Attributes affecting students’ ability in thinking skills

• Main Authors: Hamidah Maidinsah,, Farah Nabillah Mohamed Jizad,, Maslizah Ab Wahab,, Balkish Osman,
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia 2019
• Online Access: http://journalarticle.ukm.my/19315/1/30956-114520-1-PB.pdf; http://journalarticle.ukm.my/19315/; https://ejournal.ukm.my/jpend/issue/view/1203

The Ministry of Education has reemphasized the implementation of higher order thinking skills (HOTS) in science and mathematics curriculum in 2014. In relation to this, a research was carried out to analyse students’ ability in thinking skills (ATS), and to construct a model that estimates their ATS. The study involved 300 students of engineering and science foundation programme from a university. A Scientific Reasoning Test was used as instrument. Binary logistic regression is used to categorize the students’ level of thinking skills. Results show that 51.7% of students are categorized as having higher order thinking skills (HOTS) and 48.3% having lower order thinking skill (LOTS). More male students at HOTS level (57.1%) compared to LOTS (42.9%), while more female students at LOTS level (52.7%) compared to HOTS (47.3%). Higher percentage of boarding school students (55.4%) at HOTS level compared to daily school students. There is a significant correlation between ATS with students’ performance in mathematics course in foundation programme (MAT093) and performance in mathematics subject in SPM (MAT). A binary logistic model was constructed to estimate students’ ATS. The findings implicate that teaching method through inquiry and mind-mapping in i-Think process which has been implemented in schools since 2015 seems to give an impact in enhancing and developing students’ thinking skills.