The implementation of standard-based performance assessments in Malaysian primary schools / Rubiah Dalail

Today’s 21st century learning has witnessed a global shift in assessment which has observed a move from assessment of learning to assessment for learning in schools. Henceforth, beginning 2011, the Ministry of Education (MOE), Malaysia implemented the standard referenced educational system that witnessed the integration of formative assessment into teaching and learning practices. However, the implementation has been inhibited by problems such as misconceptions on the intention of the transformed policy, readjustment to teaching and learning approaches, alteration to assessment approaches, adopting a new reporting format and issues surrounding the validity and reliability of scorings and monitoring aspects. Moreover, research has further indicated that integrating assessment tasks into daily teaching and learning activities has been a challenge. Since, there is scant empirical evidence of significant studies conducted in Malaysia, this study aimed to investigate the implementation of standard-based performance assessment in Malaysian primary schools. Specifically, the study sought to examine teachers’ knowledge of standard-based performance assessment, their practises and challenges they faced in implementing standard-based performance assessment. Finally, the study also explored strategies to overcome these challenges. The study involved a total of 2 headmasters, 291 teachers and 530 students from two Grade A national primary schools from the state of Selangor in Malaysia…