◽  
Complex Relationships

Most South African universities have been acquiring new technologies for teaching and learning. This paper aims at understanding the domestication of e-learning platforms. The authors want to understand the factors that affect the domestication of the platform to become an integral part of teaching and learning. A qualitative research approach was employed. One-on-one interviews with eighteen snowball sampled participants was the data collection method used results of the study show that few academics have appropriated the technology into their pedagogy; however, many are still in need of professional development to successfully integrate the technology in their pedagogy. Most academics are lacking the understanding of the complex relationships between content, pedagogy and the technology to be integrated into the curriculum delivery. Therefore, there is a need for the institutions to assist the academics to improve their technological pedagogical content knowledge if the institutions are to successfully domesticate e-learning platforms.

A CUSTOMISED FRAMEWORK FOR EFFECTIVE PODCAST INTEGRATION IN A SOUTH AFRICAN HIGHER EDUCATION ENVIRONMENT

2016 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 14-32
Author(s):  
Shane Pachagadu ◽  
Liezel Nel
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
South African ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Teaching And Learning Environment ◽  
Education Environment ◽  
University Of Technology ◽  
African Higher Education ◽  
South African Higher Education ◽  
Effective Integration

Numerous studies have explored the potential of podcast integration in teaching and learning environments. This paper first presents and organises perspectives from literature in a conceptual framework for the effective integration of podcasting in higher education. An empirical study is then discussed in which the guidelines presented in the framework were evaluated for applicability in a selected course at a South African University of Technology. Since the results of the study revealed a number of aspects not accounted for in the conceptual framework, the framework was customised to make it more applicable for the particular higher education environment. The customised framework identifies four principles and a series of related guidelines for the effective integration of podcasts in a South African higher education teaching and learning environment. This framework can become a valuable resource for effective podcast integration in similar environments.

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