The experiences of students and staff of assessment practices at one agricultural institute in the Western Cape Province

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT : Assessment plays a key role in determining the quality of student learning and is thetool used at many academic institutions to help gauge student performance anddetermine student success. In view of the myriad of factors that may influence thelearning environment and particularly student performance and success, a need wasidentified to investigate the potential influence of assessment practices on studentperformance at an agricultural institute. In higher education students move fromsecondary education practices into a tertiary academic sector that may not adhere tothe same assessment criteria. This sudden change in assessment environment couldhave an effect on student learning and student performance. Several authors havehighlighted the fact that assessment drives learning while several have indicatedassessment practices plays a role in student performance. Very few studies have beenconducted on the assessment practices at agricultural education institution in SouthAfrica. Such knowledge may provide valuable information to first-year students,lecturers and policy makers of foundation programmes at the Elsenburg AgriculturalTraining Institute and similar agricultural training institutes. In this study the researchproblem originated from staff observations and concerns at the Elsenburg AgriculturalTraining Institute (EATI) which included the quality of students that enter the institute,coupled with seemingly low throughput rates as well as first year success rates as wellas the confusion around the existence and use of a teaching; learning and assessmentpolicy.Thus, the aim was to investigate the experience of assessment practices at oneagricultural institute potentially influence first year students' and staff's perceptionsregarding academic performance. Two data sources were used, the experiences ofthe BAgric and Higher Certificate first-year students and the opinions of the lecturersinvolved in the teaching of first-year students. These data sources contributed todetermining the perceptions of the tested parties on whether assessment practiceshad an impact on student performance.In conducting the study, a pragmatic stance on knowledge was taken andquestionnaires for students and for teaching staff were used with qualitative andquantitative data sections. The findings of this inquiry indicate that there exists a perception amongst both staffand students that assessment practices (and several other contributing factors) couldpotentially impact on students' academic performance at the EATI. Implicationsflowing from this study for the Elsenburg Agricultural training Institute as well aspossibilities for future research are pointed out.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University