THE PRACTICE AND CHALLENGES OF CONTINUOUS ASSESSMENT IN PHYSICAL EDUCATION CLASSES: THE CASE OF SOME SELECTED WEREDA HIGH SCHOOLS IN JIMMA ZONE, OROMIA

Abstract

The purpose of the study is to make a survey on the current status of continuous assessment in physical education class in Jimma Zone some selected wreda high schools. Five basic questions were raised to achieve the objectives of the study. To answer these basic research questions, descriptive survey research method was employed. For the study three wereda high schools were purposely selected for the setting of this study. From the total students of the schools approximately 2500, the sample size 107 male and 78 female generally 185 students were randomly selected from grade 9 and grade 10, nine (9) physical education teachers purposely selected as the sample. The needed data were obtained by means of questionnaires distributed to 9 physical education teachers and to 185 students, interview which was designed for physical education teachers and finally observational check list was used and percentage was used as a main technique of analysis for quantitative data and qualitative data were analyzed quantitatively (in words). The data were analyzed using SPSS for windows version 16.0 statistical tests were performed at the level of significance of 0.05. Accordingly the research revealed the following results, mostly the schools indicate the following problems; most physical education teachers did not include a variety of continuous assessment tools/ techniques in their plan, they did not use in the class activities. As a result the status of continuous assessment implementation was far from the standard and they concentrated on few tools and large class size, shortage of time, lack of teaching aids lack of availability of a few or no instructional media, lack of awareness about continuous assessment, teacher’s class load, and the student’s negative attitude towards the subject matter. As a result, it is difficult to practice continuous assessment in physical education class. Therefore, physical education teachers were not carrying their responsibilities such as awareness creation, using Varity methods of teaching, facilitating to full fill materials and generally they did not show their commitment