Malaysian Teachers' Perception of the Implementation of Oral Test in Pentaksiran Tingkatan 3 (PT3) and Penilaian Menengah Rendah (PMR) Examination

Abstract

Just recently, the Malaysian government attempted to replace the current public examinations, thus proposed to implement school-based assessment in public schools. However, little is known about the concerns of teachers who would directly be involved in the implementation system and what they may be facingas school-based assessment has yet to be in full swing. This paper highlights the findings from an interview on 5 English teachers who are currently serving in Malaysian public schools. The items in the interview elicited information on the stages of concerns from the respondents' point of view regarding theoretical constructs of the oral examination assessment and its innovation. The constructs are; Management, Organization-Implementation, Formatting, Indifference and Prioritization. The categories for the questions were built based on these identified constructs. The findings indicated that the respondents were highly concerned about the highlighted issue and their worries were multi-dimensional regardless of their experience in the education system. The results shown are not only apprising to the Malaysian English teachers themselves, but also to professional development trainers. This is for them to continue to monitor teachers' concerns throughout the process of educational change such as the school-based assessment. Therefore, informed decisions could be made while planning for in-service teacher training on school-based assessment. Future works are recommended on expanding similar research on other educational innovations.