8/10/2019 An interview in SBA
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Indian teacher
One of the differences is teachers don't give students marks and
there are no objective
questions in their test. Most of the papers are without MCQ so
students can think and answer.
But when no exam, students tend to neglect the subject. They
will be graded by band. All the test
elements have their bands. If they get band 6, they are very
excellent. However, they must at
least get band 1. Teachers must help students to get at least
band 1. Teachers maybe can modify
their questions for their level so that weak students can get
band 1, at least. For last year, students
had no exam for English subject. However, this year they have
exam. The benefit from this type
of assessment is that teachers can take their own time to teach
the students according to the
students' levels because there is no exam. However, the weakness
of the system is that, students
will neglect their study for English language subject because
there are no exam. Teachers areprovided with formal training before
this new SBA is implemented like how to give worksheets
according to their levels and how to handle the class. The
worksheets for different classes are
different. Teachers get the worksheets from different sources.
The students from the weak class
do not bother with the new system but the good class are very
troubled with the system because
they cannot prove how good they are. This year the students are
given exam and they are very
happy. But we did not reveal the marks of the exam to the
students. The marks of the exam are
used by teachers to classify the students according to their
level. Every time the teachers have an
activity or a task, teachers will let them know the band and how
they can achieve the band
through the task given. Teachers have to write that down first.
The problem the teachers face in
SBA is that students hardly understand that even there is no
exam, they should study the subjectas well. The seriousness of
students are not there when they are not tested with exam. In
her
opinion, she feels that if the students do not know where they
have achieved, giving them a lot of
worksheets will not help them. The doubts of teachers being bias
is not seen as a negative effect
because she thinks that teachers will definitely value their
students more and thus should view
this at a positive site. Parents are still not clear about SBA
now even though they have came to
ask about it and the teachers have explained about it to
them.
8/10/2019 An interview in SBA
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Puan Tan
SBA is assessment done by teachers in their school. It is good
because teachers are the
best person to decide how to evaluate their students as they
know their students well and thuscarrying out assessment and
evaluate students based on their students' level is something
better
and suitable. For example, teachers can have observation when
they give tasks to students.
Teachers teach the students the item that the teachers want to
test before the evaluation is carried
out, in a same period of class or in a different period of
class, depending on the item the teachers
want to assess the students. Students are tested individually or
in a group. The assessments are
very flexible, that is, teachers are able to modify the
assessment according to the students' level.
In other words, not all students in a same class are going to
have the same assessment. This is
also an effort to help weaker students to get at least band 1 in
the assessment. Teachers can also
slot in an assessment during a class. The assessments are not
following the order of the band and
students who have already get their band can still participate
in the similar assessment. Thestrength of SBA is that students can
be assessed more accurately by teachers because their
teachers know them well and are able to give them the suitable
assessments. Besides that,
teachers, parents and students can understand the proficiency of
the students in the language
because the reports and bands are given according to their
ability to communicate in the
language. For example, if a student get band 1 in speaking test,
we at least know that he can
describe himself in public occasions and this is his level.
Compared to the old system, if a
student get 10 marks out of 100, we only know he is weak but we
do not know who proficient
the student is and which level is he, "we don't know what he can
do?". The cons of SBA is very
time consuming. This is because teachers give the band to
students according to the evidences, it
is already simplified now though, teachers still need to have
plenty tasks and activities in order to
make sure the students get at least band 1 and so on. In the new
system, PT3, students are now
given written and oral examination. These new evaluating
systems, PBS and PT3 however add
work load for teachers. Teachers also have to attend seminars
and trainings to be briefed on the
new systems. Students are fine with the systems and parents are
given explanations on school
open days. Teachers are trained to create questions to assess
their students however some
teachers also adapt the questions from the books in the market.
In the previous assessment
method, PMR, which is a public examination, teachers can drill
their students without teaching
the students according to the syllabus because teachers are
familiar with the types of questions
that will be coming out in different sections of English papers
in PMR. Nevertheless, teachersare not able to do so now because
they have to design an assessment method to assess their
students according to the syllabus and teach the students
according to the syllabus as well before
testing them. The SBA cannot avoid the situation where the
teachers want to be bias when
grading their students and it is only depends on the integrity
of the teachers. Nevertheless,
teachers are to grade and to award bands to students according
the descriptors with evidences.
Students must be able to complete all the tasks in the
descriptors in the respective band in order
