The aim of this research was to investigate the validity of the aptitude test used by the Ministry of Education Malaysia (MoE) to select bright pupils in Grade Three of the primary school in Malaysia to be promoted directly to Grade Five. It also sought to investigate the validity and consequences of skipping one year of teaching and learning processes at Grade Four. Thirty-three schools in Selangor, Wilayah Persekutuan and Negeri Sembilan provided the sample, which was divided into four parts. The experimental group consisted entirely of Grade Six pupils who had been accelerated from Grade Three to Grade Five. The same grade comparison group consisted of an equal number of Grade Six pupils who had achieved the highest rankings on teacher-made tests. They were one year older than the experimental group. A third group, called the same age comparison group, consisted of an equal number of the highest-ranking pupils in Grade Five who had not been accelerated and so were of the same age as the experimental group. Finally, an equal number of Grade Five pupils of the middle ranks were selected as a norm group. The Primary School Achievement Test (PSAT) results were collected in 1998 for the Grade Six groups and in 1999 for the Grade Five groups. The scores obtained from this test were treated as criterion scores to study the validity and efficiency of the selection test. All groups had taken the selection test except the same grade comparison group which was in Grade Three before the selection test was introduced. In each group, there were 141 pupils. A sub-set of each group (289 in all) were administered the Standard Progressive Matrices (SPM) test in 1998. Owing to its confidentiality, the raw data of the aptitude test was not made available to the researcher. Therefore the evidence used to judge the validity and efficiency of the aptitude test is taken from the results of the PSAT and SPM tests. Theoretically, if the test is valid and the promotion process is efficient, the performance of pupils in the experimental group on both PSAT and SPM should be the same as or better than that of the same grade and the same age comparison groups. The statistical test supports the validity of the aptitude test used to select pupils for double promotion but the treatment given to the accelerated bright pupils results in a drop in PSAT achievement. It is concluded that the promotion process is less than efficient.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:534454 |
| Date | January 2001 |
| Creators | Adimin, Jamil |
| Publisher | University of Manchester |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
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