On June 3rd, 2025, educators gathered for a transformative ProDev Hour session led by Kaziba Stephen, focusing on a key pedagogical tool in Uganda’s new competency-based curriculum: Continuous Assessment Items (CAIs). The session was crafted to deepen educators’ understanding of CAIs and equip them to design assessments that reflect real-world competencies.
What is a Continuous Assessment Item (CAI)?
A CAI is more than just a test question—it’s a carefully crafted scenario designed to prompt learners to demonstrate their understanding through practical application. Unlike traditional assessments, CAIs measure not just what students know, but how they use that knowledge to solve real-life problems.
The session began by unpacking the core definition of CAIs and their essential role in competency-based education. Teachers explored how CAIs assess critical thinking, problem-solving, and applied knowledge skills that extend beyond the classroom and into everyday life.
Components and Purpose
Kaziba emphasized two critical components of an effective CAI:
- The Scenario/Context: This sets the stage with a real world situation, keeping it short enough to hold attention but long enough to cover the key concept coined the “Mini Skirt Principle.”
- The Task: Clear instructions that require learners to analyze, evaluate, create, or respond to a problem.
The purpose of using CAIs is threefold:
- To assess practical application of knowledge, not just recall.
- To build analytical and critical thinking skills in learners.
- To enhance active learning by engaging students in meaningful tasks.
An interactive activity encouraged participants to reflect on personal decision-making (e.g., “What did you consider before buying your phone?”) to reinforce how CAIs link learning with real life.
Exploring the Affective and Psychomotor Domains
The session went further to explore the Affective Domain often overlooked but essential for developing empathy, emotional intelligence, and ethical decision making. Through a storytelling exercise, participants examined how individuals emotionally process events, like the loss of a friend, and how these responses align with stages in the affective learning taxonomy (receiving, responding, valuing, organization, and characterization).
Next, the focus shifted to the Psychomotor Domain, as defined by Dave’s taxonomy. This segment highlighted how learners develop skills through stages such as imitation, manipulation, precision, articulation, and naturalization. Practical verbs like imitate, perform, customize, and invent were introduced to help educators craft learning outcomes that target motor-skill development across various subjects.
Application Across Subjects
To make CAI implementation practical, Kaziba shared subject-specific examples for S.4 Term Two. For instance:
- In Agriculture, learners might evaluate cooperatives.
- In English, they may draft a job application letter.
- In Physics, they could analyze electricity consumption patterns.
- In Nutrition, they may be asked to design a meat-processing guide.
This cross-subject relevance reinforced the versatility of CAIs and their ability to blend theory with practical action.
Conclusion
By the end of the session, educators left with a clearer vision of how to structure CAIs, align them with competencies, and incorporate affective and psychomotor elements into assessments. This session not only strengthened their assessment skills but also reminded them of their broader role in shaping learners who are not only knowledgeable but also emotionally intelligent, skillful, and value-driven individuals.