Level of awareness, challenges and teaching strategies in implementing higher order thinking skills among teachers of SJK(C) in Kluang, Johor

Abstract

Teaching strategies of Higher Order Thinking Skills are essential in this 21st century pedagogy classroom as creating the idea exploration learning environment can encourage students to think outside the box and master the skills efficiently. Teachers play important roles in implementing HOTS and thus their level of awareness on the importance of implementation of HOTS is vital too. This research investigated the relationships among the variables such as level of awareness on the importance of implementation of HOTS, degree of challenges confronted and the frequency of HOTS teaching strategies applied by the teachers. A set of questionnaires consisted of 28-item was distributed to 217 primary school teachers from Sekolah Jenis Kebangsaan (Cina) in the district of Kluang, Johor. The data were analysed by using SPSS illustrated that majority of respondents were teachers aged 31 to 45 years old (49.2%). Most of them are teaching in urban area (79.4%) with more than ten years teaching experience (43.5%). Descriptive analysis showed that the level of awareness among primary school teachers in SJK (C) in the district of Kluang was moderate. They felt quite challenging in implementing HOTS and their biggest challenge was time constraint. They also seldom applied teaching strategies of HOTS. Based on the analysis using Spearman’s correlation test, the findings revealed that there were significant relationships between level of awareness and the frequency of HOTS teaching strategies applied, and the degree of challenges and the frequency of HOTS teaching strategies applied. In general, teachers’ level of awareness and their degree of challenges confronted contribute to their frequency of implementing HOTS teaching strategies. Hopefully, this research could provide significant insight for teachers in implementing effective teaching strategies of HOTS.