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Article Title: Formative Assessment Practices And Soft Skills Development Among Learners In Public Junior Schools In Nairobi County, Kenya
by Michael Otieno, Emily Bomett, PhD and James Sang, PhD

Abstract:
Competency-based educational reforms have gained widespread global adoption. It is considered a fundamental approach for improving educational quality, relevance, and learner outcomes. The efficacy of the implementation has been questioned due to the persistent countrywide problem of low performance in the national assessment. One of the critical issues associated with the implementation relates to the effective integration of formative assessment. This paper aimed to examine the influence of formative assessment practices on soft skills development in public junior schools in Nairobi County. The specific objective of the study is to assess the influence of formative assessment on soft skills development in junior schools in Nairobi County. The study was underpinned by Vygotsky's social constructivist theory. The study adopted a pragmatic research paradigm and employed a convergent parallel mixed-methods design, integrating quantitative and qualitative approaches. The sample size was 551 Grade eight learners, 296 teachers and 24 Head teachers. Stratified simple random sampling was used to sample 296 Grade eight teachers and 551 learners. The quantitative data were analyzed descriptively and using correlation and multiple linear regression. Qualitative data were analyzed thematically using direct respondent quotations. The linear regression analysis showed that formative assessment significantly and positively predicted students� soft skills. Formative assessment contributed moderately for teachers (B = 0.320, ? = 0.153, p = .037 while for the student its (B = 0.170, ?= 0.167, p < .001). This implies that ongoing assessment practices facilitate the development of soft skills by encouraging reflection, feedback, self-regulation, and active engagement from learners. The qualitative findings established that in some cases, formative assessment was inconsistently implemented but more effective where teachers were properly trained. The study concludes that effective incorporation of formative assessment practices is pivotal to soft skills acquisitione. __________________________________________________________________________________________ Keywords:

Keywords: Formative assessment, Competence-based Education, Soft Skills, Implementation, Development

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