From principle to practice : assessment for learning in Malaysian school-based assessment classroom

Abstract

School-Based Assessment (SBA) has been implemented in Malaysian schools in 2011 with attempts to (i) achieve the aspiration of National Philosophy of Education towards developing learners’ physical, emotional, spiritual and intellectual abilities, (ii) reduce exam-oriented learning, (iii) evaluate learners’ learning progress and (iv) enhance teachers’ integrity in assessing, recording and reporting of learners’ learning. Malaysian SBA system laid emphasis on features like Standard-Referenced Assessment, Holistic, Integration, Balance, Robust and Assessment for Learning (AfL). The purpose of this study is (i) to investigate teachers’ AfL competencies across gender, teaching experience and measurement training and (ii) to examine the effect of gender, teaching experience and measurement training on the AfL practices. A set of questionnaire consisted of 30 items on 4 point frequency scale was used to collect data from 408 respondents which have been randomly selected using the cluster sampling procedure from 10 districts. Data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Overall results showed that the competency levels of AfL practices were mainly at the basic level. Effect of gender were found statistically significant on the level of practices. The implications of the results that underpin AfL are discussed to enhance teachers’ overall assessment competency.