School-Based Assessment in Universal Basic Education: Identifying the Concerns of Teachers

Abstract

It has been planned to expand school-based assessment in Universal Basic Education programme of the country. Empirically, nothing is known about teacher concerns regarding the adoption or implementation of such an educational innovation. This article presents the findings from a cross-validation study of a five-stage model of teacher concerns. A 22-item questionnaire was constructed to measure teacher concerns on five sequential stages: Indifference, Informational-Personal, Management, Consequence-Collaboration, and Refocusing. Using the questionnaire, a survey to study three hundred primary and junior secondary school teachers’ concerns about school-based assessment as a component of Universal Basic Education was conducted. The survey results supported the five-stage model, but information collected through an open-ended questionnaire survey indicated that the five-stage model needed to be extended to include a stage of evaluation concerns.