DEVELOPMENT AND VALIDATION OF INSTRUMENT FOR ASSESSING STUDENTS’ PRACTICAL PERFORMANCE IN FOUNDRY CRAFT PRACTICE IN TECHNICAL COLLEGES IN NIGERIA

Abstract

Inadequate assessment instrument can either over rate or under rate a student’s practical performance. An over rated student will graduate with the wrong grade and may perform below expectation when employed or in advance studies. This will certainly be embarrassing to him/herself as well to the institution that graduated him/her. An under rated student will naturally express dissatisfaction and frustration; which can lead to drop-out, deviant behavior, hooliganism, crime and all forms of negative vices that can become a great threat to security within the technical colleges and the society at large. This situation necessitated the development and validation of instrument for assessing students’ practical performance in foundry craft practice in technical colleges in Nigeria. The purpose of the study is to develop and validate an instrument for students’ practical performance assessment in foundry craft practice trade in technical colleges in Nigeria. Five research questions guided the study. The study adopted instrumentation design. The area of the study was south east and south west geopolitical zone of Nigeria. The population for the study was 37 comprising 17 of foundry craft practice students in final year, and 20 teachers/instructors teaching foundry craft practice in technical colleges. The sample size for the study was 23 which comprised all the 20 teachers and 3 students offering foundry craft practice at government technical college, Enugu, Enugu State. The instrument used for data collection was foundry craft practical skills assessment instrument (FCPSAI). The instrument was face validated by
three experts. Content validation was also carried out using a table of specifications based on Simpson’s model of psychomotor domain. Mean was used to select the specific performance objectives of the instrument. The developed instrument was tried out on the 3 students offering foundry craft practice at government technical college, Enugu, Enugu State. Findings from the study indicated that 10 practical task items, 83 practical skill items, and five performance objectives were found to be suitable for inclusion in the instrument. All the 10 practical task items and 83 practical skill items were found to be valid. The internal consistency of the instrument was found to be 0.83, indicating that the instrument was reliable. Based on the findings, it was recommended among others that National Business and Technical Board (NABTEB) should consider and adopt the use of FCPSAI in assessing students’ practical performances in foundry craft practice at NTC and ANTC practical exams. Furthermore, the Nigerian educational research and development council should adopt and use the FCPSAI in the evaluation of the foundry craft practice trade curriculum in the country.