Evaluation of Year 6 KSSR English (SK) textbook: teachers’ perspectives

Abstract

Textbook evaluation is the process for ensuring that the right textbook is selected for use in the teaching and learning scenario. During educational reforms, such as the adoption of the Common European Framework of Reference for the ELT scenario, textbook evaluation should be a crucial part of the textbook selection process. In Malaysia, with the adoption of CEFR, new books such as the Super Minds and Get Smart, which are imported textbooks, have replaced locally produced books. The Year 6 KSSR (SK) English textbook is currently still in use but would be phased out in the near future as part of the CEFR reform. Since the introduction of the ‘global’ textbooks, there have been mixed concerns amongst teachers and researchers about the suitability of the imported textbooks. This study investigated the effectiveness and suitability of the currently-in-use KSSR Year 6 English (SK) textbook, which was locally produced. It looked at the perceptions of teachers on the general attributes of the textbook, such as syllabus and curriculum, the methodology, the book’s suitability to learners, as well as the learning-teaching content such as skills, grammar, vocabulary, exercises, and pronunciation, etc. Adopting a mixed method design, Nimehchisalem & Mukundan’s (2015) revised textbook evaluation checklist was used as the instrument for the quantitiative part, where twenty, Year 6 English teachers, from three primary schools in the Kulai district (in Johor) evaluated the textbook. For the qualitative part, five teachers were involved in semi-structured interviews. The findings showed that the teachers perceived the Year 6 KSSR English SK Textbook that is currently used in primary (SK) schools, as highly useful for the learners, in terms of both the general attributes as well as learning-teaching content. Our findings highlight that locally produced textbooks are better suited for our learners, and if imported ‘global’ textbooks replace the local ones, they should first be customized (custom textbooks) that would be infused with local cultures, etc, to be better suited to local learner needs.