SBA Dahlia
Introduction of School Based Assessment
Education is the foundation of a country. School-based assessment is a new policy venture in the highly centralised education system of Malaysia. The Malaysian education system, having gone through several different development eras, should be making adjustment according to changing demand. The Malaysian Government introduced SBA or its Malay acronym PBS (Pentaksiran Berasaskan Sekolah) as part of the National Transformation Programme to produce world-class human capital. Through this more holistic, integrated and balanced assessment (Malaysian Education Ministry, 2012), the ministry aims to achieve the aspiration of the National Philosophy of Education towards developing learners’ physical, emotional, spiritual and intellectual abilities. It also aims to reduce exam-oriented learning among learners, evaluate learners’ learning progress and enhance teachers’ integrity in assessing, recording and reporting of learners’ learning (KPM, 2012).
The term “assessment” in the educational context is used interchangeably with “evaluation”, “educational measurement”, “testing”, and “examination” (Umar, 2005). However, it always concerns information on learning and learning acquisition, which is about whether and what people have learned. The purpose of assessment is constantly changing. Robertson (2005) suggests two ‘traditional’ reasons for assessment which are mainly for communicating results of student achievement which has been a key responsibility for teachers, and selecting and sorting students for entry into various programmes. Besides reporting and sorting student assessment can improve student learning, teacher effectiveness, and increase the levels of student engagement with the material (Marzano, 2000; McMillan, 2004; Shepard, 2000). Heady (2000) suggests assessment tools should be “able to demonstrate continuous improvement” and help students focus on their own learning while the measurement methods should be consistent,
Education is the foundation of a country. School-based assessment is a new policy venture in the highly centralised education system of Malaysia. The Malaysian education system, having gone through several different development eras, should be making adjustment according to changing demand. The Malaysian Government introduced SBA or its Malay acronym PBS (Pentaksiran Berasaskan Sekolah) as part of the National Transformation Programme to produce world-class human capital. Through this more holistic, integrated and balanced assessment (Malaysian Education Ministry, 2012), the ministry aims to achieve the aspiration of the National Philosophy of Education towards developing learners’ physical, emotional, spiritual and intellectual abilities. It also aims to reduce exam-oriented learning among learners, evaluate learners’ learning progress and enhance teachers’ integrity in assessing, recording and reporting of learners’ learning (KPM, 2012).
The term “assessment” in the educational context is used interchangeably with “evaluation”, “educational measurement”, “testing”, and “examination” (Umar, 2005). However, it always concerns information on learning and learning acquisition, which is about whether and what people have learned. The purpose of assessment is constantly changing. Robertson (2005) suggests two ‘traditional’ reasons for assessment which are mainly for communicating results of student achievement which has been a key responsibility for teachers, and selecting and sorting students for entry into various programmes. Besides reporting and sorting student assessment can improve student learning, teacher effectiveness, and increase the levels of student engagement with the material (Marzano, 2000; McMillan, 2004; Shepard, 2000). Heady (2000) suggests assessment tools should be “able to demonstrate continuous improvement” and help students focus on their own learning while the measurement methods should be consistent,