Influence of Syllabus and Past Examination on Assessment Behaviour of
Botswana Secondary School Teachers.
ABSTRACT
Inability of secondary education to attain her curricular goals as a result of poor quality of
teachers‟ classroom assessment practices is a concern to every stakeholder in education. The
extent to which teaching, testing and hence learning isnot curriculum-driven underlies such
inability. But the problem is that assessment, one of the processes of education, does not only
drive itself it tends to drive other processes like teaching andalsoinfluences adversely the
classroom assessment behavior of teachers.This researchis concerned with the degree to which it
is the syllabus or past public examination questions that drives teaching as well as classroom
assessment behavior of Botswana teachers. The study, using survey inferential design, collected
and analysed questionnaire data from 342 teachers in 20 randomly selected senior secondary
schools in Botswana. A Cronbach alpha analysis of the questionnaire instruments gave a
reliability estimate of .948. The SPSS was used to analyse questionnaire data using populationttests,
to test, at .05 level of significance, all the four hypotheses postulated to guide the study.The
study found that teachers in Botswana senior secondary schools (i) rely significantly on the
syllabus when preparing tests; (ii) set internal school examinations and classroom tests based on
items in past examinations; (iii) teach to the test, but (iv) exhibit significantly desirable
assessment behavior. The findings were discussed; implications and recommendations that
followed from them were drawn.
Key words: Quality of teachers assessment practices, validity of public examinations, quality of
education, teaching to the syllabus,teaching to the test.
Nenty, H. Johnson & Fetogang, Ernest B. (2014)
Influence of Syllabus and Past Examination on Assessment Behaviour of Botswana Secondary School Teachers.
ABSTRACT Inability of secondary education to attain her curricular goals as a result of poor quality of teachers‟ classroom assessment practices is a concern to every stakeholder in education. The extent to which teaching, testing and hence learning isnot curriculum-driven underlies such inability. But the problem is that assessment, one of the processes of education, does not only drive itself it tends to drive other processes like teaching andalsoinfluences adversely the classroom assessment behavior of teachers.This researchis concerned with the degree to which it is the syllabus or past public examination questions that drives teaching as well as classroom assessment behavior of Botswana teachers. The study, using survey inferential design, collected and analysed questionnaire data from 342 teachers in 20 randomly selected senior secondary schools in Botswana. A Cronbach alpha analysis of the questionnaire instruments gave a reliability estimate of .948. The SPSS was used to analyse questionnaire data using populationttests, to test, at .05 level of significance, all the four hypotheses postulated to guide the study.The study found that teachers in Botswana senior secondary schools (i) rely significantly on the syllabus when preparing tests; (ii) set internal school examinations and classroom tests based on items in past examinations; (iii) teach to the test, but (iv) exhibit significantly desirable assessment behavior. The findings were discussed; implications and recommendations that followed from them were drawn. Key words: Quality of teachers assessment practices, validity of public examinations, quality of education, teaching to the syllabus,teaching to the test.