Abstract:
The assessment of learning outcome provides objective evidence necessary in the decision – making process in educational system. This study investigated the knowledge and use of continuous assessment among teachers in basic schools of Nursing in South East zone of Nigeria. Descriptive survey was adopted for the study. Four objectives and five hypotheses guided the study. The subjects studied were all the 194 teachers in the basic schools of Nursing who gave their informed consent. A face and content validated structured questionnaire in 4 point likert scale format with a reliability of 0.96 was used for data collection. Data were analysed descriptively using frequencies, percentages, mean and standard deviation. Major findings revealed that majority of the teachers have knowledge of Continuous Assessment (means score = 3.0), most teachers do not use various continuous assessment techniques in carrying out continuous assessment (means score = 2.3), continuous assessment data is not adequately used in decision making in most schools (mean score = 2.4), there is a significant positive relationship between knowledge and practice of continuous assessment (P < 0.05), and there is a significant difference in the practice of continuous assessment between teachers with diploma and teachers with university degree (P < 0.05). Furthermore, there is no significant difference in the practice of continuous assessment between male and female teachers (p > 0.05), there is a significant difference in the practice of continuous assessment as regards years of work experience (p < 0.05) but there is no significant difference in the use of continuous assessment as regards years of work experience (p > 0.05). Based on the findings above, the researcher recommended among other things that more emphasis be placed on the knowledge of the teachers on the use of continuous assessment. The main limitation of the study is great dearth of knowledge and literature in this area. Suggestions for further research were also highlighted.
