Teachers’ Knowledge of Higher Order Thinking and Questioning Skills: A Case Study at a Primary School in Terengganu, Malaysia

Abstract

The purpose of this research was to explore primary school teachers' knowledge of higher order thinking (HOTS) and questioning skills. This was done because little is known about the level of teachers' knowledge and skills in HOTS; and their knowledge and skills in questioning to stimulate HOTS. To this end this paper employed exploratory case study to gain an in-depth understanding of this phenomenon in the actual setting so that the actual behaviour can be examined with minimum interference that may obstruct the reality. Nine primary school teachers were selected to be interviewed and observed. Semi-structured interview questions were used to collect data on teachers understanding of the concept of thinking and higher order thinking skills; and Likerttype checklist was used to gather data on the frequencies and types of questions teachers usually asked to promote thinking. Observations were conducted to validate the teachers' responses regarding the frequencies and types of questions asked during teaching and learning sessions. The data gathered through interviews were analysed to determine the emerging themes. The findings revealed that the teachers failed to explain clearly the concept of thinking and thinking processes; and majority of teachers could not give satisfactory explanation of HOTS as critical and creative thinking. However, half of the teachers could list the subskills of HOTS according to Bloom's Taxonomy. Data on teachers' questioning skills revealed that they were familiar with questioning based on Bloom's Taxonomy, however only half of the teachers practised asking HOTS questions based on Bloom's Taxonomy.

The Teaching of Higher Order Thinking Skills (Hots) in Malaysian Schools: Policy and Practices

“…Result shows that ESL teachers tended to use verbs that only fostered low level thinking when teaching in classes. Similarly, the finding can be seen in Wan's and Shamilati's (2018). Generally, although teachers applied questioning approach in classes, yet most questions were of low level which only triggered recalling, short answers, and memorisation.…”

“…There is a possibility to see a mismatch between teachers' perception on their practices and teachers' actual practices in classrooms. The inclusion of qualitative methods is crucial because it helps validate teachers' response given in quantitative questionnaire (Wan & Shamilati, 2018). Therefore, studies should be conducted with a combination of quantitative and qualitative so that the data collected will become highly empirical and more in-depth (Mohd et al, 2017).…”

The Effect of Treffinger Creative Learning Model with the Use RME Principles on Creative Thinking Skill and Mathematics Learning Outcome

“…It boosts students' cognitive aspect as well as their awareness to assess and evaluate information critically (Changwong, Sukkamart, & Sisan, 2018). Furthermore, it is considered as High Order Thinking (HOT) skills, which consist of some components such as fluency, flexibility, and originality (Astutik, Mahardika, Indrawati, Sudarti, & Supeno, 2020;Sriwongchai, 2015;Yusof & Seman, 2018). In general, fluency refers to the ease in generating several concepts in the creative process; flexibility relates to the capacity to abandon the old way of thinking and embrace new concepts or a new path, and originality involves to produce unpredictable, unusual or unique ideas (Handayani, Hajidin, Duskri, & Maidiyah, 2018).…”

Prospective physics teacher’s ability in developing HOTS questions: CRI analysis

“…Cognitive questions at levels C4 and C5 are included in critical thinking. Critical thinking includes the skills of reasoning, investigating, comparing and connecting, finding complexity, and exploring points of view (Changwong et al, 2018;Yusoff & Seman, 2018). Critical thinking can be developed when students are faced with problems and have to think of solutions and evaluate the problem-solving process.…”

“…Higher order thinking cannot be obtained by students automatically through learning (Afandi et al, 2019;Schulz & FitzPatrick, 2016), but is obtained through a deliberate and repetitive practice process (Changwong et al, 2018;Yusoff & Seman, 2018). Therefore, it is very important to emphasize that teachers and prospective teachers are able to prepare HOTS questions.…”