Comparing the effect of EDPA and FDPA on university students’ HOTS

• Main Authors: Kamarulzaman, Mohammad Shah, Shaari, Ahmad Jelani
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Multidisciplinary Journals 2016
• Subjects: LB2300 Higher Education
• Online Access: http://repo.uum.edu.my/21694/1/AJER%204%201%202016%2036%2041.pdf; http://repo.uum.edu.my/21694/; http://www.multidisciplinaryjournals.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/FULL-PAPER-COMPARING-THE-EFFECT-OF-EDPA-AND-FDPA-ON-UNIVERSITY-STUDENTS%E2%80%99-HOTS.pdf

A study was conducted on 120 students from two classes studying the Cognitive Sciences and Ethics course in Universiti Utara Malaysia.One class was treated with an editable drill and practice application (EDPA) while the other class received a fixed drill and practice application (FDPA).The purpose was to assess the effects of EDPA and FDPA on higher order thinking skills (HOTS).The main difference of the two applications is EDPA allow students to add and modify items based on personal inquiries while FDPA does not.From the literature review it seems that students if given the opportunity to ask questions tend to come up with both basic and deep questions. While the basic questions allowed students to acquire only basic knowledge, deeper questions allowed students to garner reflective skills which in turn should develop better HOTS.This led to the assumption that the use of EDPA is more effective than FDPA in promoting HOTS.Based on the independent-groups t-test results it was concluded that there was a significant difference in HOTS scores for the EDPA and FDPA.The results showed that students who were subjected to EDPA had better HOTS scores than those subjected to FDPA.