Relationship Connecting Continuous Assessment and Examination Scores in Mathematics in South-West Nigeria Colleges of Education

Abstract

Nigeria Colleges of Education have been conducting regular and steady internal assessments in order to determine the progress of learning and strengths of students achievement via continuous assessment. This study correlate the performance of internal assessment termed continuous assessment with the final assessment scores called semester examination in Mathematics courses in Colleges of Education in South-west, Nigeria. Ten public colleges of education in south-west, Nigeria comprising of four federal colleges of Education and six state Colleges of Education were randomly sampled for the study. The instruments were pilot tested and the reliability indices attained were r=0.87, r=0.91, r=0.92 and r=0.90 using Crombach Alpha statistical instrument. Researcher-designed questionnaire and the last three years results in Mathematics courses were the instruments that were employed for the collections of data. Three research questions and two hypotheses were formulated and guided the study. The results showed that there was no significant relationship between continuous assessment and final examination grade scores of students in mathematics based on gender. However, there was significant relationship between continuous assessment and final examination grade scores of students in mathematics based on institution ownership. Among others, it was recommended that high premium should be given to continuous assessments irrespective of students’ gender and institution ownership. Also, intensive seminar should be conducted for lecturers in Nigerian colleges of education on the relevance and impact of continuous assessment in determining students’ academic strengths and progress for making better decision.