Multivariate Study of the Use of Assessment Strategies and Cross Cutting Issues by Basic School Teachers: The Case of Ghana’s New Curriculum

Abstract

Ghana’s new basic school curriculum requires teachers to use new teaching strategies that also address cross cutting issues in their teaching to enhance learning. This study sought to assess the use of assessment strategies by basic school teachers in Ghana. A sample size of 100 was computed at 95% confidence interval and randomly selected from the population. The features, strategies and principles underpinning the assessment strategies and cross cutting issues in Ghana’s new curriculum for the basic school formed the basis of the construction of the 47 items used in the questionnaire. The internal consistency of the items used in the four point likert scale was high with Cronbach’s Alpha coefficient of 0.995. Principal component analysis and multiple linear regressions were the main methods used for the analysis.KMO statistic of 0.921 and Bartlett’s Test’s Chi Square value was13684.049 with difference of freedom of 1081 and significance at 0.00000. Multiple extraction approaches were used to retain two components which explained about 91% of the variance. The first component named Criterion motivation explained about 61.7% of the variance and composed generally of assessment as-of- and - for learning strategies. The second component which was named inclusion motivation, generally loaded highly with the cross cutting issues and explaining about 28.6% of the total variance. Criterion and inclusion motivation were found to predict feedback with a high power of 94%.Criterion motivation was found to have a positive impact on feedback received from students and was statistically significant (B = 0.746, P<0.001). Again, there was a positive relationship between the inclusion motivation and feedback with a significant difference (B = 0.232, P<0.001).There were some disparities in the use of assessment strategies outlined in the new basic school curriculum for Ghana. Teachers were found to exhibit preference to some components of the assessment strategies recommended for use in the new curriculum at the detriment of others. It is recommended that the developed criterion motivation and inclusive motivation approaches are adopted in teaching in order to enhance maximum feedback from learners.

Correlates of Ghanaian Teachers' Understanding of Mathematics Strands and Cognitive Domains in Basic Education Certificate Examination

“…Recent studies underscore the importance of integrating content and pedagogical knowledge in mathematics teaching [10]. For instance, Grossman et al [11] argue that effective teaching requires a dynamic interplay between teachers' content knowledge, pedagogical knowledge, and knowledge of students' thinking.…”