Incorporating Assessment Moderation in the Malaysian Classroom-Based Assessment (CBA) Teacher Training Module

Abstract

With the urgent need to improvise the specialised training to teachers to ensure competency in implementing changes that are introduced for Classroombased assessment (CBA) in Malaysia, this paper examines the gap that is present in the teacher training curriculum in the current nationwide movement. To address the underlying problem in relation to issues of the inconsistency in CBA and students' Performance Level Report, this report investigated the feasibility of the curriculum of the in-service teacher training programme that teachers undergo in conjunction with the implementation of the CBA reform, which is the CBA Teacher Training Programme. Employing the problem-solving approach in developing a curriculum, it identifies the problem and proposes an additional standalone module focusing on assessment moderation to be incorporated in the CBA Teacher Training Module, as potential solution to minimise the inconsistencies in CBA to improve the quality of assessment developed and implemented by teachers and to support them in the radical shift towards heightened accountability and greater transparency in assessments that lie on their shoulders. This paper also contributes to the understanding of ways assessment moderation can be applied in the designing assessment tasks to ensure validity and also in the process of judgement after an assessment task is carried out to ensure reliability and transparency of the students' Performance Level Report.