Maximizing national productivity through nurturing individual growth is a primary concern of developing nations like Malaysia. One corollary of this concern is the need to detect failing and 'at risk' pupils so that correct and timely intervention can be given to them. The primary purpose of this study is (1) to contribute to this by finding out and critically evaluating the existing system of monitoring poor performance and providing remedial treatment (2) to use the data gathered to build a checklist for preliminary identification and categorization of 'poor learners' and finally (3) to use the factors included in the checklist to develop a simple, useful and convenient mathematical model that can be used to predict 'at risk' pupils in Malaysian primary schools. In order to address the above research issues, an in-depth study of four Malaysian primary schools was carried out. The research was conducted in two stages. During the preliminary stage, the researcher used interviews, questionnaires, and document study to obtain, from school administration and teachers, information on the larger issues of the educational infrastructure. A sample of pupils' academic performance data was also done. The second stage of the study comprised of (1) a descriptive statistical analysis of survey data obtained via the teacher, pupil, and parent questionnaires (2) an inferential statistical analysis of the more pertinent survey data in relationship to pupils' performance in school-based assessments over three years covering Standards 4, 5, and 6 of their upper primary education, as well as in the standardized national Primary School Assessment Test. The study found that most "poor learners" are self-professed monolingual boys of Malay ethnicity from low socioeconomic family backgrounds, who have particular attitudes towards learning. Two main products resulted from this study: a checklist that characterizes the poor learners and a logistic regression model, which uses a mathematical equation to predict 'at risk' pupils.

This study is set in the context of an increasing awareness of the need for and importance of quality play learning experience for pre-school children owing to its crucial role and great contributions to various aspects of child development. The main aim of this study is to examine teachers' and parents' perspectives on play and their understanding of the role of play in relation to children's learning particularly in pre­school practice. Teachers' perceptions of play were described and analysed with respect to their definition of play, roles and values of play in relation to children's learning, and the use of play in teaching. Parents' understandings of the concept of play were examined through their perception on play as pedagogical tools and their preference for pre-school learning activities. The findings of the study imply that: (i) There was a mismatch between teachers' understanding of the word play in child development and play in relation to educational program of the children. (ii) Only few parents considered play to be the appropriate way of children's learning. Most of them preferred a formal learning environment for their children's pre-school activities. (iii) Play activities tended not to provide learning experiences of acceptable quality in most of the settings and many pre-school teachers taught children in a very formal way. (iv) There was no evidence of systematic differences between the philosophy and type of settings in respect to play understanding. The differences are the level of the teachers' knowledge, professional training and academic qualifications. (v) Mainly there were four main factors concluded as impeding the progress of deploying play in Malaysian pre-school practice: conceptual barriers, attitudinal barriers, structural barriers and functional barriers. As a result of the findings, some implications have been advocated concerning the need for rethinking the practice in Malaysian pre-schools for improving the approach to educating young children by giving play its central role in children's learning and free from academic stress.