The Effect of Formative Assessment Strategy on Students’ Academic Achievement in Social Studies in Nasarawa State Public Junior Secondary Schools. Implication for Counselling.

Abstract

The study examined   the effect of formative assessment strategy   on students’   academic achievement in social studies in Nasarawa state public junior secondary schools. The study adopted quasi-experimental research design. The population of the study comprises   46,532   JSS2 students in 370 public junior secondary schools in Nasarawa State, Nigeria.    The sample for the study   comprised of two intact classes with 128 JSSII Students. The instrument used for data collection was a 40-item   Social Studies   Achievement Test (SSAT).  The instrument was     subjected to the   scrutiny of   experts in   social studies as well as Measurement and Evaluation.  Scores emanating from the scrutiny of the experts based on its appropriateness and comprehensiveness was used to obtain validity index   of 0.73. Furthermore, it   was   subjected to pilot study in order to ascertain   its   reliability. The   instruments   were   pilot tested   on   30   students. These   respondents were part of the population but not part of the sample for this study.  The data obtained from the pilot test was used to compute the internal consistency of the instruments using Cronbach’s Alpha reliability method. Results obtained from the exercise were used to obtain a    reliability   index    of   0.77. Mean and standard deviation were used to answer the research questions developed for the study while ANCOVA statistic   was used to test the hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The findings from the study showed there is a significant effect of formative    assessment   strategy on students’   academic achievement in social studies in Nasarawa state   public junior secondary schools and there is a significant effect of formative   -assessment strategy    on students’   academic achievement in social studies when segregated according to gender in Nasarawa state   public junior secondary schools.  The implication is that counselling through the guidance counsellors in those schools should be provided to both the teachers and students on the need to use formative assessment in teaching and learning process for success in students’ academic achievement. The study concluded that .. The study recommended that the use of formative assessment, assessment strategy by teachers should be encouraged in the assessment of assignments, class work tests in order to provide effective feedback on student’s achievement and also efforts should be made to ensure effective assessment of learners using formative   assessment strategy irrespective of gender.