The Shift to Outcome Based Assessment: Teachers’ Perception

Outcome based education is being much discussed in higher education in India at present. There is a focus in the process of assessment with a growing importance in recognition and attainment of learning outcomes. This study aims at determining teachers’ understanding of outcome based assessment (OBA). The teachers under consideration are the technical teachers. Opinions of about 100 technical teachers were sought to find out the understanding of teachers on aspects related to OBA, which is the primary objective of this work. The method used is the survey method. Google forms were primarily used for the survey apart from interviewing a part of the sample. The findings reveal that as the respondents are now preparing for accreditation, they are getting much aware of outcome based education. The terms like learning outcome, objective, vision, and mission are invariably being used without much clear understanding among the staff members. The members of faculty who are involved with the process, mainly those who are coordinating such programmes, are quite clear with the concept, though, the number of such teachers in the concerned colleges is not much. Teachers are majorly found to make use of the revised Bloom’s taxonomy. In context of outcome based assessment, the teachers are found to be struggling with the decision-making process regarding choice of the assessment tool, one of the primary reasons being, not able to link all the components of the teaching-learning system. It is inferred that the need to realise the constructive alignment of these components is foremost for the teaching fraternity so as to ensure learning. As more than 75% of the teachers reported about an urgent need to be trained in the areas of assessment and evaluation, the awareness of teachers, in general, about OBA needs to be reinforced with customised training programmes.