Date of Award

1-1-2001

Thesis Type

Masters

Document Type

Thesis

Divisions

Faculty of Education

Department

-

Institution

Universiti Malaya

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to investigate the implementation of the school based practical science assessment in several secondary schools in the Lower Perak District. The school based practical science assessment is carried out through the PEKA programme. Four aspects of the implementation of the PEKA programme was studied. The four aspects were (i) teachers' understanding of procedures in carrying out the PEKA programme after having attended relevant courses, (ii) teachers' ability in carrying out the PEKA programme, (iii) students' readiness to be assessed via PEKA, and (iv) factors which hinder the effectiveness of the implementation of the PEKA programme. The sample of this study consisted of 30 science teachers and 200 Form IV science students from ten secondary schools in the Lower Perak District. Two sets of instruments in the form of questionnaires, one for the teachers and another for students were used to collect data. Both instruments were validified through a pilot test to determine the suitability of the items. The reliability of the instruments were also deterimned. The data was analyzed using descriptive statistics. The results of this study showed that the PEKA programme courses which the teachers have attended were insufficient to help them to understand all procedures in the implementation of the PEKA programme. However, the majority of the teachers felt that they were capable of carrying out the PEKA programme in their classroom according to the procedures suggested. It was also found that the majority of the students showed readiness to be asssessed through the PEKA programme. The constraints that hinder the effectiveness of implementing the PEKA programme in classroom from the teachers' perspective were attributed to (i) insufficient time, (ii) the difficulties involved in determining the scores, (iii) large class size, (iv)large number of elements to be assessed, (v) unfair scoring, (vi) unavailability of teachers' reference materials, (vii) students' negative attitude, (viii) passive students, (ix) lack of co-operation from students, (x) lack of apparatus and materials, and (xi) the implementation of the PEK.A programme in school was only rarely monitored. Finally, the implications of the study and the various suggestions to further research were also discussed.

Initial

snms

Additional Information

Dissertation (M.A) -- Faculty of Education, Universiti Malaya, 2001.

Download

Share

COinS