Students' Perception of Relevance of Assessment Tools at Nairobi Evangelical Graduate School of Theology

Abstract

This study was an attempt to investigate the perception of the relevance of selected assessment tools at Nairobi evangelical Graduate School of Theology by Masters' students. It was a descriptive study, which was done using the opinion of students as the basis of the investigation. The major focus of this research study was to investigate the students' perception of the relevance assessment tools used at NEGST, some factors responsible for students' perception, and what srudents considered to be the most relevant tool that lecturers should utilize to assess students' work. The data collection involved the use of both closed-ended and open-ended questionnaire. The Likert Scale of Summated Ratings also formed part of the instrument, which was used to validate some of the responses from the other questionnaire items. The instrument was distributed personally to 71 students. The research also sought to discover factors responsible for students' perception of relevance of assessment tools, therefore, the Chi-Square Test of Independence was the statistical instrument used to determine relationships. The findings of this study revealed that research papers, examinations, and tests were the most commonly used assessment tools at NEGST; research papers and examinations having almost the same degree of frequency. Furthermore, it was discovered that generally, majority of students perceived research papers and tests as highly relevant tools of assessment, while examinations were said to be relevant to a small extent. The findings further revealed that students attest to the high relevance of research papers as an assessment tool, and wished that the tool could be used most frequently. The most important aspect of this study is that students value assessment so much so that the issue of relevance of the assessment tools is of interest to them. What came out clearly from the study was that it is not just any kind of assessment tool that may prove relevant to all course contents. Furthermore, it is not the frequency with which an assessment tool is used that matters, but the issue is relevance. Based on the findings of this research study, the researcher hopes that the NEGST faculty members would be mindful to employ assessment tools that would prove most relevant for the courses they teach.