Practices and challenges of continuous assessment in colleges of teachers’ education in the west Oromia region, Ethiopia

The main purpose of this study was to investigate the practices and challenges of continuous assessment in colleges of teachers’ education in the western Oromia region. For this study, the researchers selected three colleges teachers’ education, purposely based on job experience. The researchers selected Nekemte, Dembi Dollo and Shambo colleges teachers’ education from well, medium, lower experienced respectively. Descriptive survey design involving both qualitative and quantitative approaches was employed. 134 student-teachers and 178 college teachers were selected and participated in the study. The quantitative data was collected through the questionnaire and observation checklist and analyzed using frequency and percentage, whereas, the qualitative data interview and document analysis were analyzed using narrative form and interpretative way. The finding of the study revealed that the extent of practicing continuous assessment in class is low. The study also showed that teachers have positive perception toward continuous assessment and they accepted continuous assessment as important to improve the achievement of learners. The finding disclosed that a large class size, shortage of time, teachers’ work load, low interest of students, large instructional content, and lack of commitment among teachers as the major factors are hindering the practice of continuous assessment in colleges of teachers’ education.The researchers recommend that educational authorities and stockholders should make effort to a manageable number ofstudents’ per class, College administrators should allow teachers to cover the minimum workload than over loading above the standard, set for college of teachers’ education