School-Based Assessment in Malaysian Schools: The Concerns of the English Teachers

The Malaysian government has proposed to implement SBA (school-based assessment) in public schools with an attempt to replace the current public examinations. However, as SBA has yet to be in full swing, relatively little is known about the concerns of the teachers who would directly be involved in implementing SBA. This paper presents the findings from a survey on 40 English teachers who are currently teaching in Malaysian public schools. The items in the questionnaire elicited information on the stages of concerns of the respondents’ concern regarding the adoption or implementation of any educational innovation. The constructs are indifference, informational-personal, management, consequence-collaboration and refocusing. It is from these identified constructs that the categories for the questions are built. Findings from the study indicate that the respondents are concerned about the innovation and that their concerns are multidimensional regardless of their experience in the innovation. The findings not only enlighten to the Malaysian English teachers themselves, but also the professional development trainers in monitoring teachers’ concerns, during the process of educational change, such as the SBA. Thus, informed decisions can be made while planning for the in-service teacher trainings on SBA. Several implications on the in-service trainings are drawn in order to ensure the smooth-running of the SBA. Future works, suggested on expanding similar research on other educational innovations, can be carried out.