Classroom-based assessments a source of 'futility and frustration', says report

Homework is a 'source of negativity' for junior cycle students, with some not seeing the point of it, particularly at stressful times. File Picture: PA/PA Wire

Students see classroom-based assessments (CBAs) as “largely disconnected” from exams, which has led to a sense of “futility and frustration” for them, a review has found.

The National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA) has today published the second in a series of reports from a four-year longitudinal study carried out by the University of Limerick exploring the rollout of the new junior cycle in post-primary schools.

This was because students were “predominantly concerned with their grades in exams” and saw CBAs as extra work, putting pressure on their perceived core priority of study and exams.

Key elements of junior cycle reform were opposed by the teaching unions, mainly plans for teachers to assess up to 40% of their own students’ marks. An agreement was reached, and now students complete CBAs as part of their studies, but these do not go toward their official marks in a subject.

Students across the schools who took part in the NCCA study reported experiencing “significant stress” with regard to their everyday workloads and struggled to balance homework, CBAs, and study for tests and exams.

‘Playing the game’

Homework is a “source of negativity” for junior cycle students, with some not seeing the point of it, particularly at stressful times, the report stated.

“This appeared to have a negative impact, in some cases, on the rapport and relationships between teacher and student, with many students resenting the ‘pressure’ they experienced in this regard,” the review stated. 

The stress from managing everyday workloads, along with the “pervasiveness” of academic pressure led most of the participating students to adopt mechanisms and strategies for coping, the study noted.

For most, this involved ongoing surveillance and evaluations about whether specific content and “learning activities were ‘relevant’ in order to be successful in exams”. 

Some students were acutely aware of ‘playing the game’ as they attempted to learn off answers and make strategic decisions about what to memorise,” the review stated.

Students believed that, in order to be successful at junior cycle, they must have early and sustained academic engagement, diligent notetaking, a repository of notes for study, adequate preparation for any forthcoming tests, and a strategic focus on homework.

Parents' response

Parents who took part in the study cited many benefits of CBAs for their children. 

“However, they expressed disappointment that the students’ work was not, as they perceived it, afforded sufficient importance in the context of the overall assessment of junior cycle," the report noted.

“It appears that some parents lacked clarity on the assessment of junior cycle assuming that continuous assessment was employed, and that CBA work was more heavily weighted in the context of the overall assessment of junior cycle.”

The majority of teachers believed there was a need for curricular change at junior cycle, reporting three main barriers: time, resources, and the scale of the changes.