The assessment literacy for secondary school teachers in Tanzania

Abstract

In this quantitative study, the assessment of literacy for secondary school teachers in Tanzania was examined using the Assessment Literacy Inventory (ALI), originally developed by Mertler and Campbell in 2005. Data were collected from 100 randomly selected secondary school teachers using the modified inventory which matched the local context. The purpose of employing ALI was to evaluate the levels of competence within the seven assessment standards and determine significant differences among the variables. The findings revealed that teachers had different levels of skills across these standards. Higher performance was observed in the area of "Choosing Assessment Methods that are Appropriate for Instructional Decisions," which scored an average of 1.52. In contrast, “Developing assessment methods that are appropriate for instructional decisions" had the lowest average score of 0.98. The Findings also revealed that significant differences were found in the mean competence of teachers with varying professional qualifications (p-value = 0.013). Teachers with master's degree qualifications had a mean score =10.20, which was higher assessment literacy compared to teachers with Diploma qualifications which had the mean score =7.7. However, the amount of time teachers spent in teaching (teaching experiences) had no significant impact on their assessment literacy (p-value = 0.429). Generally, the study revealed a worrying trend and indicated that Tanzania secondary school teachers have limited levels of assessment literacy. To address this, the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology should prioritise the enhancement of assessment literacy amongst secondary school teachers through comprehensive professional development programmes in collaboration with educational institutions.