Assessment Strategies Adopted by Christian Religious Education teachers in Assessment of Learner Value Acquisition in Secondary Schools in Kenya

Abstract

Schools endeavor to enhance values in the learners through their learning activities and extra-curricular programmes. Christian Religious Education (CRE) is geared towards learner value acquisition. Empirical evidence indicates that teaching and learning for valuing is challenging due to increased indiscipline by learners in secondary schools. Assessment of learner value acquisition demands teacher commitment and time. The purpose of the study was to investigate assessment methods CRE teachers embrace to assess learner value acquisition, a study of national secondary Schools in Kenya. The objective which guided the study was to establish the assessment methods CRE teachers use to assess learner value acquisition and to find out the challenges they face in the process. The study was based on the Theory of Development of values. The study adopted mixed methods under the convergent parallel design. The target population of the study was 95 national secondary schools in Kenya with a total of 224 CRE teachers. 30% of schools and teachers were sampled. The study sample size was 67 CRE teachers. The study employed stratified and simple random sampling to select the schools for study and purposive sampling technique to select CRE teachers to participate in the study. Data was collected through questionnaires, document analysis, and interview and observation schedules. The validity and reliability of data collection instruments was done through use of experts and piloting respectively. The quantitative data was analyzed using descriptive statistics presented in frequencies and percentages while the qualitative data was analyzed through thematic analysis. The findings revealed that CRE teachers embraced to a varying extent the following methods to assess learner value acquisition: observation, 50 (100%); project work, 8 (16%); attitude and value scales, 4(8%); check lists, 5(10%); comprehension exercises, 47 (96%) and formal classroom tests, 5 (10%).The findings also revealed that assessing learner value acquisition was a challenging aspect in schools due to the schools’ overconcentration on the cognitive domain, inadequate in-service training and an overloaded curriculum. It was concluded that CRE teachers were expected to emphasis use of assessment methods to evaluate learner value acquisition to a larger extent and determine ways to overcome any challenges. The study recommended that teachers, schools and the Ministry of Education through the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD) and Kenya National examination Council (KNEC) should provide an enabling environment for the teaching and assessing of value acquisition in schools. KICD subject panels for instance can develop measuring tools that teachers can use in schools to measure the affective domain in form of formative assessment.