Abstract

Most Malaysian secondary schools practice ability grouping or streaming, where students are placed together in a classroom based on their academic performance. These students need to sit for two important public examinations at the secondary school level. This results in the school system putting much emphasis on examinations and pose problems for teachers teaching weak classes. This paper aims to discuss various aspects of the lower streamed classrooms in terms of the teaching approaches and problems their teachers face teaching them. Teachers’ practices and problems are investigated through their report of their problems and teaching approaches. This study employs the survey research method involving 28 schools identified as at-risk by the State Department of Education. Approximately 1,025 Form Two students placed in two lowest streamed classes and 151 teachers teaching the core subjects were purposively sampled. Data were analyzed descriptively. The findings of the study showed that teachers’ teaching approaches are influenced by their perception of their students’ needs, abilities, behavior and the needs of the examination system. The findings suggest that while teachers are aware of interesting and effective pedagogical approaches for these students they find it difficult to practice them due to the lack of learning skills of the students, the passive and sometimes disruptive classroom conditions, and the preoccupation with covering the wide syllabus and the standardized public examinations. Teachers’ teaching approaches generally involve drills, note taking and memorization of facts and less effort are expended at increasing learning as well as thinking skills of these students. The findings suggest that the lack of flexibility in the education system does not auger well with the education of struggling students. The standardized examinations, the low abilities of the students not rectified by early intervention programs and the learning environment of the weak classes make teachers’ work difficult. This means that the present streaming practices, early intervention programs and the standardized examinations policies need to be regarded as problematic and to be reassessed in order that teachers in secondary schools can serve their students better.