Manuscript Title:

A COMPREHENSIVE ANALYSIS OF ASSESSMENT DESIGN AND VISION IN PAKISTAN S OFFICIAL ENGLISH LANGUAGE CURRICULUM OF SECONDARY CLASSES

Author:

ZIA UL HAQ KAKAR, Dr. SYEDA RAKHSHANDA KAUKAB, Dr. FAZAL-UR-REHMAN

DOI Number:

DOI:10.5281/zenodo.8358388

Published : 2023-09-10

About the author(s)

1. ZIA UL HAQ KAKAR - Ph.D. Scholar, Department of Education Greenwich University, Karachi, Pakistan.
2. Dr. SYEDA RAKHSHANDA KAUKAB - Associate Professor, Department of Education Greenwich University, Karachi, Pakistan.
3. Dr. FAZAL-UR-REHMAN - Research Scholar, Department of Education, The University of Haripur, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan.

Full Text : PDF

Abstract

The official curriculum is very important in determining how learning and assessment are done. It guides learning and assessment practices. The effectiveness of assessment mostly depends on the vision and design of the assessment in the curriculum. It is generally considered that the assessment system in Balochistan schools is not effective. As a teacher and curriculum developer, the researcher observed that the assessment design might be one of the main causes of low assessment practices in language classes. The goals and assessment design within Pakistan's Official English Language Curriculum are examined in this study. The study uses Bloom's Taxonomy as a framework to look into the degree of assessment design in the standards, benchmarks, and student learning outcomes (SLOs) of the 2006 curriculum document. The research also examines the methods, practices, planes, mechanisms, procedures, strategies, tactics, and techniques envisioned in the curriculum to assess language. The Bowen, 2009 document analyzed the methods/ procedures used for this research study. Bowen (2009) merged content and thematic analyses, and argued the importance of document analyses as they explore the context, support question development and other methods, can be used as primary and secondary data, helpful in tracking the changes in the phenomenon, help for others analyses, indicated the missing aspects or hidden agenda. The structure of the document is crucial for analysis. The researcher developed a research tool in light of Bloom's Taxonomy cognitive domain. The research study findings show that language competencies are not adequately developed skill-wise in the official curriculum. Standards, benchmarks, and SLO assessment designs mainly concentrate on lower-level action words from Bloom's Taxonomy cognitive domain. Instead of describing assessment processes for language development, the assessment section only defines and emphasizes assessment. Furthermore, the curriculum inadequately addresses the assessment of speaking and listening abilities, and it strongly emphasizes summative testing rather than an ongoing assessment of student's language proficiency. Overall, it appears that the curriculum's assessment design is unclear.


Keywords

Curriculum, Assessment, Language assessment, Students Learning Outcomes, Standards, Benchmarks, Assessment design, Language curriculum analysis, Bloom s Taxonomy