Contributions from: M. Csapo and L. Mak
Abstract
The recently established Special Education Unit has been developing the skills of specially chosen teachers to enable them to operate as Learning Assistance Teachers, who will provide specialist support to teachers and specialist remedial teaching where necessary to individuals and small groups. In addition, it has set up the Special Education Pilot Project designed to improve the performance of lower primary pupils in the basic skill areas of Malay, Mathematics and English. The specific aims of the project were : 1) to create a learning environment which increases the likelihood of success and achievement of pupils throughout the ability range thereby preventing learner frustration and failure, 2) to identify the special needs of all learners 3) to design and implement individualised educational plans for learners with special needs 4) to lay a solid foundation in the basic skill areas for all pupils, and 5) to set up school based teams.
This paper reports on the first year of this longitudinal project comparing the academic achievement of a 442 year two primary pupils, one half of which continued to be taught by traditional 'chalk and talk' methods in the Control schools while the other half received a more pupil centred approach with individualised instruction where required with the assistance of the Learning Assistance Teachers in the Experimental schools. The teachers involved in the Experimental classes were provided with workshop training prior to the start of the study by the Special Education Unit of the Ministry of Education and continuing support throughout the programme. Pre and post tests of achievement at a year interval in three aspects of Malay (comprehension, decoding and running record) , two aspects of mathematics (mental and computation) and English demonstrated a significantly higher level of performance across all three subjects by the experimental group ( p<.001 in all cases). Mental mathematics revealed a drop in achievement by the control schools between pre and post test (p<.001).
This study shows that for the cost of a training programme in pupil centred methods and continuing professional support, achievement ;levels among a full range of pupil ability can be increased significantly. Later data from succeeding years will enable the changes occurring over a longer period of time to be charted.
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