BOOSTS PERFORMANCE

and crafting a remarkable school impression and surroundings.

In such a school, students will be motivated and more likely to score higher achievements in classroom assessments, centralised assessments and internationally through TIMSS and Pisa.

Grouping students according to academic abilities or streaming is prevalent in most Malaysian schools. Streaming has been identified by International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA), the organisation which conducts TIMSS, as one of the factors that causes low scores in TIMSS.

IEA chose classrooms at random as samples to undergo TIMSS. Results showed that for Malaysia, the range between high-scoring students and students with low scores was wide.

The results were consistent with literature, which showed the effect of streaming in broadening the disparity between the achievements of high-scoring students and ones with low scores academically and co-curricular-wise.

Streaming could be replaced by “loose streaming”, where students with diverse abilities are placed in the same classroom, and under-performing students are assisted. Loose streaming integrates students of various academic levels, hence enabling group dynamics to occur effectually in the classrooms.

Literature supports the effectiveness of peer learning and peer support to raise students’ attentiveness and to increase performance.

ABIM considers this development to have the potential in shifting the paradigm of Malaysian education to leap further ahead, while taking into consideration the space and time needed to make the necessary management changes at all levels. We have to move beyond existing comfort zones to attain the best schools and provide great education for everyone.