Appraising Assessment Tools’ Potential For Fostering Children’s Holistic Development In Dodoma City Pre-Primary Classes

ABSTRACT

The present study intended to appraise the potential of the assessment tools for fostering holistic children’s development among pre-primary schools in Dodoma, Tanzania. The study was guided by four specific objectives. These were: first, to assess pre-primary school teacher’s understanding of assessment tools’ potential for promoting child holistic development; second, to appraise the role of assessment tools in the promotion of children’s cognitive development; thirdly, to determine the extent to which the assessment tools in pre-primary schools were used to foster children’s physical development and fourthly, to assess the potential of the assessment tools in enhancing children’s social development. The study was governed by the cognitive development theory of Jean Piaget (1936), Social learning theory by Albert Bandura (1977), psychomotor theory developed by Reigeluth (1999) and Vygotsky socio-cultural theory developed by Vygotsky (1978) as its theoretical framework. The study employed a case study research design within the qualitative research approach. The data were collected through semi-structured interviews, observation and documentary review. The study employed the qualitative research approach. A total of 15 informants were involved in this study. These includes heads teachers, academic teachers as well as pre-primary teachers.All informants were purposively selected on the basis of the roles and positions they held in the schools. Data were analyzed through the thematic analysis. The findings of this study revealed that assessment tools have been of major importance in children’s holistic development in schools in terms of cognitive, physical and social development. The study recommends that in-service teacher preparation should be encouraged, the government should allocate fund for pre-primary education and there is need for providing teaching and learning materials to mention a few in schools so as to ensure effective use of assessment tools in assessing children’s holistic development.