Browsing by Author "mekonnen, Berhanu"

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    Students' attitudes towards university assessment practices: the case of Dilla University
    (Addis Ababa Universty, 2009-06) mekonnen, Berhanu; Leka, Wanna(PhD)
    This study focuses on students' attitudes towards assessment practices in Dilla University. A questionnaire was developed to measure students' perceptions of and attitudes towards the educational assessment practices in the university. It relates to: (a) frequencies of use of assessment techniques, and (b) attitudes with regards to department admission procedures, assessment tasks, exams, feedback, and grading practices. The questionnaire was validated for its content and piloted for its reliability. As the result, most of the items were seen to be appropriate and every item was considered of important by most of the students. Moreover, the questionnaire resulted with good reliability of(O. 70). And data were collectedfrom 154 second and 149 third year students from three different faculties in the university. Approximately, 90% of the students (n=303) valid responses were obtained In addition, two focused group discussions were held focusing on their evaluations to the practices in the university. Results indicated that students perceived examinations as the most often used methods to assess students in the university. Also the results showed that there are positive and negative students' attitudes to the practices. And Exams and grading practices were found to be the serious concerns for the students. Furthermore, results indicated that the most related problems to effective assessment practices in the university is lack of pedagogical training, lack of transparency and accountability, biases, and lack of assessment policies. However, students believe that the problems to effective assessment practices can be solved using certain interventions. Additional analyses indicated that there were no significant differences between subjects according to field of study, sex of respondents, and achievement in the university. On the other hand, the results showed significant differences between subjects according to students' year in the university (t=12.34, p<.05).Finally, conclusions were arrived based on the findings and the results are examined with a view of their implications for student lerning and assessment in higher education~