School Based AssessmentFinland and England In comparison with Malaysia

By,Yogeshwari ChelliahMurugan Sandaram

Finland Education System

The Finland education system consist of:

• Comprehensive school ( grade 1-9)• Upper secondary school or

vocational school ( grade 10-12)• Higher education ( 3+ 2 years)• Adult education

Finland Assessment• The assessment system of Finland is based

improving instruction, majority of the assessment is formative, used to improve instruction and learning

• Finland has recently received international attention for its students’ high performance in PISA (Kupianinen, Hautamaki, & Karjalainen, 2009)

• Finland’s high scores on the PISA are due to a lack of high stakes testing.

• Finnish students do not take a national, standardized high-stakes test until they matriculate secondary school and then only if they intend to enter higher education

Assessment • Normative assessment takes place in early

comprehensive school - identify students with possible learning disabilities and need for special education support (Kupiainen et al., 2009).

• Students are not placed in different classes by ability level.

• An additional teacher is present in the classroom to assist struggling students (Grubb, 2007).

• Student assessment in Finland takes place in three arenas Within classroom practices, The final comprehensive

assessment Matriculation examination -

criterion for college admission

School Based AssessmentSchool-based assessment (SBA) is an assessment which is embedded in the teaching and learning process. It has a number of important characteristics such as;

• It involves the teacher from the beginning to the end

• It allows for the collection of a number of samples of student performance over a period of time.

• It can be adapted and modified.

• It involves students more actively in the assessment process,

• It allows the teacher to give immediate and constructive feedback to students.

• It stimulates continuous evaluation and adjustment of the teaching and learning programme.

• It is carried out in ordinary classrooms.• It is conducted by the students' own teacher.

Chemistry in Finland

• The purpose of chemistry is to expand the pupil’s knowledge of chemistry and the nature of chemical information and guide the pupil in thinking characteristic of the (natural) sciences

• The pupil progresses from that point: interpretation explanation, description of phenomena, modelling the structure of matter and chemical reactions

with the symbolic language of chemistry.

CORE CONTENT

• Air and Water• Raw Materials and product• Living nature and society

Internal assessment for ChemistryComprehensive Schools

• Students are assessed continuously by their teachers

• This assessment is to detect the students growth and self-assessment.

• The outcomes are reported on at the end of the school year which covers:♦ conduct ♦ schoolwork ♦ knowledge and skills - experiments

Internal assessment• Student’s progress, work skills, and

behaviour are assessed in relation to the objectives defined in the national core curricula of chemistry and local curricula.

• Students’ performances in the subject is not compared to each other.

• Assessment is based on a diversity of evidence.

The advantages• This system does not rank the students

therefore minimize the tension and stress for two parties mainly which are students and teacher

• This assessment system allows the learning process to be done and evaluated according to the designer who is the teacher itself

The problems• Neither schools nor teachers can be

ranked (Simola et al., 2009)

• Finland does not have a system for encouraging high achieving and gifted students within the classroom (Burridge, 2010; Gamerman, 2008)

• Workload for teachers is very high

Comparison• Malaysia’s assessment system is an unique system whereby it

has the national level assessment and also school based assessment.

• The national assessment that is closely monitored by a council known as the lembaga Peperiksaan Malaysia are UPSR,Pt3 and SPM.

• Where else the school based assessment such as the monthly test and PEKA is done in the classroom and evaluated by the teacher them selves. Most of the items and contents of the assessment is selected or designed by the teacher.

Recommendations• There are some elements in the assessment

system in Finland can be absorbed more finely into our Malaysian Chemistry assessment system.

• This includes the normative assessment that is done in early education to identify gifted and problematic students with severe learning disabilities.

• School based assessment should be closely monitored by a council – External moderator

England Education System

School Key Stage School Year Age of Student

Assessment

Primary 1 Reception 4-5 years1 Year 1 5-6 years1 Year 2 6-7 years SAT’s 12 Year 3 7-8 years2 Year 4 8-9 years2 Year 5 9-10 years2 Year 6 10-11 years SAT’s 2

Secondary 3 Year 7 11-12 years3 Year 8 12-13 years3 Year 9 13-14 years SAT’s 34 Year 10 14-15 years4 Year 11 15-16 years GCSE’s

Sixth Form Lower Sixth Year 12 16-17 years AS LevelUpper Sixth Year 13 17-18 years A Level

Chemistry Education in England

• Focusing on A level (equivalent to SPM in Malaysia), Chemistry is a subject choice within 2 years studies and uses 30% of a student’s A level course time.

• Core content:– Atomic structure and periodic table– Structure, bonding and properties of matter– Chemical changes– Energy changes– Rate and extent of chemical changes– Chemical analysis– Chemical and allied industries– Earth and atmospheric sciences

Syllabus Aim• OCR A Level syllabus aim for chemistry is to

encourage the students to:– Develop their interest in, and enthusiasm for

chemistry, including developing an interest in further study and careers in chemistry

– Appreciate how society makes decision about scientific issues and how the sciences contribute to the success of the economy and society

– Develop essential knowledge and understanding of different areas of chemistry and how they relate to each other.

Assessment Aim• To develop abilities and skills that

– Are relevant to the study and practice of chemistry– Are useful in everyday life– Encourage efficient and safe practice– Encourage effective communication

• To develop attitudes relevant to chemistry such as:– Concern for accuracy and precision

objectivity– Integrity– Enquiry– Initiative– inventiveness

Assessment Objectives• The three assessment objectives

in England Chemistry are:– Knowledge with understanding– Handling information and problem

solving– Experimental skills and

investogations

A level Structure

Weightings

The Advantages• This system gives choices to students to choose

their papers or course work instead of written examination

• Gives equal importance for experimental skills and OCR take samples of marked student works for consistency

• Score (Science community representing education) welcomes summative teacher assessment and sample test to monitor national standards

• According to Bew, L. (2011), more than 51% of parents felt that teacher assessment were reasonable and effective

The Problems• Reliability and validity are central in all

types of assessment made by teachers (Diamond, L. 2009)

• Variations in the standards applied by different teachers and failing to reflect important aspects of understanding or skill (Newton, P. 2002)

• Teachers use test questions taken from pupils textbooks etc. instead of developing quality tasks for in-class assessment (Diamond, L. 2009)

Comparison• Malaysia’s assessment system focuses written tests

instead of course works or other forms of assessments

• The trend is being replaced with SBA such as Pt3. But, Majid, F. A. (2011) reported the teacher’s worry about their ability to meet the demand and their role. Hamzah (2009) also found that teacher had difficulties in implementing the SBA

• Weir (1994) noted that teachers have negative feelings towards SBA as it is time-constraint

Recommendations• Faizah (2002) recommended in-service

trainings are much needed in order to address the role of teachers in school based assessments.

• Faizah (2002) also recommended that teachers must be exposed to more workshops and discussions to explore on the SBA objectives and necessities to the modification of existing assessments.

Thank You