‘I just do as expected’. Teachers’ implementation of Continuous Assessment and challenges to curriculum literacy

Abstract

This paper reports on a study that clarifies the nature and scope of the challenges experienced by primary school teachers in Swaziland when using Continuous Assessment (CA) as a tool to improve teaching and learning. Through the use of classroom observations and stimulated recall interviews, we sought to understand the significance of the choices they made to meet the requirements of the prescribed lesson objectives. Their accounts of the assessment exercises they used reflect their understanding of the content they had to teach, the discipline from which it was drawn and intentions of the CA programme. In conclusion, we provide cues that may be useful to further these teachers’ curriculum literacy.