Assessment in the 21st Century Classroom: The Need for Teacher Autonomy

International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS) | Volume II, Issue VI, June 2018 | ISSN 2454-6186

Assessment in the 21st Century Classroom: The Need for Teacher Autonomy

Dr Ravikumar Varatharaj

Institut Pendidikan Guru Kampus Ipoh
31150 Hulu Kinta, Perak, Malaysia

Abstract: – This study is aimed at finding the teachers awareness of autonomy and its relationship towards teacher’s assessment practices. Teachers, like most professionals need a fair amount of autonomy in their work. Nevertheless, question arises in the teacher’s awareness of autonomy and its implication on their practices especially in assessment. The transformation of assessment in the turn of the century in Malaysian Education System, namely School Based Assessment (SBA) has brought great challenges and responsibilities among the teacher’s. This is due to the role of the teacher as implementers of government policy. This qualitative study is carried out among ten primary school teachers in Perak, Malaysia. An in-depth semi-structured interview, observation and document analysis was carried out to get a better view and understanding of the teacher’s view of autonomy and assessment practices and its impact on their work and student performance. The findings recorded teacher’s view of autonomy and assessment practices as moderate. This shows that the teachers have room for inculcating their autonomy and assessment practices in their working environment while contributing significantly for student betterment.

Keywords: autonomy, assessment, education policy, school-based assessment, Assessment for Learning, professional practices

I. INTRODUCTION

In the wake of the 21st century, education has attracted a lot of attention globally as well as locally. The need to acquire and master the 21st century learning skills has brought great challenges to the educators particularly and the stakeholders in general. The urge to be at level with developed nations worldwide, the government of Malaysia through its education wing, Malaysian Education Ministry, drafted out new curriculum based on standard replacing the existing curriculum. Primary School Standard Based Curriculum made significant changes particularly in the assessment method. With the view that exam-oriented education system is damaging and the change towards more meaningful learning is rampant, school-based assessment (SBA) was introduced in the Malaysian education system (Kementerian Pelajaran Malaysia, 2011). This was done with the view that the present education system was entangled with the exam-oriented system that gives little emphasis to the students learning.

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