Continuous Assessment Learning Activities as a Reform Model for Project-Based Learning: Scoping Literature Review

• In Event: Fairmont Roundtable Session Four
  In Roundtable Session: The Praxis of Teachers: Responding to Reform (Table 2)

Abstract

In recent years, summative assessment has been criticised as an unfair representation of learner effort and aptitude. Using the lens of evidence-informed practice, ten empirical studies and 11 news bulletins are reviewed to tease the implementation of Continuous Assessment Learning Activities (CALA) in Zimbabwe. This scoping literature review reveals that, while policy makers insist CALA must be implemented because it benefits learners, teachers are disturbed that project-based learning is derailing efforts to compensate learning time lost to 2020-22 Covid-induced lockdowns. Teachers also complain of heavy workloads, meager salaries, and inadequate training. It appears CALA is a top-down reform imposed by government on a resistant user-system, overshadowing the potential benefits of project-based learning as an innovation to develop learners’ research skills.

Authors

• Godsend Tawanda Chimbi, University of the Free State
  Presenting Author

• Loyiso C. Jita, University of the Free State
  Non-Presenting Author