Assessment Reform in Malaysia:Policy into Practice in Primary Schools

Abstract

This qualitative case study draws upon the empirical data drawn from two case study schools conducted in Malaysian primary schools that have responded to the new assessment practices related to School-Based assessment (SBA) in the new curriculum (KSSR) policy. This study investigated how English language teachers make sense of and enact SBA in the new English curriculum in Malaysia. This study also examined the contextual and individual/teacher factors in schools that influence the changes, the external factors that are influencing the changes, and the alternative or further support that schools and teachers feel they need to effectively implement the new assessment practice. Using Priestley’s (2011) Social Interaction model, derived from Archer’s (1995) Morphogenesis/Morphostasis (M/M) model, this study focused on the cultural, structural, material and individual attributes which helped to understand how and why teachers were implementing the new policy around assessment. Semi-structured interviews, classroom observations, document analysis and field notes were used in collecting the data. The data were analysed in two stages. The first stage involved within-case analysis from the two primary schools. In the second stage of data analysis, the themes that emerged from the two case studies were analytically categorised into the four elements suggested in the Social Interaction model, by referring to the generic questions proposed by Priestley (2007). The striking findings of this study suggest that the accountability mechanism in the Malaysian education system was seen as being morphostasis in nature, in that it impeded the new assessment policy to penetrate the culture in schools. In addition, the material and individual factors had also influenced the SBA practices in being effectively implemented and enacted by teachers.