SCHOOL-BASED ASSESSMENT PRACTICES IN

PRIMARY ISLAMIC EDUCATION: A CASE STUDY

BY

NORHASANIAH BINTI AHMAD

A dissertation submitted in fulfilment of the requirement for

the degree of Master of Education

Kulliyyah of Education

International Islamic University Malaysia

FEBRUARY 2015

ii

ABSTRACT

Malaysian education today is facing the problems and shortcomings of school-based

assessment (SBA). Various studies have been done by researchers in their areas of

expertise to examine and analyze the effectiveness of SBA to assess students.

Although many studies have been done, the problems have become critical that the

teachers are not mincing their words anymore and are showing their dissatisfaction

over SBA’s implementation. In this study, the researcher examines teachers’ views on

the practice of SBA in the subject of Islamic Education. In addition, the study also

explores the challenges faced by Islamic Education teachers during SBA’s

implementation process as well as examine whether or not SBA influences the

development of students’ learning. The study also endeavors to provide

recommendations and suggestions in assessing Islamic studies. A qualitative case

study was conducted to explore teachers’ practice of SBA in selected primary school.

Semi- structured interview were held with three Islamic Education teachers regarding

the way they implement SBA in the subject of Islamic Education. The finding

revealed that the respondents had positive views on the meaning of school-based

assessment and its objectives. However, with regards to the implementation, they were

not really happy and satisfied with it since it led to a decrease in the students’

performance. Likewise, the result also discovered several issues and challenges faced

by the teachers involved in the process of SBA including time constraint, too many

topics to be covered, high expectation of band achievement, and the issue of integrity.

In addition, respondents claimed that SBA did not seem to contribute more to the

development of students’ learning in terms of their academics and attitudes. This

study recommends future researches to expand the scope of the study which might

enhance its validity.

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(School-based

assessment .)

(Semi structured interview)

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APPROVAL PAGE

I certify that I have supervised and read this study and that in my opinion, it conforms

to acceptable standards of scholarly presentation and is fully adequate, in scope and

quality, as a dissertation for the degree of Master of Education.

I certify that I have read this study and that in my opinion, it conforms to acceptable

standards of scholarly presentation and is fully adequate, in scope and reality, as a

dissertation for the degree of Master of Education.

…………………………………………

Rosnani Hashim

Examiner

This dissertation was submitted to the Department of Curriculum and Instruction and

is accepted as fulfilment of the requirement for the degree of Master of Education.

…………………………………………

Rosemaliza Mohd Kamalludeen

Head, Department of Curriculum and

Instruction

This dissertation was submitted to the Kulliyyah of Education and is accepted as a

fulfilment of the requirement for the degree of Master of Education (The Teaching of

Islamic Education).

…………………………………………

Nik Ahmad Hisham Ismail

Dean, Kulliyyah of Education

…………………………………………

Adnan Abd. Rashid

Supervisor

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DECLARATION

I hereby declare that this dissertation is the result of my own investigation, except

where otherwise stated. I also declare that it has not been previously or concurrently

submitted as a whole for any other degrees at IIUM or other institutions.

Norhasaniah Binti Ahmad

Signature……………………………. Date………………………

vi

INTERNATIONAL ISLAMIC UNIVERSITY MALAYSIA

DECLARATION OF COPYRIGHT AND

AFFIRMATION OF FAIR USE OF UNPUBLISHED

RESEARCH

Copyright © 2015 by International Islamic University Malaysia. All rights

reserved.

SCHOOL-BASED ASSESSMENT PRACTICES IN

PRIMARY/SECONDARY ISLAMIC EDUCATION: A CASE STUDY

I hereby affirm that the International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM) holds all

rights in the copyright of this work, and henceforth any reproduction or use in any

form or any means whatsoever is prohibited without the written consent of IIUM.

No part of this unpublished research may be reproduced, stored in retrieved

system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical,

photocopying, recording or otherwise without prior written permission of the

copyright holder.

Affirmed by Norhasaniah Binti Ahmad.

………………………. …………………...

Signature Date

vii

“Specially dedicated to my beloved parents; Ahmad bin Saad and Kamariah binti

Bakar and my whole beloved family. Thanks for everything…”

viii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

IN THE NAME OF ALLAH, THE MOST BENEFICENT AND MERCIFUL

Alhamdulillah, all praise be to Allah SWT, who has endowed me with His Grace and

Mercy, for giving me the chance, the wonderful experience, the strength and the good

health to accomplish this study.

First, I am highly indebted to my supervisor, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Adnan Abdul

Rashid for his continuous guidance, understanding, encouragement and inspiration to

me to undertake this study. A huge pleasure for all the opportunities that he opened

up for me and through a lot of his enthusiastic hard works, commitments, motivations,

patience and discussions helped me shape this study to its final form.

I would like to express highest appreciation and gratitude to my beloved

parents, Ahmad bin Saad and Kamariah binti Bakar for their continuous dua’, support

and encouragement. Thank you for your love, patience, sacrifice and understanding.

To my beloved siblings, Siti Akmar, Mohd Shahril Anuar, Noor Hanani, Mohd Harif,

Mohd Syamim and Nurul Shazrina, thank you for giving me your support and

encouragement to complete this study. Deep in my heart, I am really appreciated to

have you all as my siblings to support me to succeed in all my undertakings.

A special acknowledgement and thanks to my all lecturers, administrative

staffs, friends, and others whom I am indebted to directly and indirectly helped in

completing this study.

Last but not least, I would like to extend my gratitude and heartiest thanks

again to all who willingly lend me a hand in completing this significant study. May

Allah bless all of you and may Allah grant all of us Jannah. Ameen.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Abstract ...................................................................................................................... ii

Abstract in Arabic ...................................................................................................... iii

Approval Page ............................................................................................................ iv

Declaration Page ........................................................................................................ v

Copyright Page ........................................................................................................... vi

Dedication .................................................................................................................. vii

Acknowledgements .................................................................................................... viii

List of Tables ............................................................................................................. xii

List of Figures ............................................................................................................ xiii

CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION ................................................................... 1

Introduction..................................................................................................... 1

Background of the Study ................................................................................ 1

The Concept of Education and Knowledge in Islam ...................................... 2

The Concept of Assessment in Educational Context ...................................... 5

Formative Assessment ............................................................................ 7

Summative Assessment ........................................................................... 8

Statement of the Problem................................................................................ 9

Objectives of the Study ................................................................................... 10

Research Questions ......................................................................................... 11

Significance of the Study ................................................................................ 11

Limitation of the Study ................................................................................... 12

Definition of the Terms .................................................................................. 12

Summary ......................................................................................................... 13

CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW ....................................................... 14

Introduction..................................................................................................... 14

The Concept of Islamic Education ................................................................. 14

Nature of Man ......................................................................................... 14

Definition of Islamic Education .............................................................. 15

Aims of Islamic Education ...................................................................... 16

The Development of Islamic Education in Malaysia ..................................... 18

The Quranic Education ........................................................................... 18

The Pondok Education ............................................................................ 19

The Madrasah Education ........................................................................ 19

The Present Islamic Education ................................................................ 20

Nature of Assessment ..................................................................................... 21

Primary School Integrated Curriculum (KBSR) vs. Primary School

Standard Curriculum (KSSR) ................................................................ 22

School-Based Assessment (SBA) ........................................................... 24

School-Based Assessment (SBA) in Malaysian Schooling .................... 24

Teachers’ Perspective of SBA ................................................................ 29

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The Challenges of Implementing School-Based Assessment (SBA) in

Schools ............................................................................................................ 31

The Challenges Faced by Teachers in Implementing School-Based

Assessment (SBA) .......................................................................................... 32

Roles of Teachers in School-Based Assessment (SBA) ................................. 33

Facilitator ................................................................................................ 34

Motivator ................................................................................................. 36

School-Based Assessment (SBA) and the Progress of Students’ Learning ... 38

Summary ......................................................................................................... 39

CHAPTER THREE: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ...................................... 40

Introduction..................................................................................................... 40

Research Design ............................................................................................. 40

Subjects of the Study ...................................................................................... 42

Research Instrument ....................................................................................... 43

Interview ................................................................................................. 43

Document Analysis ................................................................................. 44

Validity and Reliability................................................................................... 45

Pilot Study ............................................................................................... 46

Data Collection and Procedure ....................................................................... 46

Gaining Access to Research Site............................................................. 46

Conducting Interview .............................................................................. 47

Data Analysis .................................................................................................. 48

Coding ..................................................................................................... 49

Summary ......................................................................................................... 50

CHAPTER FOUR: DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS .................................. 51

Introduction..................................................................................................... 51

Demographic Background of Respondents .................................................... 51

Qualitative Findings........................................................................................ 52

The Views of Islamic Education Teachers on School-Based Assessment

(SBA) ...................................................................................................... 53

The Challenges Faced by the Islamic Education Teachers in Implementing

School-Based Assessment (SBA) ........................................................... 60

The Influences of School-Based Assessment (SBA) in Students’

Learning Development ............................................................................ 65

Summary ......................................................................................................... 68

CHAPTER FIVE: DISCUSSION, RECOMMENDATIONS AND

CONCLUSION ........................................................................................................ 70

Introduction..................................................................................................... 70

Discussion of Major Findings ......................................................................... 70

Recommendations........................................................................................... 76

Conclusion ...................................................................................................... 78

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REFERENCES ......................................................................................................... 79

APPENDIX A: PERMISSION LETTER TO COLLECT DATA ............................. 85

APPENDIX B: INTERVIEW PROTOCOL .............................................................. 86

APPENDIX C: INTERVIEW QUESTIONS ............................................................. 87

APPENDIX D: TRANSCRIPTION OF INTERVIEW (RESPONDENT 1) ............ 89

APPENDIX E: TRANSCRIPTION OF INTERVIEW (RESPONDENT 2) ............. 102

APPENDIX F: TRANSCRIPTION OF INTERVIEW (RESPONDENT 3) ............. 113

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LIST OF TABLES

Table No. Page No.

2.1 Outline of Performance Standard 28

3.1 Characteristic of the Respondents 43

xiii

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure No. Page No.

2.1 The Academic and Non-academic Elements of SBA 27

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CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

INTRODUCTION

This chapter describes the overview and objectives of the study. The researcher begins

the chapter with an explanation of the concept of knowledge and education in Islam,

followed by the concept of assessment in the educational context. Then, the researcher

also explains the statement of problem with relevant research questions, the

significance and limitations of the study, and defines the terms involved in the study.

BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

The value of an educational system in today’s globalized world is significantly and

rapidly improving. It seems to become more disquieting in nature compared to the

previous quality of education. Fulfilling the demand of human capital development

depends on the lifelong quality of education. The crucial development in education in

the 21st century which involves a shift in the way of assessing students is the intensity

to produce students with the ability to have creative and critical thinking skills rather

than simply aim at getting good grades, (Song & Koh, 2010; Hammond & Bransford,

2005). In line with education, the great reallocation of assessment is applied by

several countries all over the world such as USA, Finland, New Zealand, Australia,

Hong Kong and Japan (Aidarwati & Abdul Ghani, 2013; Faizah, 2011).

Reformation in education has been made in many aspects including the

assessment system. The assessment system have changed focus away from assessing

students minimal skills to emphasizing on high standards in skills areas that are

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needed for success in today’s technological advanced society (Owolabi, Aletan &

Ogunjimi, 2010). Basically, assessment plays an important function in every sector to

maintain its quality. Also in education, assessment is vital regardless of its forms, to

be assessed either formatively or summatively. In general, the purpose of assessment

is to obtain the outcomes of pedagogy and students’ learning. Meanwhile, for the

farther understanding of its purpose is that also in the attempt to acquire the specified

values from the students resulted from the teaching and learning process. Some

countries ultimately emphasize the assessment of learning same as Malaysia

previously which underlying standardized tests. The emphasis on standardized test

limits students’ critical thinking ability.

Nonetheless, Malaysian education system is recently concerned with the

implementation of learning assessment to change students’ attitudes from learning for

the purpose of examination toward learning how to learn, think critically and to

analyze and make inferences. Consequently, the curriculum of education was changed

from Integrated Curriculum for Primary Schools (KBSR) to Standard Curriculum for

Primary School (KSSR), which the underlying school-based assessment as a method

of assessing students’ learning. Thus, this study attempts to explore how School-

Based Assessment is practiced, especially in the subject of Islamic Education in order

to produce the critical and creative students.

THE CONCEPT OF KNOWLEGDE AND EDUCATION IN ISLAM

Knowledge and education are important in Islam, by which one is able to discern

Muslim and non-Muslim in each facet of life. In Islam, knowledge broadens Muslims

where their ways of life comply with Islamic values and teachings (Ahmad Munawar

3

et al., 2012). According to Islamic principles, seeking knowledge is important for

every human being as elucidated in a hadith (Ghazi, 1968):

Anas reported that God’s messenger (s.a.w) said: “The pursuit of

knowledge is an obligation on every Muslim.” (Ibn Majah and Baihaqi)

Abu Hasan ‘Ali Ibn Muhammad Al-Qabisi (1983) also asserted that the

obligation of educating the children should be fulfilled by every individual.

Meanwhile, knowledge is divided into two categories, revealed knowledge and

acquired knowledge. The worldview of revealed knowledge is unalterable because it

depends on both primary sources: the Quran and the Sunnah, whereas acquired

knowledge such as sciences, economic, philosophy, politic, psychology, and sociology

is changeable due to the fact that it is learned within human’s logical thoughts

(Muhammad Fazril, 2011).

Realizing the importance of knowledge, Muslim should not abandon the

importance of seeking knowledge of Islamic doctrines. According to Mahama (2011,

as cited in Rusdee, 2013, p. 2), Islamic value is the most important matter in a

Muslim’s life as it is an immunity to block alien thoughts. Accordingly, Islamic

Education is a subject taught in Malaysian schools, in both primary and secondary

levels and the Islamic ideals and values in tertiary education. Ab. Halim (2007)

claimed that the significance of Islamic Education as one of the subjects taught fulfill

the basic knowledge and teaching of Islam for Muslim children. Since today’s social

challenges influence the strength of the Islamic teaching, the question on “how is

Islamic Education taught to Muslim students?” is often raised. Is it being explained or

being memorized?

In view of the fact that the ultimate aim of education is to produce a “good”

person with a balanced and integrated personality as stated by Ashraf (1993), issues in

4

Islamic Education subject such as teaching methodology, grading system and

implementation procedure must be overcomed to prevent social dilemmas from

occuring among Muslim children. This is important to realize the aspiration of the aim

of Islamic Education as stated below:

The aim of Islamic Education is to produce Muslims who are

knowledgeable, devoted, pious, well-mannered and who also have

virtuous characteristics based on Al-Quran and As-Sunnah to become

the righteous servants and vicegerents of Allah and contribute to

civilization of race and nation. (Kementerian Pendidikan Malaysia,

2002, p.2)

As a result, since 1983, many changes have been made by the Ministry of

Education (MOE) to meet the reality including the implementation of Integrated

Curriculum for Primary Schools (KBSR), in which Islamic Education is one of many

taught subjects taught. It aimed at producing an individual who is balanced in the

physical, spiritual, emotional and intellectual aspects, highlighting the development of

three basic skills in students, which were reading, writing and arithmetic skills

(Rosnani, 1996). Later on, MOE implemented the Integrated Curriculum for

Secondary Schools (KBSM) in accordance with KBSR in order to produce a holistic

individual in all aspects, emphasizing on an integrated manner based on the Quran and

Sunnah.

In both curricula, students are taught about ethics and noble values and were

basically reminded in all subjects, especially in Islamic Education. With regard to the

assessment, the students were evaluated through the standard public examinations,

which are UPSR (Primary School Public Examination), PMR (Lower Secondary

Assessment), and SPM (Malaysian Certificate of Education). Although school is an

educational institution that develops students’ talents, skills and ethics, some criteria

for students’ learning cannot be simply assessed during common examinations only. A

5

lengthy teaching hours and a wide syllabus that is tested in the examination hall is not

sufficient to assess the students’ understanding. Thus, MOE introduced new policies

in the curricula, Standard Curriculum for Primary School (KSSR) and Standard

Curriculum for Secondary School (KSSM), which are appropriate for assessing

students via School-Based Assessment (SBA). Using SBA, students can be tested

from time to time. SBA is a component in the assessment, which is conducted by the

school, and the assessment is carried out by the teachers of the subjects continuously

during the process of teaching and learning (LPM, 2009).

THE CONCEPT OF ASSESSMENT IN EDUCATIONAL CONTEXT

Assessment is an important element in the teaching and learning process which is able

to determine the school students attend and the subjects they take (Kerry, 2013). It is

performed either in the form of summative or formative assessment. The term

“assessment” in the educational context is used interchangeably with “evaluation”,

“educational measurement”, “testing”, and “examination” (Umar, 2005 as cited in

Suseela & Sim, 2010, p. 1171). According to Bartlett et al. (2003, p. 2), “assessment is

used in many ways in education. A significant amount of attention is now given to its

use in helping teaching and learning, which is described as assessment for learning

(afl) or formative assessment”. Basically, as the assessment for learning has been

executed by other developed countries like USA, Hong Kong, Japan, and New

Zealand, serious issues concerning the changes from summative to formative

assessment in Malaysian education have been debated (Aidarwati & Abdul Ghani,

2013). Thus, in the context of Malaysian education, the government has reformed the

national education system to suit the world’s speedy changes. The changes are an

attempt to equip the students with the ability to face the disputes and challenges in

6

improving the human capital development, especially in fulfilling the requirements of

employment.

The abovementioned change in the assessment system is called the School-

Based Assessment (SBA). It is an assessment method designed by the Malaysian

Examination Board (LPM), which is planned, administered, scored and reported by

the schools. LPM provides the instruments including standards, criteria, guidelines,

rules and implementation of SBA. SBA is aimed at allowing candidates to measure

the level of knowledge, skills and value against the criteria set out in the evaluated

subjects. This method improves the performance of the candidate himself along

assessment throughout the year (LPM, 2011). As part of the assessment, tests are

conducted on an ongoing basis based on the chapters delivered within the specified

teaching time and learning take place. Teachers score the tests based on the

predetermined criteria. Improvements are made by the teacher if a student does not

perform in every evaluation. Students are asked to repeat the test that they failed or

not achieved the points.

This newly introduced SBA also known as PBS (in Malay), was introduced in

2011, and it transformes from the paper-pencil examination to a more holistic

assessment. Students do not have to rely too much on the common public

examination; rather they are assessed through their learning abilities throughout the

learning process. This system also promotes greater responsibilities from the teachers

as stated by Azlin Norhaini et al. (2013) in improving the approaches of assessing

students as they engage in the taught subject, in line with the requirements of that

subject, concerning the knowledge and skills, which was also agreed by Faizah (2011)

when she emphasized on the empowerment given to the teachers by the Teacher

Education Department, Ministry of Education, 2007. She said “…the empowerment

7

also comes with the requirement of sufficient knowledge and skills in using various

informal methods of testing and psychometric testing such as diagnostic general

abilities, and aptitude test” ( Faizah, 2011, p. 2).

Since school-based assessment has been implemented in Malaysian education

system, various researches were conducted to investigate the effectiveness of SBA by

the experts in several areas. The number of documented studies have examined quite a

number of aspects of SBA on teachers’ perspectives, perceptions, readiness, attitudes,

beliefs, concerns and others, such as in the study of Faizah (2011), Shanusi (2007),

Begum and Farooqui (2008), Adediwura (2012), Malakolunthu and Sim (2010).

However, the studies mentioned were more focused on subjects like Mathematics,

English and certain practical subjects. Thus, the researcher in this study intends to

provide significant information on SBA in the subject of Islamic Education as a

pioneer study in this field.

Formative assessment

Many researchers view the formative assessment differently when they described it as:

“Formative assessment or assessment for learning can be used to

facilitate learning by providing students with the opportunities to judge

their own work and learning progress based on feedback to various

kinds of teacher-made tests and performance tasks such as student

portfolios” (Song & Koh, 2010, p. 2)

“Formative assessment is expected to encourage the motivational beliefs

hypothesized to promote conceptual change, such as task goal

orientation, incremental intelligence beliefs, self-efficacy, and interest”

(Yue et al., 2008, p. 340)

“Formative assessment, which can be thought of as comprising forms of

students evaluation carried out to monitor progress with a view, where

appropriate, to altering the final outcomes….” (Nuttall, 1986, pp. 7-8)

8

In order to assess students, the teachers carry out formal and informal forms of

formative assessment in their classrooms. It is a process in which the teachers and

students share and gather around the evidence in order to develop the learning.

Normally, the students are assessed formally through quizzes, projects, assignments,

performances and tests and indirectly evaluated via the teachers’ observations as well

as their participations in the classroom as part of informal formative assessment.

Unlike summative assessment, its format is less exam-oriented and it assesses students

throughout the learning process. As a school-based assessment used to assess students

indirectly, it includes the academic and non-academic components pertaining to

students’ abilities in both; knowledge and skills.

Summative assessment

Generally, when students engage in a learning process, they have to be assessed to

measure their understanding of certain knowledge. Many countries around the world

use summative assessment to assess their students. The students are assessed at the

end of the learning process to evaluate the learning outcomes and the most

significantly assessed concerning their level of achievement and competence. Nuttall

(1986, p.7) agreed since he described the summative assessment as “(an) assessment

of the outcomes of education for purposes of reporting or certification, dominates the

educational psyche of assessment”.

Normally, for this purpose, the paper-pencil based examination is used, which

is exam-oriented. The assessment is summative when the students are assessed

purposely within a certain period to verify how much they have learned on a certain

subject in the classroom. At the summative level, the assessment is based entirely on

the examination result to determine the achievement of the students.

9

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

The system of education today seems more complicated with more frequent changes

made. In the recent four years for instance, Malaysian government introduced a new

examination system to be implemented by the public schools to replace the existing

public examination. The particular system is called the school-based assessment,

which attempts to assess and evaluate students’ ability in various aspects. According

to Gardner Multiple Intelligence Theory, students have multiples abilities to be

assessed and evaluated by teachers and they must be evaluated based on certain

standards of learning (Cruickshank, Jenkins & Metcalf, 2009). Kot (as cited in Sieh,

2013), who is a secondary school teacher, agreed when she said “SBA is ideal and

well-intended; as a teacher, I think it should be kept, but only if education authorities

can lower the standards to cater to different students’ abilities”.

Thus, the assessment implemented has to be more authentic and holistic. The

question here relates to the teachers’ knowledge and readiness towards the evaluation

and assessment procedures to be practiced in school. Have all teachers understood the

concept well? Are they fully prepared to implement it at school? Regarding the fact

that school-based assessment is a new assessment method in Malaysian schooling

system, Faizah (2011) asserted that little is known about the concerns of teachers who

are directly engaged in this system implementation. In addition, the ability of the

school-based assessment to measure the whole elements of students’ learning is also

always questionable.

Although the government attempts to improve the quality of education, it was

found in Zakiah’s (2013) and Sieh’s (2013) studies that some teachers kept on

reporting that this assessment system burdens the teachers and they desire for this new

system to be abolished. They also claimed that teachers’ workloads increase from time

10

to time and the performance of the students at the primary and secondary schools is

still unfortunately low because of boredom and weak students’ efforts in the

assessment (Sieh, 2013).

Researchers in the area of school-based assessment also agreed that teachers

have uncertainties in the implementation of this new assessment system (Begum and

Farooqui, 2008; Shanusi, 2007; Adediwura, 2012; Faizah, 2011). Furthermore, the

implementation of school-based assessment also creates additional challenges for

students and parents, who are finding it difficult to cope with this new assessment

system and feeling uncertain in the implementation of school-based assessment

(Zakiah, 2013).

Besides that, researchers have found problems confronting Islamic Education

resulted from the inadequate curriculum, poor facilities and financial support, and

poor administration (Rosnani, 1996; Sahari & Langgulung, 1999). These weaknesses

somehow affect the way teachers assess the students. In addition, the performance of

the students in learning, as revealed by Tan Sri Murad, the President of the Social

Committee, was still weak although they have completed six years of primary schools.

Quite a number of them still cannot read Al-Quran and write in Jawi (Berita Harian,

26 February 2003). Thus, this study is focused on identifying the challenges and

dilemmas, especially in assessing Islamic Education, in attempting to produce students

with high potentials to succeed in life.

OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

This study examined the perspectives of the teachers of Islamic Education on the

implementation of school-based assessment (SBA) and how they face the new

11

assessment system for Islamic Education subject. The objectives of the study were as

follows:

1. To examine the Islamic Education teachers’ views on the implementation

of school-based assessment.

2. To investigate the challenges in implementing school-based assessment in

the subject of Islamic Education.

3. To investigate the influence of school-based assessment in students’

learning development.

RESEARCH QUESTIONS

1. How do primary school Islamic Education teachers view school-based

assessment?

2. What are the challenges faced by the Islamic Education teachers in

implementing the school-based assessment?

3. How does school-based assessment influence the student’ learning

development?

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

This study explores teachers’ views on school-based assessment and their current

practices. The results of this study may assist primary school Islamic Education

teachers and also other instructors, and curriculum developers. The information may

also be useful for the school to develop the assessment guidelines for their respective

teachers, for instance by providing training on the effective method to assess students

which at the same time enables to improve and enhance the quality of primary

education. However, the training for teachers on using this system would only be