CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Background of Study

Testing has always been an integral part of the educational system since its inception. The concept (testing) can be viewed as a set of tasks presented to a person, the performance of which depends on the possession of a particular body of knowledge and skill. The emphasis being laid on continuous assessment in Nigeria’s educational system has therefore given a boost to the testing system in our educational institutions. The National Policy on Education (2004) emphasizes the importance of continuous assessment by stating that “Educational Assessment and Evaluation will be liberalized by basing them in whole or in part on continuous assessment of the progress of the individual”. This implies that teachers should assess both the entry and terminal behaviour of the students in the subject being taught as this will reveal the progress made by the individual student during the course. Continuous assessment has been presented as a revolutionary approach to assessment (Yoloye, 1984), (Firth and Macintosh, 1984) and (Ughanadu, 1994). They claim that, continuous assessment is a more valid form of assessment than conventional examination or traditional assessment method. The superiority of continuous assessment is based on the fact that, continuous assessment can sample a much wider range of skills and abilities inherent in a course of study. Continuous assessment in many respects oers a challenge to both the learner and the teacher of science.

A Federal Ministry of Education Handbook (1980) portrays continuous assessment as a method of finding out what the students have gained from the learning experiences with respect to knowledge, thinking, reasoning, character development, industry, etc. Science subjects and chemistry in particular, like many of the educational disciplines, provide unique opportunities for the application of continuous assessment. There are three major areas (components) of any science subject which lend themselves to assessment: cognitive (theoretical) aspects; psychomotor (manipulative) aspects and affective (attitude) aspects. With the advent of continuous assessment, there has been an increasing need of classroom teachers to prepare and administer tests in order to obtain certain vital information about what has been done during the teaching – learning process. In this regard therefore, testing can be used as a teaching instrument and as an instrument of assessment. These purposes are essential in the teaching of chemistry. When used as a teaching instrument, the outcome of a testing exercise provides a quick feedback on what learning has taken place in the classroom. As an aid to teaching, testing finds out problems with teaching strategies adopted, or detects weaknesses and strengths of the students taught. In this instance, testing serves a diagnostic function.

As an instrument of assessment, a test measures achievement, predicts performances and aids in selection exercises. Testing therefore, provides useful information for decision making about students, teachers and the programme. For ascertaining the gains of the instruction process, achievement tests are administered by teachers. These according to Ughamadu, Onwuegbu and Osunde (1991) are tests that measure the extent to which a person has acquired certain information, mastered certain skills, usually as a result of specific instruction. In most of our schools, teachers set and administer most of these tests in the bid to find out how much their students have gained in the course of their instructions. These tests are in most cases not scrutinized for validity and reliability which are the most incompromisable requirements for a good test. According to Osunde (2000) “Teacher – made tests are generally deficient in numerous ways. The most common fault is related to ineffective communication”. Another observation of interest concerning the characteristics of test and classroom questions asked by science teachers were revealed by some studies. Studies like those of Odor, Solanke and Azeke (1986); Williams and Buseri (1986) and Mani (1981) reveal that teacher made tests or questions are heavily loaded with items in the lower levels of Bloom’s cognitive domain of educational objectives. These observed deficiencies in test construction among science teachers are a source of concern. It is imperative therefore, to remedy the situation by making available to chemistry teachers a guide for the construction of a good chemistry achievement test. This remedial help is a necessity as the existence of these deficiencies will greatly affect students’ performance and the vital function of a test as a teaching instrument as identified by Abodurin (1999) would not be realized.

Although, there is a high expectation from Nigerian teachers by the public, the poor condition of service and poor resource materials do not allow for an adequate realization of the aims of continuous assessment in the educational system. The continuous assessment places extra burden on the already poorly qualified teachers with regards to test construction. With no provision to help the teacher, he is likely to continue with his poorly constructed test. Invariably, this will culminate in poor assessment of pupils’ learning because test functions as a measuring instrument and their measuring ability is limited to the objectives they are set to test. Thus, tests which are structured to assess achievement at the knowledge level will be limited to their function at this level but will not measure achievement at the higher levels. Therefore, the provision of appropriate test instruments in chemistry deserves some attention as such instruments will assist the teacher in a more effective assessment of his pupils. The testing of pupils’ achievement in chemistry becomes much more susceptible to these inadequacies when one brings to mind the abstract and difficult nature of most chemistry topics. The condition becomes increasingly disturbing when one considers the advanced nature of the current senior secondary school curriculum in chemistry. This therefore, necessitates the assessment of teachers’ skill in test construction of teacher-made objective test in chemistry.

Statement of Problem

Over the years, there have been consistent complain by Government authorities and parents alike about the poor performance of students in both internal and external examination in Chemistry. Consequently, students’ enrolment in Chemistry in the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) conducted by West African Examination Council (WAEC) and Senior School Certificate Examination (SSCE) conducted by National Examination Council (NECO) has been on the decline. According to Akinyemi (1997) “over the years there has been consistent awareness on the alarming declining rate of enrolment in chemistry as a subject”. In the same vein, Adeyegbe (1998) opined that examiners of nationally conducted examination like West African Examination Council (WAEC) and National Examination Council (NECO) and locally conducted examination like terminal and sectional examinations in our various secondary schools have been witnessing a consistent poor performance in chemistry.

Many reasons have been attributed to the low enrollment and poor performance in chemistry examinations. One of the major reasons being the unseasoned nature of test instruments employed by teachers. If the continuous assessment programme is to succeed, practicing teachers must improve on their skills in construction of achievement objective, chemistry test instruments they are currently making use of. In other words, there is the need to show practicing chemistry teachers the way out of the woods in the interest of the students and the success of the continuous assessment programme. This realization, inevitably calls for an improvement in teachers’ skills in the construction of teachers’ made objective chemistry achievement test. It is an observed fact that in the construction of test items (be it objective or essay) there are guidelines to be followed in order to come out with reasonable test items. Do teachers follow these guidelines? Thus, what we find is the usual practice of teachers leafing through pages of note or textbooks and set questions as they come to mind. The continuous assessment (CA) system which is currently being used in schools requires valid and or reliable test instruments to make the exercise worthwhile. Therefore, this study intends to find out the teachers’ skill in the construction of teachers made chemistry objective test in Edo Central Senatorial District.