-
Author
-
Murima, Simbarashe
-
Title
-
Monitoring students’ skills proficiency through continuous assessment in competence-based education: Bulawayo Polytechnic Tourism and Hospitality lecturers’ experiences
-
Abstract
-
The purpose of this study sought to gain insight into the practice of monitoring students’ skills proficiency through continuous assessment in competence-based education at Bulawayo Polytechnic, School of Tourism and Hospitality (SCHOTO). The interpretivist paradigm and qualitative approach guided the data analysis and discussion in this study. As sources of data, 10 tourism and hospitality lecturers and 3 hotel school-based administrators were purposively selected. In this study document analysis and interviews were employed to generate data that was analysed and discussed to provide answers to the problem at the centre of exploration. The sourced data was analysed according to emerging themes. In this study ethical issues played a vital role during data generation, analysis and discussion. The findings of this study revealed that lecturers had sufficient content knowledge about continuous assessment practices and competence-based education. It was also noted that the majority of lecturers frequently used lecturer assessment method for their student’s continuous assessments due to the large class size. It was also found that the practice of CA was challenged by many factors of which large class size, lack of resources, coupled with lack of commodities, modularization, coupled with lack of commodities, lack of lecturers’ involvement in curriculum development, poor salaries, infrastructural challenges, lack of knowledge among lecturers, lack of diverse continuous assessment methods usage and lack of leadership made it difficult to monitor effective continuous assessment methods in their teaching and training. In the discussion of the findings, it was noted that the participants advanced possible solutions to the encountered challenges such as the provision of adequate resources such as reducing the number of students per class to be manageable, providing lecturers as adequate training or workshops on the design, implementation, administration and monitoring of continuous assessment practices. Based on the findings of this study, it was noted that lack of CA training for lecturers, work overload, time constraints, and the large number of students per class are the major hindrances facing tourism and hospitality lecturers when trying to integrate CA. It is in this regard that this study concluded that tourism and hospitality lecturers’ frequency of use and practice of CA is limited due to the huge number of challenges they face when trying to integrate the different CA practices. Also, the problems related to overcrowded classrooms and unavailability of resources were highlighted by lecturers. Based on the findings, it is recommended that there is a need for lecturers to obtain professional development to improve teaching and learning process on continuous assessment and competence based education.
-
Date
-
November 2023
-
Publisher
-
BUSE
-
Keywords
-
Continuous Assessment
-
Competence-Based Education
-
Tourism And Hospitality
-
Bulawayo Polytechnic
-
Supervisor
-
Dr. Chikuvadze P.
Murima, S..pdf