Assessment practice in Maldivian schools is currently undergoing change. The new draft Maldivian National Curriculum (Education Development Centre, 2012a) and associated documents aim to align assessment, instruction, and curriculum in an effort to optimize learning conditions for students. The support document entitled _Pedagogy and Assessment Guide a Working Document_ highlights the importance of ensuring a balance between assessment _for_ learning (formative assessment) and assessment _of_ learning (summative assessment). Maldivian teachers, who have traditionally placed emphasis on summative assessment practice, will now be required to enhance their use of formative assessment strategies to help diagnose individual student_s strengths and weaknesses and to support future learning. The focus of this article is to identify formative assessment practices Maldivian students may already be experiencing in the lower primary school grades 1to 3. Keywords: Maldivian Education; Ministry of.....

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Language is a human communication tool and semiotics system, used to convey meaning and express. Similarly, music has its own semiotic set, comparable to that of language, able to evoke specific emotions, sensations without text. Language and music are socially cohesive codes, delineating groups within society and culture, understood by those to whom it _belongs._ As language is a social cohesive, defining social groups can be achieved through different musical systems, for example, Malaysian and Western music. As language is dynamic, adjusting to contemporary conditions and technologies, music appears to be undergoing similar adaptation. Audio is compressed for headphone reproduction and MP3 and this reduction in the sonic is changing the aesthetic of what is considered _ideal_. We shall suggest that there is a similar reductive quality in the content of music that may be compared to the shorthand language of the SMS. Key words: Language; music; semiotics system...

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The purpose of this research was to identify the level of higher order thinking skills among lower secondary students in Malaysia. A higher order thinking skills test was modified and distributed to 384 students throughout the whole country to assess their higher order thinking skills levels. The results showed that higher order thinking skills levels among the students were at very low level. The findings also revealed that there was a low positive significant relationship between the higher order thinking skills and academic result, r = 0.468, p < 0.05. In addition, the results indicated that there was a significant difference in Living Skills subject results on the higher order thinking skills. The authors proposed a new approach by using a specialised instructional module for individualised learning to deliver the thinking skills learning task. Key words: Higher order thinking skills; Bloom_s Taxonomy; Instructional module...

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The study investigated the schools_ experiences on SUHAKAM_s best practices in Human Rights (ATHAM) programme. The aim of the paper was to highlight the best practices of human rights program as experienced by the teachers and students. The views were expressed in terms of the importance of ATHAM objectives, challenges and ways to overcome the challenges. With the cooperation of the Ministry of Education, five schools were selected as the pilot project in 2009. This paper focused on the report of the quantitative results. A total of 798 respondents participated in the survey. There were 148 teachers and 650 students. The findings showed that both teachers and students agreed that the objectives were important. Lack of Time and lack of support in the practice of human rights was found to be the challenges among teachers and students. The results also demonstrated the ways to overcome the challenges were that school stakeholders must practice human rights. Subsequently, T-test was conduc.....

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Four classes of Form One students of four schools in Kinta district, State of Perak, Malaysia participated in a five weeks intervention designed to enhance teaching and learning science with Performancebased Assessment to Enhance Teaching and Learning Science (ForPS) Model. Teachers in intervention classrooms were implemented an assessment approach that incorporated the use of instructions based on curriculum-specifications from Ministry of Education and the performance-based assessment module into individual and classroom instructional planning. During the intervention period, control groups continued to use of instruction based on a curriculum-specifications from Ministry of Education and the use of a memory-based traditional testing procedures adopted by the school, which included the use of the assessment of learning developed by the subject teachers_. Intervention groups demonstrated significant improvements on some dimensions of performance as measured by the Integrated Science P.....

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This article describes the importance of three types of intelligence that should be possessed by teachers to transform themselves towards being _ideal_ teachers. Three types of intelligence to be observed, adapted and applied by teachers to the students and society as a whole is the ability of: Cognitive integration of Intellectual Intelligence (IQ), Emotional Intelligence (EQ) and Spiritual Intelligence (SQ). Combination of these three elements will ensure the success of a teacher to be a capable educator, not only in the classroom and the school environment, but also at wherever the teacher is being situates and interacting. IQ, EQ and SQ will raise the standards of the _perfect_ teacher from an employee to a professional who is faithful to the performance of education, educational effectiveness and continuity of education. In addition, a professional teacher will become the symbol of the nation's education system and a new inspiration to the teaching career. The authors believe that.....

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This paper reports on the growth of the World Association of Lesson Studies (WALS) and the international dialogue that it sustains. In particular, it outlines the features of Learning Study; the hybrid version of Lesson Study developed through a sustained East _ West dialogue of more than a decade, and refers the reader to some of the key publications that have contributed to it. The Variation Theory used in Learning Study in the Asia-Pacific region was developed in Europe from the phenomenographic research approach to learning (Marton and Booth, 1997) to explain the conditions necessary for the design of effective learning situations. Many parallels have since been observed. The Learning Study approach to design is illustrated here and its strengths and challenges identified. Its potential as a teacher action research, professional development strategy is discussed. The intention of this paper is to invite the reader to join the dialogue. Key words: Learning study; Variation Theory; .....

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This study is to track the subject matter knowledge of and misconception about Teaching Games for Understanding (TGfU) of fourth year undergraduate preservice teachers_ physical education majors at an Australian university. The test of reliability on misconception scale are subjected to a Rasch analysis (KR-20 = .52) which consists of 20 dichotomous questions with true/false answers. Analyses of the data reveal that students achieve a credit on subject matter knowledge and attain four misconceptions about TGfU. There is a significant (p < 0.05) difference in the scores for subject matter knowledge and concepts of TGfU through paired samples t test. These results imply that subject matter knowledge does have an effect on students_ concepts of TGfU but with very low relationship (r(53 = .19, p < 0.05). The implication of content knowledge to teaching is to resist the pre-concept or misconception of the subject matter. If pre-service teachers are to improve the quality of teaching and lea.....

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There is widespread concern in Malaysia about the quality of learning experienced by students, and the approach to learning they develop as a consequence. The approach is generally marked by memorization of information as isolated facts and does not promote understanding or long-term retention of knowledge and information. Despite a number of large-scale, centrally-driven reform efforts to change the status quo, they have for the most part met with little success. Based on the data collected as part of a nation-wide study to investigate the way teachers make pedagogical decisions, this paper argues that one major challenge to transform students_ approach to learning is changing the way teachers think about teaching which past reform efforts have largely ignored. The data suggest that the teachers studied mainly see teaching as transmitting information from teacher to the student. In this view of teaching they hold, they focus their attention on the differences between students to expla.....

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This paper consolidates the findings of two studies conducted in Brunei Darussalam on the incidences of bullying among Primary and Secondary school pupils. Students from both Primary and Secondary schools responded to a questionnaire on the incidence of bullying in their school. Results from the studies show that the frequency of the incident of bullying peaked at around secondary one and showed a decline in the upper forms. While the ranking of the types of bullying experienced by students at the different levels of schooling were similar, differences were noted in the ranking of the types of bullying experienced by boys and girls particularly in the primary years. Psychological bullying was more common among girls whereas bullying of a physical nature was more common among boys. The classroom was the place where students_ experienced most bullying and a close friend and parent were the individuals to whom most students would report the incidence of bullying. Some implications for cla.....

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