Abstract
There is a lot of emphasis on teaching and assessment pedagogy in academia considering the significance of learning in this era of knowledge economies. Students all over the world are being predominantly tested using conventional testing methods, such as written examinations in English. Written examinations enable the students to express their knowledge freely, but they may also be a challenge for students who are non-native English speakers and learners. As a result, when these students enter higher education institutions (HEIs), they are faced with severe setbacks in terms of answering their exams. Hence, inclusion of other assessment methods, such as oral exams, is needed. These alternative methods help in fostering learner autonomy by promoting critical evaluation and reflective thinking among the students. This paper uses quantitative research to assess the effectiveness of using alternative methods including oral exams as an assessment instrument to supplement conventional written assessments. The findings reveal that oral exams are independently related to student knowledge and learning in the two economics courses considered. However, their contribution increases substantially when used in conjunction with written exams.
Highlights
In this era of knowledge economies, in academia there is a lot of emphasis on teaching and assessment pedagogy
This paper aims to provide an insight into the use of oral exams as an alternative method of testing students’ knowledge and ascertain its effectiveness as a method of evaluating students’ performance
We can infer that performance of students in both oral and written exams are found to be a good predictor of their overall performance for both the courses
Summary
In this era of knowledge economies, in academia there is a lot of emphasis on teaching and assessment pedagogy. Today student populations are diverse, each student has unique learning abilities and aptitudes especially in his/her oral and written skills. This triggers the need to incorporate different teaching and testing methods in the educational field, especially when it comes to non-native speakers of English. On entering higher education institutions (HEIs), these students face severe setbacks in terms of writing their exams, resulting in poor academic performance. This issue has kindled the need for exploring other methods of testing students’ knowledge and grasp of the subject matter
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