Malaysian students are keen to learn, but deeper thinking still matters

Malaysia's students display a robust eagerness to learn, exhibiting a commendable willingness to persist despite challenges. Recent Pisa 2025 results indicate that 80% of 15-year-olds in Malaysia consider themselves curious about various subjects, with 79% demonstrating extra effort when confronted with difficult schoolwork. These figures exceed the OECD averages of 73% and 60% respectively, indicating a positive learning mindset among Malaysian students.

They are also notably forthcoming in seeking assistance, with 92% turning to teachers for help and 94% asking classmates for clarification when needed. This propensity to ask for help is significant as learning is rarely a linear process, often involving confusion, incorrect answers, and moments of doubt. These attitudes coexist with a nuanced academic landscape.

While Malaysian students showed improvement in science and reading, scoring 419 and 393 respectively in Pisa 2025, their performance in mathematics declined by 11 points to 397. Education Minister Fadhlina Sidek highlighted a contrasting trend, noting that while students felt strongly supported by teachers, parental support for learning had decreased.

Rather than viewing this as a blame game, Sidek emphasized the importance of understanding the needs of children from the adults around them. The central question then becomes: how can the natural curiosity and perseverance of Malaysian students be transformed into deeper understanding and better results? OECD Director for Education and Skills Andreas Schleicher suggests that the solution lies in fostering students' ability to think critically, especially as classrooms become increasingly exposed to artificial intelligence and an overwhelming amount of information.

"The scarce resource is no longer information itself. The scarce resource is attention," Schleicher stated. For students, this means learning is increasingly about deciding the reliability of an answer, understanding how it was reached, and knowing when to question it. With AI becoming an integral part of learning, educators face the challenge of leveraging these tools to support critical thinking rather than replacing it.

Pisa 2025 found that 56% of Malaysian students used AI chatbots for learning at least once a week, surpassing the OECD average of 46%. Students utilized these tools for preliminary research, summarizing texts, and drafting writing assignments. When used appropriately, these tools can be beneficial. However, Schleicher cautioned against relying too heavily on AI, drawing a parallel with physical exercise: "We do not become fit by watching sports; we become fit by doing the exercise ourselves.

And learning works in the same way. That includes wrestling with difficult questions, making mistakes, and revising your thinking rather than immediately outsourcing the hard part." Pisa also highlights that Malaysian teenagers are comfortable asking for help when they are stuck, with 52% reporting regular self-questioning to verify their understanding of studied material.

These habits may prove increasingly crucial as students navigate an environment encompassing not just textbooks and teachers, but also search engines, social media, and AI-generated content. The reliance on teachers also underscores the significance of the decline in parental support, particularly when students are already facing a more complex learning environment compared to previous generations.

Schools and families may therefore need to focus less on convincing young people to care about learning and more on helping them develop the ability to turn curiosity into judgment, concentration, and the confidence to work through challenging problems independently.