The acceptance and problems faced by teachers in conducting higher order thinking skills

Abstract

The main aim of this study is to investigate teachers’ responses towards the idea of teaching Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) questions in School Based Assessment (SBA). This research aims to investigate teacher’s problems in implementing HOTS questions in one of the schools in Johor Bahru. The research design for this study uses structured interview questions. A total of five teachers who are involved in Lower Secondary especially, Form One and Form Two were identified as the respondents. The interviews were carried out face to face, in order to get reliable and valid information. These teachers have experiences in both exam oriented assessment and School Based Assessment as well. Moreover, they are capable of differentiating between the approach in teaching Lower Order thinking Skills (LOTS) and Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) clearly. Qualitative methodology has been used as the primary data collection. The interview questions were built very carefully to cater the aim of the research. The interviews were video-recorded, transcribed and analysed by categorising the raw data accordingly to the research questions. Findings were coded to make identification task easier in assisting and categorizing teachers’ responses. The transcriptions were done in two ways, the first one is by respondents, and the next one is, by classification according to the research questions. The research revealed that teachers are willing and realize the role of HOTS in producing thinking society. However, the structure should be developed and well organised, in order to, to motivate them in implementing new ideas as the HOTS approach.