Abstract
The importance of History in fostering effective citizenship is beyond question. Hard as students study History, some of them fail to achieve higher grades. Hence, History seems to create problems for many students. The current research is a minor case study aimed to examine the causal factors that induce to a poor achievement in History and provide study strategies accordingly to enhance students’ achievement in the subject. The sample consisted of 2 participants from government secondary schools. The participants obtained poor grades in History. After interviewing the participants, the findings shows that: (i) pay less attention, (ii) poor study skills, and (iii) poor time management were the causal factors of poor performance in History. Therefore, five learning strategies – (i) paying attention, (ii) rehearsal (revision), (iii) elaboration-based learning techniques, (iv) mnemonics, and (v) comprehensive approach – are recommended as remedies for the low History achievement. The applications of the above-mentioned remedies are discussed across a variety of History topics. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2016.v7n1p517
Highlights
In Malaysia’s education system, History is a core subject in secondary schools
History is viewed as an important tool to cultivate loyal patriotism among Malaysians with demography represented by diversities in ethnic groups, culture, religions, and linguistic affiliation
It is viewed as a significant tool to promote unity for a plural societyparticularly Malaysia
Summary
In Malaysia’s education system, History is a core subject in secondary schools. Starting from the year 2013, History became one of the compulsory pass subjects in order to obtain the Malaysian Certificate of Education, a national examination which is taken by secondary five (or equivalent to eleventh grade) students. A good understanding of History is essential, because it shapes patriotism, it is an academic criterion to be satisfied by Malaysian students. According to Azwan Ahmad et al (2005), History is regarded as a boring and tedious subject in Malaysia. Malaysians tend to view that learning History has no commercial value, Azwan Ahmad et al (2005) further added. One of the contributing factors to the low achievement in History may be due to the conventional way students study the subject. Current research attempts to seek the causal factors that lead to poor performance in History and proposes learning strategies to remedy the issue
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