Analysis of students’ errors in solving Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) problems for the topic of fraction

Abstract

Problem-solving is an activity that can generate Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) among students. However, only some of the students are capable of solving problems and some are having difficulties. The difficulties have caused students to make various kinds of errors. Hence, this study conducted is to identify and analyze students’ errors in solving problems that involve HOTS in the topic of Fraction. The samples consisted of 96 Form One students of a secondary school in Johor. The instrument of the study consisted of a set of test questions that contained four HOTS questions. The errors were analyzed according to Newman’s Error Analysis Model consisting of reading, comprehension, transformation, process skills and encoding. The results showed that students frequently made errors in encoding (27.58%), followed by process skills (27.33%), transformation (24.17%) and comprehension (20.92%). The findings showed that students faced problems to correlate the information and implementation of strategies used in solving mathematical problems involving HOTS.