Candidates’ Items Responses Analysis and Teachers’ Assessment Practices in Secondary Schools in Zanzibar

Abstract

The study aimed to assess the influence of Candidates' Item Responses Analysis (CIRA) on teachers’ assessment practices in secondary schools in Zanzibar. It addressed two research question: in what ways do candidates item responses analysis influences the assessment practices used by secondary school teacher? And what are the common assessment practices applied by secondary school teachers? Guided by Item Responses Theory, which emphasizes the design, development, and scoring of assessments, the study employed a descriptive cross-sectional survey design in Northern ‘A’ and Northern ‘B’ districts in Zanzibar. The study used 80 respondents from six lower performance and higher performance secondary schools. The respondents were selected through non-probability sampling, whereas convenience sampling was used to gather data from respondents who are readily available. Data were collected through questionnaires and observations and analyzed descriptively. The finding shows that CIRA influenced teachers in preparing students for national exams with the higher  mean score of (M=3.47) and evaluating instructions effectiveness with a mean score of (M=3.31), but had less influences on assessment methods, such as portfolios and peer assessments with a mean score of (M=3.00).The study concluded that enhancing teachers' knowledge of CIRA could improve assessment practices, particularly in preparing high-quality test items and diversifying assessment methods , because teachers had limited knowledge and resources to apply modern assessment practices such as portfolios and peer assessment something which led poor performance of the students in the final examination.