Exploring the teachers' assessment strategies of social skills of lower primary students
Date of Award
8-1-2010
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Master of Education (M. Ed.)
Department
Institute for Educational Development, Karachi
Abstract
Assessment is a process of collecting data for the purposes of making decisions about students' (Salvia &Ysseldyke, 2001) academic progress as well as social and physical development. Teachers adopt a variety of assessment strategies in order to make decisions about students' academic performance with social skill demonstration in the classroom. Social skills are the skills employed when interacting with other people at an interpersonal level (Hargie, Saunders & Dickson, 1994). Good social skills include things such as cooperating, compromising and respecting the personal space of others (Masty& Schwab 2006). Teachers' assessment strategies of social skills can help in facilitating a smooth learning environment and facilitate students' achievement in the class, and the same habit may continue throughout the life of the individual. The study explores the strategies that teachers use to assess students' social skills and why they use them in a lower primary section of a private English medium O'levels Islamic school in Karachi, Pakistan. The study employed a case study method to explore the phenomenon. My sampling criteria were purposive. I conducted my study in the school where I am presently employed as a teacher. I positioned myself as a researcher in the school in order to collect authentic and trustworthy data. The research participants were four teachers (two from grade one and two from grade two). The data were collected through semi-structured interviews, observations of teachers' assessment strategies, and document analysis of assessment policy document and report cards. The data suggests that teachers use a variety of formal and informal assessment strategies to assess students' social skills. However, they are either not aware or confused about the assessment strategies they use and the reasons behind their usage. It is here that the teachers need to get acquainted with the assessment knowledge which will help them to reflect on their present assessment practices and develop informed understanding for the reasons of assessment. This study can prove beneficial to the school and the teachers in developing this informed understanding about the assessment of social skills. Furthermore, it can help them in learning more about the formal and informal assessment strategies that the lower primary teachers of the school adopt for the assessment of social skills. The findings of this study may provide useful insights for the particular school and other schools that adopt the same as essment procedures in developing a framework based on the principles for the assessment of social skills.
Recommended Citation
Sheikh, S. (2010). Exploring the teachers' assessment strategies of social skills of lower primary students (Unpublished master's dissertation). Aga Khan University, Karachi, Pakistan.