Issues and Concerns related to assessment in Malaysian

primary schools

TOPIC 11
ISSUES AND CONCERNS RELATED TO
ASSESSMENT IN MALAYSIAN PRIMARY
SCHOOLS
 Exam-oriented System
 Cognitive Levels of Assessment

 School-based Assessment

 Alternative Assessment
EXAM-ORIENTED SYSTEM
 Four hierarchical levels:
 Federal
 State
 District
 School

 Major decisions and policy-making at federal level

represented by MOE
 Curriculum Development Division (BPK)
 School Division(BPSH)
 Malaysian Examination Syndicate (MES)
EXPLAIN THE FEATURES OF AN EXAM-ORIENTED
SYSTEM AND DISCUSS ITS STRENGTHS AND
WEAKNESSES
 Over-emphasizes rote-learning
 Emphasis of exam results – public exam results as important of
student progression to higher levels of education or occupational
opportunities
 Four major public exams:
 UPSR
 PT3 (PMR)
 SPM
 STPM/STAM
 These exams do not currently test the full range of skills that the
education system aspires to produce
 Eg Review by Pearson Education Group of UPSR (Eng Lang 2010 &
2011) shows approx 70% of questions tested basic skills of knowledge
and comprehension.
 LPM started reforms to ensure holistic
evaluation of students. So, in 2011, PBS format
introduced.
 Four components:
 School assessment
 Central assessment
 Psychometric assessment – aptitude & personality
 Physical, Sports and co-curricular activities
assessment
MALAYSIA EDUCATION BLUEPRINT 2013-
2025
“In October 2011, the Ministry of Education launched a comprehensive
review of the education system in Malaysia in order to develop a new
National Education Blueprint. This decision was made in the context of
rising international education standards, the Government’s aspiration of
better preparing Malaysia’s children for the needs of the 21st century, and
increased public and parental expectations of education policy. Over the
course of 11 months, the Ministry drew on many sources of input, from
education experts at UNESCO, World Bank, OECD, and six local
universities, to principals, teachers, parents, and students from every state
in Malaysia. The result is a preliminary Blueprint that evaluates the
performance of Malaysia’s education system against historical starting
points and international benchmarks. The Blueprint also offers a vision of
the education system and students that Malaysia both needs and
deserves, and suggests 11 strategic and operational shifts that would be
required to achieve that vision. The Ministry hopes that this effort will
inform the national discussion on how to fundamentally transform
Malaysia’s education system, and will seek feedback from across the
community on this preliminary effort before finalising the Blueprint in
December 2012.”
 Discuss the Cognitive Levels of Assessment –
the link between the content domain to be
assessed and the cognitive levels that the
assessment will cover
BLOOM'S TAXONOMY OF COGNITIVE LEVEL
ORIGINAL TERMS NEW TERMS

 Evaluation •Creating
 Synthesis •Evaluating
 Analysis •Analysing
 Application •Applying
 Comprehension •Understanding
 Knowledge
•Remembering
(Based on Pohl, 2000, Learning to Think, Thinking to Learn, p. 8)
BLOOM’S REVISED TAXONOMY
CREATING
GENERATING NEW IDEAS, PRODUCTS, OR WAYS OF VIEWING THINGS
DESIGNING, CONSTRUCTING, PLANNING, PRODUCING, INVENTING.

EVALUATING
JUSTIFYING A DECISION OR COURSE OF ACTION
CHECKING, HYPOTHESISING, CRITIQUING, EXPERIMENTING, JUDGING

ANALYSING
BREAKING INFORMATION INTO PARTS TO EXPLORE UNDERSTANDINGS AND RELATIONSHIPS
COMPARING, ORGANISING, DECONSTRUCTING, INTERROGATING, FINDING

APPLYING
USING INFORMATION IN ANOTHER FAMILIAR SITUATION
IMPLEMENTING, CARRYING OUT, USING, EXECUTING

UNDERSTANDING
EXPLAINING IDEAS OR CONCEPTS
INTERPRETING, SUMMARISING, PARAPHRASING, CLASSIFYING, EXPLAINING

REMEMBERING
RECALLING INFORMATION
RECOGNISING, LISTING, DESCRIBING, RETRIEVING, NAMING, FINDING
SCHOOL–BASED ASSESSMENT (SBA)
 SBA is a holistic form of assessment which
assesses the cognitive, affective and
psychomotor domains encompassing
intellectual, spiritual and physical aspects. This,
it is in tandem with the Primary School
Standard Curriculum (KSSR) as well as the
National Education Policy. It covers both
academic and non-academic fields. It is carried
out continuously in schools by teachers during
the teaching and learning process.
SBA
 The traditional system of assessment no longer
satisfies the educational and social needs of the
third millennium.
 Izard (2001) as well as Raivoce and Pongi (2001)
explain that school- based assessment (SBA) is
often perceived as the process put in place to
collect evidence of what students have achieved,
especially in important learning outcomes that do
not easily lend themselves to the pen and paper
tests.
SBA

 Daugherty (1994) clarifies that this type of

assessment has been recommended:
…because of the gains in the validity which can
be expected when students’ performance on
assessed tasks can be judged in a greater
range of contexts and more frequently than is
possible within the constraints of time- limited,
written examinations.
SBA
Burton (1992) provides the following five rules of the thumb
that may be applied in the planning stage of school-based
assessment :
1. The assessment should be appropriate to what is being
assessed.
2. The assessment should enable the learner to demonstrate
positive achievement and reflect the learner’s strengths.
3. The criteria for successful performance should be clear to
all concerned
4. The assessment should be appropriate to all persons being
assessed The style of assessment should blend with the
learning pattern so it contributes to it.
SBA
 Assessment scores produced by teachers are
reliable:
 Can continuously monitor their pupil’s growth
 Can provide constructive feedback to help improve
pupils’ learning abilities
 Have better understanding of the context and
environment that are most conducive to assess
pupils
 Appraise and provide feedback based on
Performance Standards
SBA

4 Components of SBA/ PBS are:

Academic:
1. School Assessment (using Performance Standards)
2. Centralised Assessment
Non-academic:
3. Physical Activities, Sports and Co-curricular
Assessment (Pentaksiran Aktiviti Jasmani, Sukan dan
Kokurikulum - PAJSK)
4. Psychometric/Psychological Tests
WHY IS IT IMPLEMENTED?

 Introduced as part of the National

Transformation Program to produce world-class
human capital.
ALTERNATIVE ASSESSMENT:
 Alternative assessments are assessment
procedures that differ from the traditional
notions and practice of tests with respect to
format, performance, or implementation.
 Likely that alternative assessment found its
roots in writing assessment because of the
need to provide continuous assessment rather
than a single impromptu evaluation (Alderson &
Banerjee, 2001).
CONTRASTING TRADITIONAL AND “ALTERNATIVE”
ASSESSMENT SOURCE: ADAPTED FROM BAILEY
(1998:207 AND PUHL, 1997: 5)
Traditional assessment Alternative assessment
 One-shot tests  Continuous longitudinal assessment

 Indirect tests  Direct tests

 Inauthentic tests  Authentic assessment

 Individual projects  Group projects

 No feedback to learners  Feedback provided to learners

 Speeded exams  Power exams

 Decontextualised test tasks  Contextualised test tasks

 Norm-referenced score reporting  Criterion-referenced score reporting

 Standardised tests  Classroom-based tests

 Summative  Formative

 Product of instruction  Process of instruction

 Intrusive  Integrated

 Judgemental  Developmental

 Teacher Proof  Teacher mediated

COMMON CHARACTERISTICS OF ALTERNATIVE
ASSESSMENTS (HERMAN ET AL 1992:6)
Alternative assessments perform the following:
 Ask the students to perform, create, produce, or do
something.
 Tap higher-level thinking and problem-solving skills.
 Use tasks that represent meaningful instructional
activities.
 Invoke real-world applications.
 People, not machines, do the scoring, using human
judgment.
 Require new instructional and assessment roles for
teachers.
ALTERNATIVE ASSESSMENT

 Tannenbaum (1996), comments that alternative

assessments focus on documenting individual
strengths and development which would assist in
the teaching and learning process. Discuss.
 seen to be more student centred as they cater for
different learning styles, cultural and educational
backgrounds as well as language proficiencies.
 compatible with the contemporary emphases on the
process as well as product of learning (Croker, 1999),
ALTERNATIVE ASSESSMENT:
 Performance-based assessment
 Portfolios

 Journals

 Conference and interviews

 Observations

 Self and peer assessment

PORTFOLIOS

 The contents of the portfolio become evidence

of abilities much like how we would use a test
to measure the abilities of our students.
A PORTFOLIO CONTAINS FOUR PRIMARY
ELEMENTS (BAILEY 1998:218)
1. Introductory Section
 Overview
 Reflective Essay
2. Academic Works Section
 Samples of best work
 Samples of work demonstrating development
3. Personal Section
 Journals
 Score reports
 Photographs
 Personal items
4. Assessment Section
 Evaluation by Peers
 Self-evaluation
ADVANTAGES OF USING PORTFOLIO AS AN
ASSESSMENT INSTRUMENT (BROWN &
HUDSON, 1998:664-665):
 enhances student and teacher involvement in assessment;
 provides opportunities for teachers to observe students using
meaningful language;
 to accomplish various authentic tasks in a variety of contexts and
situations;
 permit the assessment of the multiple dimensions of language
learning;
 provide opportunities for both students and teachers to work
together and reflect on what it means to assess students’ language
growth;
 increase the variety of information collected on students; and
 make teachers’ ways of assessing student work more systematic.
SELF-ASSESSMENT

 Self-assessment – self appraisal of own work

 Thought to be more accurate
 Said to increase student motivation

 Help identify own strengths and weaknesses

 Expected to become more sensitive to their own

learning
 Ultimately perform better in the final summative
evaluation
PEER-ASSESSMENT

 Peer-assessment – a response in some form to

other learners’ work (Puhl, 1997).
 Peer assessment requires that a student take
up the role of “a critical friend” to another
student in order to “support, challenge, and
extend each other’s learning” (Brooks, 2002:
73).
BENEFITS OF PEER ASSESSMENT

 remind learners they are not working in

isolation;
 help create a community of learners;

 improve the product (“Two heads are better

than one”);
 improve the process; motivates, even inspires;

 help learners be reflective; and

 stimulate meta-cognition.
NOVEMBER 2013

a. Define School Based Assessment and identify

its four main components.
b. Provide and explain three reasons why the
School Based Assessment results conducted
by teachers are reliable.
c. Explain why School Based Assessment is
introduced in the Malaysian schools