Examination of ODL In-service Trainee Teachers’ Assessment Literacy: Implication for Teacher Education in the Context of EFA and MDG

Abstract

The Education for All (EFA) movement is a global commitment to provide quality basic education for all children, youth and adults. Hence, present generation of in-service teachers need to be versatile in assessment literacy to enhance quality education in line with the MDGs (2 & 3) and EFA goals (3 & 6). This study examined the assessment literacy of National Teachers’ Institute students in Nigeria Certificate in Education by Distance Learning System programme in Abia State. Girls Technical College Ogbor Hill Aba study centre was randomly drawn from eight study centres in Abia state as a case study. A sample of thirty five (35) students was further drawn from the population consisting of one hundred and thirty two (132) students in that study centre. The instrument for data collection from these 35 participants consisted of questionnaire adapted from Volante & Fazio (2007) requiring the participants to self-describe their level of assessment literacy and self assessment exercises on test item writing adopted from Clay (2001). This was done because assessment literacy has implication for the production of right caliber of learners with adequate skills in line with the MDGs and EFA goals. Five research questions guided the study. The data collected were analyzed with the use of descriptive statistics and analysis of variance. The findings showed that the participants’ levels of self-efficacy remained relatively low. It also revealed their areas of strengths and weaknesses in assessment literacy and test item writing needed for development of right skills in learners. Cogent recommendations were made for improvement in the in-service trainee teachers’ professional development programmes to circumvent production of learners who lack the basic skills required to evade relapse into illiteracy or inability to perform a job at the end of their education. // Paper ID: 231