Teachers and Students

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

1.1. General background of the study

According to the Ministry of Education, History will be a must-pass subject in Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) examination from 2013 along with Bahasa Malaysia (The Malaysian Insider October 23, 2010). This is to ensure that students are able to nurture patriotism and loyalty besides strengthening their identity as Malaysians. This means that all the lower form students will go through a relatively difficult time as they have to take 7 subjects and for those who are taking Chinese subject, it means 8 subjects.

Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it. -George Santayana. It is strange when someone say learning history is a waste of time. Many students feel that learning history is a difficult task for them. They will try to find all sorts of excuses to say why they fail to score in their history test. Boring, teachers' teaching style, a lot of information to memorize and no interest in it, these are all their reasons.

In the last five years, the performance of history in SMK Sungai Tapang for the PMR, SPM and STPM exam shows moderate results. In PMR , the GPMP of students fluctuates between 3.36 to 6.86. By comparison, the passing rate of SPM and STPM show a vast difference from PMR. The passing rate for SPM in 2006 is 63%, 67.4% in 2007, 36.7% in 2008, 55% in 2009 and 52.6% in 2010. The passing rate fluctuates. For STPM, the passing rate from 2006 to 2010 is only between 30% to 75%. The passing rate for history is not as satisfactory with compared with other subjects.

This is the most common justification for the place of history in the school curricula. Sometimes advocates of citizenship hope merely to promote national identity and loyalty through a history spiced by vivid stories and lessons in individual success and morality. Further, studying history helps us understand how recent, current, and prospective changes that affect the lives of citizens are emerging or may emerge and what causes are involved. More importantly, studying history encourages habits of mind that are vital for responsible public behavior, whether as a national or community leader, an informed voter, a petitioner, or a simple observer. History is what we read, write and think about the past. - Sir Michael Howard (1998)

1.2. Statement of the problem

In SMK Sungai Tapang, History is considered as a difficult and boring subject to learn and hence the overall results of the subject have always been poor and mediocre.

Students who enter secondary schools have different challenges when compared to the primary schools. There are thousands of notes and points which students have to memorize and retain in their memory. Most