Contextual Responsiveness: An Enduring Challenge for Educational Assessment in Africa

Serpell, Robert; Simatende, Barnabas

doi:10.3390/jintelligence4010003

Cited by 17 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 43 publications

(46 reference statements)

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“…A global national assessment to the effect that children are not learning anything can be demoralizing. Serpell and Simatende (2016) hope that such assessments should aim to reveal not only weaknesses and needs, but also strengths and opportunities for improvement. Therefore caution is needed when interpreting reports on very low reading outcomes.…”

Section: Children With Learning Difficulties Need Additional Supportmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Therefore caution is needed when interpreting reports on very low reading outcomes. Large-scale surveys of national performance can, in principle, serve to motivate policymakers and teachers to enhance the quality of basic schooling (Serpell & Simatende, 2016). Literacy assessments should be designed to ensure that cultural and linguistic environments are taken into careful consideration.…”

Section: Children With Learning Difficulties Need Additional Supportmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Challenges Associated with Reading Acquisition in Sub-Saharan Africa

Lyytinen¹,

Ojanen²,

Jere-Folotiya³

et al. 2019

Improving Early Literacy Outcomes

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The widespread persistence of illiteracy across the world deprives millions of citizens of the economic and political opportunity to secure their basic human rights. Out of 650 million children of primary school age, at least 250 million are not learning the basics in reading and mathematics (Education for All Global Monitoring Report Team, 2014)(hereafter EFA). Out of these children, 130 million had attended school for several years. In sub-Saharan Africa, one in five children was out of school in 2011 (EFA, 2014), and across Africa fewer than half of the children reach the end of primary school (Heugh, 2011). In 17 sub-Saharan countries, fewer than half of the children are learning the basics, and they are poorly prepared for transition to secondary education (EFA, 2014). Such outcomes are the rule in Africa, not the exception (as documented in several reports of the Africa Progress Panel until the end of this forum, 2017) and pose a great risk to the continent. It has, after all, a rapidly growing population of young people, all of whom need to find employment and livelihoods. The promotion of literacy in Africa faces challenges at many levels. Universal access to education was an important objective of the decolonization movements and, indeed, these movements did trigger dramatic rises in enrolment for basic schooling across many African nations, among them Zambia. But with rapid demographic growth and economic recession, the proportion of primary-schoolage children out of school began to rise again in the 1990s. By 2014 it had reached 21% in sub-Saharan Africa, with about half of the children affected not expected to ever enter school (UNESCO, 2016). In Zambia, the net enrolment ratio for primary schooling remained quite high, estimated by the World Bank as 95% in 2014 (FHI, 2016).

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Section: Children With Learning Difficulties Need Additional Supportmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Children With Learning Difficulties Need Additional Supportmentioning

confidence: 99%

Challenges Associated with Reading Acquisition in Sub-Saharan Africa

Lyytinen¹,

Ojanen²,

Jere-Folotiya³

et al. 2019

Improving Early Literacy Outcomes

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“…One key challenge for test development in developing countries including South Africa, is the variety of cultures, traditions of child rearing, and the breadth of languages that must be accommodated (Serpell & Simatende, ). The cross‐cultural developmental literature has engaged these problems for many years (e.g., Cole & Bruner, ; Dasen, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The development of a South African Early Learning Outcomes Measure: A South African instrument for measuring early learning program outcomes

Snelling

Dawes

Biersteker³

et al. 2019

Child

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Background: Assessment of early childhood development programme effectiveness in South Africa is hampered by a lack of suitable measures that account for variations in cultural and socio-economic backgrounds and can be administered by nonprofessionals. This contribution reports the standardisation of the South African Early Learning Outcomes Measure (ELOM), an instrument designed for population level monitoring of the developmental status of children aged 50-69 months and for evaluation of early learning programmes. Methods: The development of the ELOM was informed by South Africa's NationalCurriculum Framework from Birth to Four and its National Early Learning and Development Standards. ELOM items were drawn from reliable and valid instruments, particularly those used in Africa and other developing regions and were clustered in five domains: gross motor development, fine motor coordination and visual motor integration, emergent numeracy and mathematics, cognition and executive functioning, emergent literacy and language. The ELOM was standardised on a sample of 1,331 children aged 50-69 months, from five South African official languages and five socio-economic strata. Item Response Theory techniques were used to establish reliability, validity, and differential item functioning.Results: Confirmatory Factor Analysis established that ELOM domains are unidimensional and internally consistent. Items discriminate reliably between more and less able children and do not discriminate unfairly between children of the same ability from different language backgrounds. Socio-economic gradients were evident in children's performance. South African Early Learning Development Standards (ELDS) based on standard scores were developed and set at the 60th percentile of the sample standard score distribution.Conclusions: This research produced the first South African, age-validated population-level standardised instrument that can be administered relatively cheaply by trained non-professionals. This will facilitate the assessment of the efficacy of early learning programmes in enabling children to reach ELDS prior to entering Grade R and track progress toward Sustainable Development Goal 4.2.

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“…Use of the familiar language for early literacy acquisition is an international standard and especially well founded among readers whose familiar language is transparent (Aro & Wimmer 2003;Seymour, Aro & Erskine, 2003). This practice has been adopted in Zambian school settings and evidence is needed on the efficacy of the Zambian implementation of reading acquisition programs utilizing familiar language for literacy instruction (Tambulukani & Bus, 2011, Ojanen et al, 2013, Serpell, 2014. Familiarity of the language of instruction, and its effect on learning to read is supported by many studies (e.g., Kaani & Joshi, 2013, Matafwali & Bus, 2013, Tambulukani & Bus, 2011, Ojanen et al, 2013, Serpell, 2014.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This practice has been adopted in Zambian school settings and evidence is needed on the efficacy of the Zambian implementation of reading acquisition programs utilizing familiar language for literacy instruction (Tambulukani & Bus, 2011, Ojanen et al, 2013, Serpell, 2014. Familiarity of the language of instruction, and its effect on learning to read is supported by many studies (e.g., Kaani & Joshi, 2013, Matafwali & Bus, 2013, Tambulukani & Bus, 2011, Ojanen et al, 2013, Serpell, 2014. This study compares the efficacy of a phonics based reading instruction program and an alternative language experience approach based program for the acquisition of reading skills by the second grade learners in Zambia.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Literacy programs efficacy for developing children’s early reading skills in familiar language in Zambia

Sampa

Ojanen

Westerholm

et al. 2018

Journal of Psychology in Africa

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This study investigated the comparative efficacy of a phonics based reading program and a language experience approach based literacy program to develop reading skills among Zambian early childhood school learners. The learners (n=1,986; Grade 2 level, (females =50.1%) took either the phonics based reading program (n=1,593) or the alternative language experience approach based program (n=393). They were all assessed for reading skills utilizing the Early Grade Reading Assessment test (EGRA) in four languages (Cinyanja, Icibemba, Kiikaonde and Silozi). Results suggest that learners in phonics based literacy program were significantly better in letter-sound knowledge in all the four languages and in reading skills (non-word reading, oral passage reading and reading comprehension) only in Icibemba and Silozi compared to those who took the alternative program. Results reveal that children in PLP had significantly better performance in most reading skills than in PRP, but the effect sizes were small or medium. The high floor effect in all directly reading-related measures is an indication that most children in Zambia have not acquired even the basic reading skill of the transparently written language they are familiar with in neither PRP nor PLP and thus are in urgent need of better instruction. The implementation of the phonics approach is not effective enough. Instruction of the sounds of letters requires special attention where digital training tools (such as GraphoGame) may provide the most effective help to both teachers and children.

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Contextual Responsiveness: An Enduring Challenge for Educational Assessment in Africa

Cited by 17 publications

References 43 publications

Challenges Associated with Reading Acquisition in Sub-Saharan Africa

Challenges Associated with Reading Acquisition in Sub-Saharan Africa

The development of a South African Early Learning Outcomes Measure: A South African instrument for measuring early learning program outcomes

Literacy programs efficacy for developing children’s early reading skills in familiar language in Zambia

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