Teachers Preparedness in Implementation of Alternative Assessment in Primary Schools within the Competency Based Education System of Kenya

The aim of the study was to evaluate teachers’ preparedness for the implementation of alternative assessment in primary schools in Kenya. The location for the research was Matungulu Sub-County in Machakos County in Kenya. The survey design was adapted in the study. The study was guided by three objectives, which aimed at determining teachers’ knowledge and skills for the implementation of alternative assessment (AA), application of alternative assessment strategies at classroom level and teachers’ perception for the implementation of AA. The study involved 32-schools with 32 Grade-3 teachers as respondents. Qualitative method was applied using questionnaires. Findings indicated that grade three teachers had insufficient knowledge and skills hampering practice. However, they tend to lean towards traditional assessment strategies. Further, the findings revealed that grade three teachers had near positive verses negative perception towards implementation of AA. This may mean that teachers will be ready for the changing learning landscape towards competency-based education. The teacher’s perception levels reveal an acceptable but not optimum level of readiness to manage education process within a self-regulated learning whose focus is on development of thinking skills more so critical thinking. The findings are supported by the fact that that the three predictor variables had a positive and significant association with implementation of alternative assessment as denoted by their beta coefficients of 0.727, 0.709 and 0.641 respectively, with all having p values