With the cancellation of PT3, there have been a lot of concerns regarding its abolishment in relation to students’ motivation to study and learn. The entire thing first blew up in a viral Facebook post and followed by several commentaries from all stakeholders in education. Nonetheless, one commentary that caught my attention was by Soffea Rahim, a primary school teacher and an avid writer of the Malaysian education system. Soffea’s comments on UPSR students resonate with my own experience as a secondary school teacher. Therefore, the focus of this blog post is the need for teachers to shift their mind-set away from teaching-to-the-test method and explore different kinds of teaching methods and the manner in which we assess students.

The prevailing argument saying that because PT3 is canceled which will result in students lacking motivation and are indifferent to learning – is a perspective ingrained due to years of practicing the teaching-to-the-test method in an exam-oriented culture. It has come to a point where it is perceived that the only way for students to become motivated to come to school and study is by having a high-stakes exam. I do not deny that some students do see this as a motivation, as in, obtaining good grades which reflect their efforts that they have undertaken to produce such an outcome. It gives them a sense of satisfaction. However, studying for exams is different from learning for the sake of knowledge. From my experience, I have had students, who received satisfactory results for their PT3, telling me that they have forgotten what they have learned after sitting for their PT3 examination. This is the sort of outcome that we want to avoid. It shows a lack of meaningful learning.

Due to this policy change, we teachers need to shift our mindset from viewing high-stakes summative assessments such as PT3 as the only form of assessment available, to exploring different forms of assessment that are out there which can be utilized to check students’ understanding for a particular subject or to assess a subject-specific skill, which can then be used as a reference or evidence for their PBD report. Below are a few assessment ideas (but not limited to) that teachers can implement in their classes:

From my personal experience, the cancellation of PT3 gives me more freedom to organize projects and experiment with various pedagogical methods with my Form 3 students, as opposed to when PT3 was a high-stakes exam. When it was a high-stakes examination, I spent more time drilling them on how to answer the questions based on the exam format. There was a lack of room for creativity, although I did a few attempts on that but it wasn’t a dominant practice. At the end of the day, I would still be applying the-teaching-to-the-test method regularly. With this recent policy change, I decided to diversify my teaching methods.  Currently, I am in the process of organizing a civic awareness project-based learning (PBL) [1] with them. Since I am teaching English, I should be mindful that for these types of projects, they should include language learning components that are aligned with CEFR which will then be used as a reference for their PBD report as well as incorporating the language skills that will then be tested during summative assessment. PBL is one teaching method that would need a lot of commitment from both teachers and students and need quite some time to be completed. Imagine if PT3 is still around, or any sort of high-stakes exam, I think doing PBL will just be done in a hurry and I would not be able to maximize the pedagogical benefits of such a teaching method. Apart from PBL, there are other pedagogical methods that teachers can try such as inquiry-based learning [2] and task-based learning [3]. This does not mean that these methods had not been implemented when PT3 was still around. It just means that we can fully use these methods without having to go back to teaching-to-the-test methods more often.

If one argues that there will be students who won’t be motivated even if these projects or pedagogical methods are implemented in the classroom, if you think about it, for these types of students, isn’t it more or less the same when PT3 was a high-stakes exam? Sometimes there will always be those who are demotivated – it’s not necessarily due to our teaching style, but maybe due to personal problems outside of school. There are certain things that are out of our control and it is best if we only focus on what is feasible for us to do.

Exams are still here, but it’s low-stakes now. It’s now up to us teachers to create a more learning and curiosity-oriented culture in the classroom (and beyond). Examination is still a valid assessment tool but it defeats the real purpose of learning when it is prioritized at the expense of student’s meaningful engagement with the learning material and teacher creativity. With all the prevailing arguments against the abolishment of PT3, I understand that we are trying to adapt and there will be resistance from some of us. But let’s find ways together to make students become motivated and love learning for learning’s sake and not for the sake of exams. Now it’s the time to take advantage of this policy change. 

References:

[1] Efstratia, D. (2014). Experiential education through project based learning. Procedia – Social and Behavioral Sciences, 152, 1256–1260. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2014.09.362 

[2] A teacher’s guide to inquiry-based learning. RSS. (n.d.). Retrieved August 14, 2022, from https://www.structural-learning.com/post/a-teachers-guide-to-inquiry-based-learning 

[3] Willis, J. (2005). A framework for task-based learning. Longman. 

Written by Auzellea Kristin Mozihim