Abstract

The first printed overhead transparency was published in 1996, and was used as a teaching aid in the Malaysia secondary schools. Since its initial publication, printed overhead transparencies were widely used by the teachers in many subjects, especially sciences, mathematics and arts. An initial need study, conducted in 1999 on a group of secondary school teachers (n=25) from the Petaling District revealed that most of the teachers preferred printed overhead transparencies to charts as a useful teaching aid because they are user friendly, show teaching contents attractively, help raise teacher and learner motivation, and save teachers preparation time. However, the implementation of a requirement to teach mathematics and science subjects in the English language in the government schools starting 2003 has causing a big change in the Malaysian education system. The teachers were provided Laptop and ICT format teaching materials, and the emphasis is now placed on ICT based teaching and learning methods. Based on the change, this second need study was conducted to identify the uses of printed overhead transparencies in secondary school classroom teaching twelve years after it was first introduced. The results indicated that majority of the teachers (n=36) still prefer using printed overhead transparency as a user friendly and worthwhile teaching aid. The finding reveals that despite the changes in the Malaysian education system, printed overhead transparency is still a preferred teaching aid of the secondary school teachers.