The development of students’ capabilities in Higher Order Thinking (HOTS) through science education

Amsah Arase; Nurzatulshima Kamarudin; Aminuddin Hassan

doi:10.51200/jpp.v7i1.8231

Authors

Amsah Arase Faculty of Educational Studies, Universiti Putra Malaysia Serdang, Selangor
Nurzatulshima Kamarudin
Aminuddin Hassan

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.51200/jpp.v7i1.8231

Keywords:

Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS), science education, lesson, learning, teaching

Abstract

The development of students' capabilities in Higher Order Thinking Skill (HOTS) is currently embraced as a very critical and important matter in the Malaysian schooling system. It needs a specific attention as the country lately has going through the transformation in the education sector specifically in the area of students' HOTS development. The teachings of HOTS need to be integrated in the subject syllabus purposefully in a well-planned effort to educate and train the students to think in a higher level manner to solve problems individually or coperatively. Therefore, teachers have to move and shift their paradigm and practice from the traditional exam oriented classroom teaching into instructional practices that promote the skills. The literature review study reveals that teachers have lower capabilities and competencies in integrating and fostering thinking skills in teaching their subject matter. This paper examines the conceptual definition of HOTS generally in the various teachers' classroom setting and education level and to be specifically within the context of science lesson. Some of the key focuses mentioned are the approaches, strategies and model in teaching thinking skills. Recommendations are also made regarding the classroom practices in teaching HOTS in science lesson contexts. The implication of this paper lies for its possibilities to contribute to the source of reference for teaching HOTS that might be referred with.

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