Formative Assessment Practices in Public Sector Universities of Pakistan

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to analyse the formative assessment practices in public sector universities of Pakistan through the perception of heads of departments, departmental controllers of examinations, university teachers and students. Forty eight (48) heads of departments, 48departmental controllers of examinations, 144 university teachers were interviewed and 48 focus group discussions were conducted among the BS students in 6 public sector universities of the Punjab. Findings of the study reveal that defining assessment criteria is essential for: following university policy; maintaining record in a proper way; achieving course objectives; ensuring fair assessment and minimizing the subjectivity in assessment. Although university teachers develop assessment criteria however, they had no clear idea that on what grounds they have to develop assessment criteria and wrongly take the weightage of marks for different components of formative as the fundamental grounds for developing assessment criteria. University teachers themselves claim that they are not sufficiently aware of the semester examination rules.