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Outdoor Learning Model Through Fieldwork to Improve Physics Achievement Mundilarto1, HaorensaEnggarPamulasari1
[email protected] 1 Department of Physics Education State University of Yogyakarta
Abstract This study aimed to describe the impact of the outdoor learning model on physics achievements for dynamic fluid. In this study, the outdoor learning activities were conducted through fieldwork. Fieldwork is one form of outdoor learning activities that emphasizes direct experience of students on the object being studied to link the theory to practice and improve students' skills in observation, measurement, data collection, and analysis. This study was a field trial testof physics learning model through observation to 32 students onthe eleventhlevel physics classof senior high school in Yogyakarta in academic year of 2014/2015 as respondents. These were much divided into eight groups to do any fieldwork activities. The physics teaching and learning instructions consist of syllabus, lesson plans, worksheets, and four core competencies of assessment instruments. The instruments of data collection formed self-assessment sheet for spiritual attitudes, observation sheet for social attitudes, instrument test for physics knowledge, and observation sheet for skills. The instruments assessed the achievement of four core competencies of physics learning outcomes through fieldwork based outdoor learning. The data collected were analyzed by descriptive approach. The study states that the outdoor learning model through fieldwork which implemented can improve the core competencies of learning outcomes in dynamic fluid with the percentage of achievement of each competency is as follows: the competency of spiritual attitudes is 98%, the competency of social attitudes is 92%, the competency of physics knowledge is 78%, and the competency of skills is 92,5%. Keywords: outdoor learning model, fieldwork, physics achievements Introduction Based on the field observations, only a minority of students are active and pay attention to the physics learning process. Most of the students tend to be passive and give less enthusiastic response to physics learning. Outdoor learning is learning activities in the wild environmentor activities outside the classroom that are enjoyable. Outdoor learning helps students develop thinking skills, develop an awareness of the complexity of the real world, and understand the relevance of learning materials in schools with everyday life. Outdoor learning can be a new learning experience which is more enjoyable, relaxed, and avoid saturation. In addition, a multi-sensory experience outside the classroom helps students retain or recall of knowledge more effectively. Several studies have shown results that support this idea. The results of three case studies of Environmental Studies Programs (ESPs) in Canada have findings offering further documentation of the benefits of integrated ESPs, including increased student engagement, learning experiences that are practical and relevant to students' lives, experiential learning that is memorable and opportunities for development of social and interpersonal skills (Breunig, M. et al: 2014). Andersson, K. & Ohman, J. (2015) stated that outdoor experiences in outdoor education practices have relations with moral attitudes
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towards nature. Outdoor adventure education (OAE) is widely recognized for its ability to elicit personal and social development for its participants. However, the methodology highlights the need for carefully selected samples, use of an appropriate questionnaire and control of numerous variables (Scrutton, Roger A.: 2015). The nature-based learning is an increasingly popular type of early childhood education. Accordingly, the use of nature as a setting and a resource for learning was studied. Findings indicate that nature is utilized as setting, as resource and as educator within children’s learning and this holds true within different countries. Local, social, and cultural contexts exert influence on pedagogical practice and implications for practice based upon these are given (MacQuarrie, Sarah et al: 2015).The present study explores the outcomes of teaching empathy and critical thinking to solve environmental problems. A community-based research methodology was used to understand the formation of empathy and critical thinking. The findings reveal a significant benefit in using empathy strategies to engage students regarding the thinking processes involved in solving environmental problems. Using these elements as teaching techniques for environmental education courses can be very helpful in reaching the aims of creating a sustainable citizenry (Ampuero, David et al: 2015). Justin Dillon, et al. (2006), in the School Science Review found strong evidence indicating that the fieldwork (outdoor learning) if it is well understood, planned adequately, and taught well this will offer students the opportunity to develop knowledge and skills and will add their experience. Fagerstam (2012) stated that students whoshy become active when taken to the outdoor learning. This is the same as that mentioned by Fagerstam and Blom (2012) in his study of teaching biology and mathematics that during the interview the group of outdoor learning wasmore evident in recalling the subjects, while the indoor learning unclear and confused in the given subjects. Students enjoy learning a new atmosphere and a pause from their daily routines was always learning in the classroom. Moreover, the interaction among students increased during outdoor learning process and most students showed a positive feeling in the learning process. In the research of Fagerstam (2012) the others mentioned that the outdoor teaching and learning improved collaboration among students and participation in group work. Outdoor teaching and learning improved relations between teachers and students and improved communication in the group work. Outdoor teaching has the potential to explain the learning material using a natural approach (the proximal nature). Results of research conducted by Okada, M., Okamura, T., & Zushi, K. (2013) with the aim of observing the effect of in-depth outdoor experience to the students' attitude to nature showed that children who were in the intensive group (outdoor deeper experience) obtained a significantly improved positive attitude towards nature when compared with children in the less intensive group (less deeply experience). Research conducted by the American Institutes for Research (2005 ), entitled " Effects of Outdoor Education Programs for Children in California " concluded that based on the average results of the assessment between learners and teacher assessment, elementary school students who took the program of science education in the outdoors demonstrated achievement of personal and social skills higher than the group of students who did not follow the program, especially at the point of problem solving. Clear evidence that outdoor learning increases knowledge and understanding of the natural world and environmental systems and processes related to responsible attitudes towards the environment. Outdoor learning can connect learners with their environment, their community, their society, and themselves (Higgins, P. et al: 2002)
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The benefits of the study are as follows: 1. For schools, obtaining a product of physics teaching and learning instructions that conform to the fieldwork-based outdoor learning model for dynamic fluid material. The teaching and learning instructions consist of syllabi, lesson plans, worksheets, as well as instruments to assess the achievement of four core competencies that include spiritual attitudes, social attitudes, knowledge, and skills. 2. For teachers and researchers, this study can be used as materials to develop outdoor learning models based on fieldwork in other subject matters. 3. For students, providing a different learning experience through outdoor learning model based on fieldwork and providing opportunities to develop attitudes, knowledge, and skills. In this study, the outdoor learning activities are directed to fieldwork. Fieldwork is one form of outdoor learning activities that emphasize direct experience of students on the object being studied to link theory to practice and improve students' skills in observation, measurement, data collection, and analysis. About study of the role of fieldwork in learning, Rickinson, M. et al., 2004: 20) concluded that the fieldwork has a positive impact on longterm memory due to the impressive nature of fieldwork activities. In the affective domain, fieldwork impacts on the development of individual and social skills. Cognitive and affective domains mutually influence each other in the learning process. The implementation of outdoor learning model through fieldwork in physics learning needs preparation of teaching materials, location, materials and tools used in the field work, and learning equipments. Teaching materials used in this study is dynamic fluid because the material is suitable learned through fieldwork activities outside the classroom and the availability of facilities in the school environment. It has a source of tap water in every front yard of class that support the learning process. Research methods Research subject This study was a field trial on the development of the outdoor learning model through fieldwork (Thiagarajan, S. et al (1974). The field trial used a set of teaching and learning instructions and data collection instruments.The study was conductedthrough physics learning by observation to 32 students of the eleventh level physics class of senior high school in Yogyakarta in academic year of 2014/2015 as respondents from February to March 2015. The research subject was much divided into eight groups to do any fieldwork activities. The physics teaching and learning instructions consisted of syllabus, lesson plans, worksheets, and assessment instruments of four core competencies.The instruments of data acquisition formed self-assessment sheet of spiritual attitudes, observation sheet of social attitudes, instrument test of physics knowledge, and observation sheet of skills. Through the instruments the achievement of four core competencies in physics learning with outdoor learning model was measured through fieldwork. The data collected were analyzed by descriptive approach (Ancok, Jamaludin and Fuat Nashori Suroso: 1995).
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Teaching and Learning Instructions 1. Syllabus According to the Regulation of the Minister of Education and Culture of the Republic Indonesia Number 65 Year 2013 on the Standard of Primary and Secondary Education Process, syllabus was used as a reference in the development of the implementation plan of teaching and learning. The syllabus at least contains the identity of subjects, school identity, core competencies, basic competencies, subject matter, scenario of learning, assessment, time allocation, and learning resources. The syllabus used in this study is consistent with the national curriculum that is known Curriculum-2013 (Regulation of the Minister of Education and Culture of the Republic Indonesia: 2012). 2. Lesson plan Lesson plan was developed from the syllabus to guide the learning activities of students in an effort to achieve the basic competency. Learning steps in the lesson plan in this study were adapted to the outdoor learning model through fieldwork supported by group discussion method. 3. Student worksheet Student worksheet is an activity instruction sheet which were developed on the basis of the learning objectives that were adapted to the outdoor learning model through fieldwork. Data Collection Instruments The instruments used in this study consists of the followings. 1. Validation Sheet This sheet was used to determine the feasibility of the developed products, so the instruments which were made should measure what we want to measure. The validation instruments were performed by expert (lecturers) and practitioner(teachers). In this study, the validation sheet contained aspects that should be assessed using a rating scale. Every score in the assessment criteria was described in the assessment rubric for each instrument validated. 2. Self-Assessment Sheet for Spiritual Attitudes Self-assessment sheet was used to measure the aspects of spiritual attitudes (KI-1). The statements in the self-assessment of the spiritual attitudes were described from the spiritual dimensions adapted from the basic competencies. The scale on this questionnaire was Guttman Scale, that is 'Yes' and 'No' (Ancok, Jamaludin and Fuat Nashori Suroso: 1995). The statements in the self-assessment sheet were formulated from aspects of the spiritual attitudes: ideologically dimensional, experiential, intellectual, consequential, and ritual. 3. Observation Sheet for Social Attitudes The observation sheet was used to measure the aspects of social attitudes (KI-2) of the students during learning activities took place. The formulation of indicators were observed
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on the basis of the dimensions of social skills that were peer relationships, selfmanagement, academic ability, compliance, and assertive behavior. 4. Observation Sheet for Social Attitudes The observation sheet was used to measure the aspects of social attitudes (KI-2) of the students during learning activities took place. The formulation of indicators were observed on the basis of the dimensions of social skills that were peer relationships, selfmanagement, academic ability, compliance, and assertive behavior. 5. Physics Knowledge Test (Pretest and Posttest) Physics knowledge test was used to measure the cognitive aspects of physics achievement (KI-3) of dynamic fluid. The pretest was conducted to determine students' initial knowledge about dynamic fluid, while the posttest was conducted to measure students' knowledge about dynamic fluid after getting outdoor learning activities through fieldwork. In this study, the test consisted of 20 multiple choice items about the characteristics of ideal fluid, the concept of flow, the law of continuity, the application of the principle of continuity in real life, the principle of Bernoulli, and the application of Bernoulli law in technology. 6. Observation Sheet for Skills The observation sheet was used to measure the students' skills (KI-4) in conducting fieldwork activities. The components of skills should be observed are preparing, observing, measuring, analyzing, and communicating. 7. Questionnaire for Students Response The questionnaire was used to get response of the students to the learning model implemented. All statements in the questionnaire related to the contribution of the outdoor learning model through fieldwork in providing the learning experiences with concrete objects, in providing the opportunity to interact with peers and teachers, as well as its contribution to increase the interest and motivation of the students. Results Validation Validation aimed to evaluate the teaching and learning instructions and the data collection instruments (Thiagarajan, S. et al: 1974). The results of the validation by two validators to the teaching and learning instructions and the data collection instruments are described in Table 1.
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Table 1 The Results of Validation of Teaching and Learning Instructions and Data Collection Instruments (Borich, 1994: 385). Teaching and Learning Instructions and Data Collection Instruments Syllabus Lesson Plans Worksheet Spiritual attitudes assessment sheet Social attitudes assessment sheet Skills assessment sheet Questionnaire of students response Physics test (pre-test and post-test)
Average score 3.42 3.58 3.50 3.50 3.13 3.13 3,33 4
Criteria Very good Very good Very good Very good Good Good Very Good Very Good
Based on Table 1, it means that all instructions and instruments can be used to collect research data. Achievement of the Core Competencies Spiritual attitudes The first core competency (KI-1) is spiritual attitudes (Mickley et al: 1992), (Stoll: 1989) measured with self-assessment sheet filled out by each student. The Achievement of Spiritual Attitudes are presented in Table 2. Table 2 The Achievement of Spiritual Attitude Competency Aspects Ideological
Experiential
Intellectual
Dimensions a. I believe that the universe and everything in it is a creation of God b. I believe that the pressure of the fluid and the speed of the fluid interplay is the will of God c. I submit the results of the work / exams to God when I have prayed and attempted with a maximum a. I was afraid of cheating during exams b. I know that cheating is a sinning action a. I understand that by science, humans can exploit natural resources and use it in technology b. I understand that the fluids (air, gas, water) play an important role for the sustainability of life on Earth
Achievement(%) 100 100
100
100 97 100
100
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Cont… Aspects Consequential
Ritual
Dimensions a. I use a fluid (water, gas) with an efficiency b. I contribute to protecting the environment as a form of gratitude c. As a form of gratitude for having understood the dynamic fluid, I help any friend who had difficulties to understand the material. a. I pray before starting the lessons in earnestness b. I pray after finishing the lessons in earnestness c. I express the gratitude for all the gifts of God according to my religion with oral Achievement
Achievement(%) 88 100
84
100 97 100
98
Based on Table 2, each dimension of the spiritual aspects has a percentage of achievement greater than 75%, which means the spiritual aspect has been achieved and the whole subject of research have reached a minimum mastered criteria with very good category (Borich, 1994: 385). Social attitudes Analysis of the achievement of the second core competency (KI-2), namely social attitudes (Jessica A. B. & Johnny L.M., 2009:61), (Ellie L. Young et al 2012:64), Caldarella & Merrell (Johnny L.M., 2009: 4) was done using data obtained from the observation sheet at the first, second, and third meetings. The average achievement of every aspect of the social attitudes derived from three times observations are presented in Table 3. Table 3 The Achievement of Social Attitudes Competency (Borich, 1994: 385) Aspects Cooperation Tolerance Manners Academic ability Discipline Responsibility Assertive behavior Average achievement
Achievement (%) 95.3 93.8 95.9 87.0 92.2 94.3 84.4 92.0
Based on Table 3, every aspect of the social attitudes shows a percentage greater than 75%, which means that every aspect of social attitudes has been achieved with an average percentage of achievement for all aspects of 92%. In addition, as many as 97% of research subjects have achieved a minimum criteria of completeness, namely the level of achievement which is categorized as very good and good proportions as presented in Figure 1.
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Moderate 3% Good 18% Very good 79%
Figure 1 The Proportion of Social Attitude Achievement Based on the results of the analysis it can be stated that the outdoor learning model through fieldwork can be used to achieve the competence of social attitudes. Physics knowledge The reliability of the physics instrument test was determined by using the ITEMAN program 3:00 and was interpreted according to the table of alpha (Triton, 2006: 248). Analysis of the achievement of the third core competency (KI-3), namely physics knowledge was done using data obtained from the results of the pre-test and post-test (Borich, 1994: 385). The results of pre-test and post-test of dynamic fluid material are presented in Table 4. Table 4 The Achievement of Dynamic Fluid Material Analysis Pretest Posttest Lowest score 10.53 52.63 Highest score 57.89 94.74 Average score 37.17 80.76 Standard deviation 11.02 10.99 Number of not mastered (%) 100 21.9 Number of mastered (%) 0 78.1 Based on Table 4, the improvement of the physics competency of dynamic fluid material can be known through the standard gain which is 0.7 being a high category (Hake, 2012: 1). In the form of a bar chart the increasing average score of the cognitive ability test are presented in Figure 2. 90.0 80.0 70.0 60.0 50.0 40.0 30.0 20.0 10.0 0.0 Pre-test
Posttest
Figure 2 The Average Score of Cognitive Ability Test
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In addition, the post-test results show the percentage of students who achieve a minimum of mastered criteria, it is 78.1%. This shows that the overall grade achieves good knowledge competence.
Not Mastered 21.9% Mastered 78.1%
Figure 3 The Proportion of Physics Knowledge Competence Skills Analysis of the achievement of the fourth core competency (KI-4), which is the skills in conducting fieldwork outside the classroom was done using data obtained from the observation sheet. The average achievement in every aspect of the skills assessed by three times observations are presented in Table 5. Table 5 The Achievement of Skills Aspects Achievement (%) Preparing 96.9 Observing 92.7 Measuring 91.7 Interpretating 94.8 Communicating 86.5 Average Achievement 92.5 Based on Table 5, each of the aspects of skills assessed by three observations shows that the average percentage of achievement is greater than 75%. This means that the student's skills in doing fieldwork achieved very good category (Borich, 1994: 385). In addition, all the aspects reached a minimum of mastered criteria. This can be achieved because the activities of fieldwork were carried out in groups with each group consists of four students, so that everyone in the group gets their respective duties and in turn they help each others in the group. The achievement of skills is represented in Figure 4. Good 4% Very Good 96%
Figure 4 The Proportion of Skills Achievement
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So, it can be concluded that the outdoor learning model through fieldwork can be used to achieve students' skills. This study also collected data about students' response to the developed model. Based on the analysis, the students showed a very good response and positive comments on the learning model implemented. A statement of students that shows the most positive response is that physics learning through fieldwork outside the classroom may make learning physics become fun and enjoyable. The results of this study indicate that by the implementation of outdoor learning model through fieldwork, this gives students the opportunity to socialize, to develop skills and help to connect theory with practice related to the application of dynamic fluid in everyday life. Discussion The results of this study evidently to be in line with several previous studies. The American Institutes for Research (2005: 37-38 ) concludes that students who take the program outside the classroom science education show higher achievement in solving the conflict, concern for the environment, and understanding the concept of knowledge after the program. Spending time outdoor environments on young children’s plays and responses to challenging environmental features supported the importance of accumulated experience and social context for the development of confidence in the face of risk, individual exploration and positive social support and engagement with peers (Whittington, et al: 2016). Williams, Colin et al (1999: 4) have studied the effects of fieldwork on student achievement and motivation in science education. These study states that fieldwork, especially fieldtrip improve understanding on the subject matter, increase understanding in development of students' skills of data collection, analysis, personal skills, and relationship between students and teachers. Other research on the effect of outdoor teaching and learning on the skills and attitudes of students in junior high school indicates that fieldwork activity has positive effect on academic achievement and motivation of learners. Showed that group outdoor learning is more evident in the recall of subjects rather than group indoor learning. Moreover, the interaction between students increased during outdoor learning process and all students showed a positive feeling in the learning process (Stephens, A., Fagerstrom, E. & Block, J.: 2012). Conclusion Based on the analysis and discussion can be concluded that the outdoor learning model through fieldwork can be applied to achieve the core competencies in dynamic fluid material for senior high school students. The level of achievement for each core competency is as follows: 1. 2. 3. 4.
The first core competency (KI-1) i.e spiritual attitudes is 98%. The second core competency (KI-2) i.e social attitudes is 92%. The third core competency (KI-3) i.e knowledge is 78%. The fourth core competency (KI-4) i.e skills is 92.5%. Reference
American Institutes for Research (2005). Effects of Outdoor Education Programs for Children in California. California: The California Department of Education.
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Ampuero, D., Christian E. Miranda, Luisa E. Delgado, Samantha Goyen, & Sean Weaver (2015). Journal of Adventure Education and Outdoor Learning.15(1), 64-78, DOI:10.1080/14729679.2013.848817. Ancok, Jamaludin & Fuat Nashori Suroso. (1995). Psikologi Islam: Solusi Islam atas Problem-Problem Psikologi.Yogyakarta: Pustaka Pelajar. Anderssona, K & Johan Ohman (2015). Journal of Adventure Education and Outdoor Learning. 15 (4), 310-329. DOI: 10.1080 / 14729679.2015.1035292. Borich, Gary D. (1994). Observation Skill For Effective Teaching. New York: Mac Milian Publishing Company. Breuniga, M., Jocelyn Murtella, & Constance Russellb (2015).Journal of Adventure Education and Outdoor Learning. 15 (4), 267-283, DOI: 10.1080/14729679.2014.955354. Dillon, J (2010). Beyond Barriers to Learning Outside the Classroom in Natural Environments. Reading: Natural England. Fagerstam, E (2012). Space and Place Perspectives on Outdoor Teaching and learning. Linkoping: Department of Behavioural sciences and Learning Linkoping University. Fägerstam, E. & Blom, J (2012). Learning Biology and Mathematics Outdoors: Effects and Attitudes in a Swedish high school context. Journal of Adventure Education and Outdoor Learning, doi:10.1080/14729679.2011.647432. Hake, Richard (2012). Analyzing Change/Gain Scores. www.physics.indiana.edu/~sdi/AnalyzingChange-Gain.pdf, 18 December 2014. Higgins, P (2002). Journal of Adventure Education and Outdoor Learning, 2 (2), 149–168. MacQuarrie,S., Clare Nugent, & Claire Warden (2015). Journal of Adventure Education and Outdoor Learning,15 (1), 1-23. DOI:10.1080/14729679.2013.841095. McClain, Cara & Maureen Vandermaas-Peeler (2016). Journal of Adventure Education and Outdoor Learning. 16 (1), 31-48, DOI: 10.1080/14729679.2015.1050682. Oliver, Alun (2009). The Benefits of Outdoor Education and its Effects on Reluctant Learners. A Rising Tide. Volume 2, pp. 12-15. Peraturan Menteri Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan Republik Indonesia Nomor 65 Tahun 2013 tentang Standar Proses Pendidikan Dasar dan Menengah. Rickinson, M., Dillon, J., Teamey, K., Morris, M., Choi, M.Y., Sanders D., & Benefield, P. (2004). A Review of Research on Outdoor Learning. Shrewsbury: National Field Studies Council. Scrutton, R, A (2015). Journal of Adventure Education and Outdoor Learning.15 (2), 123137, DOI:10.1080/14729679.2013.867813. Stephens, Andrew (No Year). The Effects of Fieldwork on Student Achievement and Motivation in Science Education (Action Research Thesis). http://www.csun.edu/~vceed002/courses/695b/projects/fieldwork/AndrewStephens_ AR_ Thesis.pdf, on 6 Maret 2015. Thiagarajan, S., Semmel, D.S., & Sammel M.I. (1974). Instructional Development for Training Teachers of Exceptional Children: A Sourcebook. Indiana: Indiana University Bloomington. Triton. (2006). SPSS 13.0 Terapan Riset statistik Parametik. Yogyakarta: Andi. Whittington, Anja, Jeffery E. Aspelmeier, & Nadine W. Budbill (2016). Journal of Adventure Education and Outdoor Learning. 16 (1), 2-15, DOI: 10.1080/14729679.2015.1047872. Williams, Colin, Jim Griffiths, & Brian Chalkley. (1999). Fieldwork in The Science. Plymouth: Science Education Enhancement and Development (SEED) Faculty of Science University of Plymouth.
Effect of Adventure Based Learning on Statistics Achievement and Human Capital Mohd Afifi Bahurudin Setambah1 ,Nor’ain Mohd Tajudin1 ,Mazlini Adnan1
[email protected],
[email protected],
[email protected] 1 Sultan Idris Education University, Tanjong Malim, Perak
Abstract This article presents a proposal that aims to develop and testing effect of adventure-based learning module on fundamental statistics achievement, critical thinking and leadership skills. This study will employ a quantitative approach research using a quasi-experimental pre and post-test non-equivalent control group design. The sample for this study will be selected randomly at one Malaysia Teacher Training Institute and will be involved semester two students in Program Persediaan Ijazah Sarjana Muda Perguruan. Three main instruments will be used in this study such as The Fundamental Statistic Achievement Test, Critical Thinking Test and Leadership Assessment Questionnaire. The sample will be divided into two groups: the experimental groups will undergo an adventure-based learning approach while control groups remain to the conventional approach. The results of this study are expected to provide an alternative teaching approach that can be implemented by lecturers, teachers and educators in practicing the teaching and learning for the 21st century. This study is also expected to assist the Malaysian National Aspirations and Mission in developing successful human capital.. Keywords: Adventure-based learning, fundamental statistics achievement, critical thinking, leadership skills Introduction Innovation and transformation in education is often the case. This matter must be addressed by educators in the country. Dropping knowledge in the field of teaching and learning will impact negatively on the country's students. The effects of the approach to teaching and learning issue is still hotly disputed. Yeo and Zhu (2005) stated that teachers still use the approach delivering lectures, individual exercises and discussion of answers in math class. Hence, a new transformation of education, especially the teaching and learning needs to be done. The transformation is expected to be covered various aspects and one of them is the skills of the 21st century. 21st century skills required as digital literacy (ICT), inventive thinking (problem-solving, higher order thinking skills, critical, creative and innovative), and interactivity (Binkley et al., 2012). Strengthening teaching and learning approaches seen is one way that can be used. Adventure-based learning (ABL) is an approach that provides opportunities for students to learn through experience and create soft skills such as thinking skills, problem analysis, problem solving skills and personality development. According Veletsianos and Kleanthous, (2009), this approach has the basic features of the theory of experiential learning (Kolb, 1984) and inquiry-based learning (Dewey, 1938 that gives students the opportunity to learn through experience, enhance the thinking element in the inquiry. Even ABL also integrated element of information and communication technologies. Therefore, researchers are recommending that the ABL can be implement and evaluate their effectiveness.
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Problem Statement In 2004, the ABL Arctic Transect 2004 program has made history in which more than three million students and teachers around the world are involved in this program (Doering, Scharber, Riedel, & Miller, 2010; Doering, 2007). The program successfully motivate students to follow developments in internet surfing lessons learned. This proves abl indirectly help to increase information and communication technology skills of students. History ABL approach starts from the launch of Outward Bound by Kurt Han in 1941. He has used the ABL approach to enhance the confidence and determination of the young sailor (Hattie, Marsh, Neill, & Richards, 1997). In fact, students are reported to have established a variety of skills in teamwork, adaptability, perseverance, planning, problem solving, time management, communication, leadership, cooperation, reflecting the group and team spirit, and benefits of physical activity, self-confidence, awareness themselves, and strengthen peer relationships (Cooley, Holland, Cumming, Novakovic, & Burns, 2014). ABL seen an alternative approach that characterized the development of human capital. Hui and Cheung (2004) consider that ABL is a method that is suitable for the development of personality and society. This statement is supported by (Weilbach, Meyer, & Monyeki, 2011). In addition, the ABL is often used in various fields to enhance interpersonal and intrapersonal skills of individuals in leadership (Rhodes & Martin, 2013; Sutherland & Stuhr, 2012). In fact, the ABL seen a multi-dimensional approach which involves students in terms of intellectual, ethical, physical, and spiritual (Larson, 2010). Therefore, researchers wanted to test the implementation of the ABL in order to help build a first class human capital. ABL currently are large in size, scope, duration, and funding. However, the ABL also can be implemented on a small scale in various areas (Veletsianos & Kleanthous, 2009). It gives the sense that the ABL can be practiced by teachers and lecturers in teaching and learning. The study of the principles that form the basis of the ABL have been carried out, but the empirical data collected on the ABL itself is still less (Moos & Honkomp, 2011). He and his colleagues said it still lacks conclusive research on the relationship between ABL on student achievement. Besides, ABL program of small-scale practiced in this country, especially in view of mathematics education is still lacking. This statement is supported by Karppinen, (2012) in an actions research that have been implemented. The effectiveness of the ABL approach is still less studied by researchers, but the interpretation of this approach is still under discussion (Veletsianos & Kleanthous, 2009). Thus, the researchers want to conduct small-scale ABL program in mathematics education and studying the impact of ABL is in some aspects related to mathematics achievement. Elements of human capital in terms of critical thinking and leadership skills also will be tested by researchers. Purpose of Study Based on the issues stated earlier, the general purpose of this study was to test the effects of ABL module on the fundamental statistics achievement of students. It also wants to see its impact on the human capital element of critical thinking and leadership skills. Literature Review Adventure-based learning (ABL) approach has the basic features of the theory of experiential learning (Kolb, 1984) (Cooley et al., 2014; Hans 2000; Hogson & Berry, 2011; Larson, 2010) and the inquiry-based learning (Dewey, 1938) (Doering, 2007; Veletsianos & Kleanthous 2009). ABL also be seen from the aspect of learning outside the classroom (Bunyan, 2011; Hogson & Berry, 2011). According Bunyan (2011), adventure learning
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environment consisting of certain ingredients. It requires a lot of support, leadership, physical training, mental strength and the natural environment. Doering (2006), have put some of the key principles of the ABL. The ABL interrelated principles are as follows figure 1:
Figure 1 Adventure-based learning model (Doering, 2006) i. ii. iii. iv. v. vi. vii.
A research- and inquiry-based curriculum. Opportunities for collaboration and interaction between participating students, teachers, experts, and content. Use of the Internet for delivering the curriculum and the learning environment. Timely delivery of media and text from the field to enhance the curriculum. Synchronized learning opportunities. Pedagogical guidelines for the implementation of the curriculum and the online learning environment. Adventure-based education.
Doering (2006) pointed out that identifying learning outcomes is a priority in planning ABL. This approach are not put adventure and exploration as a goal, but learning. Berry (2011), states that the implementation of the ABL must consider several factors, like the participants, group size, teacher character, environment, activities and processes ABL itself. These elements should be considered to get good results. Veletsianos (2012) proposed two ABL situation that can be implemented. The first group of students perform adventure activities, gathering data related and share through online learning while remaining teachers and friends are in classes conducted investigations on the data in the area, discuss to each other until the goal is achieved curriculum. While the second situation, the teacher and a group of students went perform exploration activities outside the classroom, the information received is shared to different classes. Both of these situations have to approach and inquiry-based learning experience. The role of the teacher in the ABL no longer as trainers, facilitators or designers such as online learning space, but PBA is a collaborative between students, teachers, and subject matter experts to share information (Doering, 2006). Thus, the role of the students will become more universal, they are not only as receivers of knowledge. But they can even give their views on the issues discussed. According to (Doering, 2006), students under the ABL will be more excited and motivated as the collaborative environment can be created. So, role of students in teaching and learning will be more flexible. In conclusion, the ABL is an approach that provides an opportunity for students to experience learning in the real world, collaborate using technology that is accompanied by
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various parties such as students, teachers and experts. This approach supports the basic theory of experiential learning and inquiry approach (problem solving). This approach is designed to develop and diversify online learning strategy. However ABL can be implemented in either method of learning outside the classroom, project-based, technology, virtual or a combination of these methods. Methodology A quasi experimental study involving semester two Program Persediaan Ijazah Sarjana Muda Perguruan students will be conduct to serve the purpose of the study. Sample of the study consists of teacher trainees from teacher training colleges in Malaysia. The sample will divide into two main groups: the experimental and the control group. The experimental groups will undergo an ABL approach while control groups remain to the conventional approach. All groups were given a pre-test, a post-test and a post-posttest. Three main instruments will be used in this study such as The Fundamental Statistic Achievement Test, Critical Thinking Test and Leadership Assessment Questionnaire. Statistical analysis will be use is descriptive and inferential statistics. Inferential statistics will be use are Cohen’s D, multiple analysis of variance (MANOVA), and analysis of variance (ANOVA) which is the test is used to distinguish the impact between two group. The Figure 2 is a research procedure to be carried out.
Develop Module dan Instrument
Validity
NEED REPAIR
Pilot Test
Implementation Experimental Group Step 1: Pretest Step 2: Intervention (ABL Approach) Step 3: Postest Step 4: Post-posttest
Control Group Step 1: Pretest Step 2: Intervention (Conventional Approach) Step 3: Postest Step 4: Post-posttest
Figure 2 Research procedure Conclusion The aim of this study was to test impact of ABL Module on the fundamental statistics achievement, critical thinking and leadership skills of students. This study used quantitative approach with quasi experimental design of pretest and posttest group are not equivalent. An Institute of Teacher Education selected as the study area. The sample consisted of two groups of students for semester two Program Persediaan Ijazah Sarjana Muda Perguruan. The Group is divided into the treatment group and the control group. It discusses the internal validity and external validity needs to be controlled during the experiment.
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In the early stages of study, students are required to sit the pre-test achievement test covering fundamental statistics, critical thinking skills test and a test of leadership. Intervention will be included 20 hours of lectures. Once completed, the post-test will be given to the study. After eight weeks posttest, students will be given a post-posttest retained. Data collected subsequently analyzed using the SPSS software. Data for the pre-test, post-test and post-posttest will be retained in the test using Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA and Univariate Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) Assess the impact will also be reported. The results of this study are expected to provide an alternative teaching approach that can be implemented by lecturers, teachers and educators in practicing the teaching and learning for the 21st century. This study is also expected to assist the Malaysian National Aspirations and Mission in developing successful human capital. References L Ahn, J.-H. (2008). Application of Experiential Learning Cycle in Learning With a Business Simulation Game. Columbia University Anderson, T. N. (2014). Adventure Programs ’ Effect on Self-Efficacy of Business Students. University of Idaho. Binkley, M., Erstad, O., Herman, J., Raizen, S., Ripley, M., Miller-ricci, M., & Rumble, M. (2012). Defining Twenty-First Century Skills. In Assessment and Teaching of 21st Century Skills (pp. 17–66). Bunyan, P. (2011). Models and Milestone in Adventure Education. In Hodgson, C., & Berry, M., (Eds.), Adventure Education: An Introduction (pp. 5–23). Abingdon: Routledge Taylor & Francis Group. Cooley, S. J., Holland, M. J. G., Cumming, J., Novakovic, E. G., & Burns, V. E. (2014). Introducing the use of a semi-structured video diary room to investigate students’ learning experiences during an outdoor adventure education groupwork skills course. Higher Education, 67(1), 105–121. http://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-013-9645-5 Crawford, E. K. C. (2006). A qualitative study of adventure learning and the discourse of challenge. ProQuest Dissertations and Theses. York University. Retrieved from http://ezproxy.nottingham.ac.uk/login??url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/3049 84978?accountid=8018\nhttp://sfx.nottingham.ac.uk/sfx_local/?url_ver=Z39.882004&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:dissertation&genre=dissertations+&+theses &sid=ProQ:ProQuest Doering, A., Scharber, C., Riedel, E., & Miller, C. (2010). “Timber for president”: Adventure learning and motivation. Journal of Interactive Learning Research, 21, 483–513. Doering, A. (2007). Adventure Learning: Situating Learning in an Authentic Context. Innovate, 3(6). Retrieved from http://publication/uuid/5D308F59-23E1-458A-BB932D06D032E54C Doering, A. (2006). Adventure Learning: Transformative hybrid online education. Distance Education, 27(2), 197–215. http://doi.org/10.1080/01587910600789571 Durr, L. I. (2009). Optimal challenge: The impact of adventure experiences on subjective well-being. Journal of Experiential Education, 31(3), 451–455. http://doi.org/10.1177/105382590803100319 D’Amato, L. G., & Krasny, M. E. (2011). Outdoor Adventure Education: Applying Transformative Learning Theory to Understanding Instrumental Learning and Personal Growth in Environmental Education. The Journal of Environmental Education, 42(4), 237–254. http://doi.org/10.1080/00958964.2011.581313
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Gatzemann, T., Schweizer, K., & Hummel, a. (2008). Effectiveness of sports activities with an orientation on experiential education, adventure-based learning and outdooreducation. Kinesiology, 40(2), 146–152. Greffrath, G., Meyer, C. D. P., Strydom, H., & Ellis, S. (2013). a Comparison Between Centre-Based and Expedition-Based (Wilderness) Adventure Experiential Learning Regarding Group Effectiveness: a Mixed Methodology. South African Journal for Research in Sport Physical Education and Recreation, 35(1), 11–24. Hans, T. a. (2000). A meta-analysis of the effects of Adventure Programming on locus of control. Journal of Contemporary Psychotherapy, 30(1), 33–60. http://doi.org/10.1023/A:1003649031834 Hattie, J., H.W.Marsh, Neill, J. T., & Richards, G. E. (1997). Adventure education and Outward Bound:Out-of-Class Experience That Make a Lasting Difference. Review of Educational Research, 67(1), 43–87. Hodgson, C., & Berry, M. (2011). Adventure Education. Abingdon: Routledge Taylor & Francis Group. Hui, S. K. F., & Cheung, H. Y. (2004). How does learning happen for people participating in adventure training? Asia Pacific Education Review, 5(1), 76–87. http://doi.org/10.1007/BF03026281 Human, L. (2012). Adventure-based experiences during professional training in psychology : a follow-up study. South African Journal of Psychology, 42(4), 586–597. Karppinen, S. J. a. (2012). Outdoor adventure education in a formal education curriculum in Finland: action research application. Journal of Adventure Education & Outdoor Learning, 12(1), 41–62. http://doi.org/10.1080/14729679.2011.569186 Kelly, J., & Potter J., (2011). Adventure Education: Physical Exercises and health. In Hodgson, C., & Berry, M., (Eds.), Adventure Education: An Introduction (pp. 146165). Abingdon: Routledge Taylor & Francis Group. Larson, D. A. (2010). Adventure Learning : Not Everyone Gets to Play. In Honeyman, J. Coben, & G. De Palo (Eds.), Venturing Beyond the Classroom: Volume 2 in the Rethinking Negotiation Teaching Series (pp. 201–216). Saint Paul: DRI Press. Mohd Taib Harun, & Norlena Salamuddin. (2010). Cultivating personality development through outdoor education programme: The Malaysia Experience. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 9, 228–234. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2010.12.141 Moos, D. C., & Honkomp, B. (2011). Adventure Learning: Motivating Students in a Minnesota Middle School. Journal of Research on Technology in Education, 43(3), 231–252. Rhodes, H. M., & Martin, A. J. (2013). Behavior Change After Adventure Education Courses: Do Work Colleagues Notice? Journal of Experiential Education, 36(0), 1– 21. http://doi.org/10.1177/1053825913503115 Sutherland, S., & Stuhr, P. T. (2012). Reactions to implementing adventure-based learning in physical education. Sport, Education and Society, 19(4), 1–18. http://doi.org/10.1080/13573322.2012.688807 Thangavelo Marimuthu, Azman Jusoh, & Rodziah Ismail. (2003). Amalan Dan Masalah Pelaksanaan Strategi Inkuiri-Penemuan Di Kalangan Guru Pelatih Sains Semasa Praktikum: Satu Kajian Kes. In Seminar kertas penyelidikan. Veletsianos, G. (2012). Adventure learning encyclopedia definition veletsianos. In Encyclopedia of the Sciences of Learning (pp. 157–160). Springer Academic. Veletsianos, G., & Kleanthous, I. (2009). A review of adventure learning. International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning, 10(6), 84–105.
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Weilbach, T., Meyer, C., & Monyeki, M. (2011). The effect of adventure-based experiential learning on personal effectiveness of adolescents. African Journal for Physical, Health Education, Recreation and Dance, 16(4), 131–140. http://doi.org/10.4314/ajpherd.v16i4.64277 Yeo, S. M., & Zhu, Y. (2005). Higher-Order Thinking in Singapore Mathematics Classrooms. In Educational Conference: Redesigning pedagogy in research, policy, practice. Singapore: Centre for Research in Pedagogy and Practice, National Institute of Education
UTM Massive Open Online Courses Development Process: A Guide in Designing Noor Azean Atan1, Azizah Yusof 1, Norhidayah Abdul Hassan 2, Noor Dayana Abd Halim 1, Che Ros Bin Ismail 2, Dayang Norhayati Abang Jawawi 3
[email protected],
[email protected],,
[email protected] [email protected],
[email protected],
[email protected] 1 Department of Educational Sciences, Mathematics and Creative Multimedia Faculty of Education, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Johor Bahru 2 Department of Geotechnics and Transportation Faculty of Civil Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Johor Bahru 3 Department of Software Engineering Faculty of Computing, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Johor Bahru Abstract Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) being a member of Open Education Consortium has been steadily gaining momentum in contributing digital learning to the Open Education Resources (OER) movement. As part of the consortium is to provide a diversified set of educational resources for faculty, students, and self-learners throughout the world. Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) provide a platform for delivering world-class education and advancing the frontiers of online pedagogy. UTM MOOC is a university project that adapt MOOCs as a new methodology and modality for teaching and learning in UTM.It involves different faculties aiming to develop and strengthen UTM open online education. Multiple objectives for this project included: (i) to provide a quality learning experience to students through sharing of online resources; (ii) to provide a cost savings online courses; (iii) to develop MOOCs in niche areas of expertise; (iv) to provide a platform that supports and supplement students individual learning experience. (v) To stimulate students learning experience. (vii) To encourage student ts to be lifelong learners.This study introduces a useful and systematic guideline process for designing MOOCs in achieving this objectives. The stepby-step guide to the process of designing UTM MOOC which include course setup, course design, course development, implementation, maintenance & benchmarking. This process is based on the same components found in most models of instructional design and this guideline would be useful for educators who need to build and host courses. Keywords: Blended Learning, Massive Open Online Courses, UTM MOOC Process Introduction The number of people who are seeking a university degree, skill enhancements or lifelong learning has increased tremendously. This has forced universities and companies to find new ways to provide education to the mass learners and recent developments in information technology and Internet have enabled that by delivering web-based courses via open course Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) (Koutropoulos, A., et a, 2013). Many institutions have started projects to employ MOOCs, which has the goal of giving free accessible learning anytime and from any place” (Roth, M. S., 2013).MOOCs are the online learning systems which provide a complete learning environment including various features ofcourse materials such as video learning, online reading, online activities, evaluation instruments or communication and collaboration tools (Kirschner, A. 2012). They can be considered as the new form of providing education. Their features should be very different
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from the traditional classroom settings since there is no face to face interaction between the instructor and the students. On the other hand, MOOCs may provide many additional opportunities for achieving enhanced and enriched learning outcomes through the use of the web for effective instruction and can be a promising alternative to traditional settings (Conole, G. 2013). Web-based teaching can facilitate learner interactivity and also can provide a great amount of resources. Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) being a member of Open Education Consortium has been steadily gaining momentum in contributing digital learning to the Open Education Resources (OER) movement. As part of the consortium is to provide a diversified set of educational resources for faculty, students, and self-learners throughout the world. Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) provide a platform for delivering world-class education and advancing the frontiers of online pedagogy. UTM MOOC is a university project that adapt MOOCs as a new methodology and modality for teaching and learning in UTM. It involves different faculties aiming to develop and strengthen UTM open online education On the other hand, collaboration of a number of institutions might be important for the use of best resources in online material development and teaching. The aim of developing course in UTM MOOC is to develop high quality digital learning and collaborate with expertise for generating online learning content over the long term. UTM provide financial assistance and technical support to UTMLead multimedia and production team, as well as UTM lecturers, for the development of online learning content. UTM MOOC development described here do not seek to replace traditional teaching and learning, but are expected to supplement them. The inclusion of online learning is now inevitable, and the UTMLead team initiative is designed to meet the new challenges, and to help UTM take the lead in this newly emerging field.This study introduces a useful and systematic guideline process for designing MOOCs in achieving this objectives. Objective UTM MOOC is a university project that involves different faculties aiming to develop and strengthen UTM open online education. The main objectives of this project are:
To provide a quality learning experience to students through sharing of online resources. To provide a cost savings online courses which ensure the flexibility in learning experience. To develop MOOCs in niche areas of expertise, while participating in international MOOC consortiums and building the Malaysia education brand globally. To provide a platform that supports and supplementstudents individual learningexperience. To stimulate students learning experience. To encourage students to be lifelong learners. UTM MOOC Process
The step-by-step guide to the process of designing UTM MOOC which include course setup, course design, course development, implementation, maintenance & benchmarking.The authors drafted a 5-step guide for developing UTM MOOC was based on literature review and their teaching experiences for more than 10 years.
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Figure 1: UTM MOOC Development process Step 1: Course setup The proposed course name is selected based on the courses offered by the university which cover many areas of interest. Detailed description about the course is provided in the course outline. The entire process of UTM MOOC development requires support of academicians, faculties, multimedia and production team. Each course in UTM MOOC requires a leader to to monitor and manage the course programme. For each course in UTM MOOC shall assign a course coordinator. The responsibility of the course coordinator shall be: a) Frame a syllabus and introduce improvements in the syllabus on the subject assigned. b) Ensure text, lecture and complete course material is available c) Ensure all learning contentmodules of the whole course are produced d) Preview the programmes produced and certify its correctness academically. The course outline consists of few elements including synopsis, course learning outcome, weekly topics and assessment method. Details about the elements are provided as follows: a) Synopsis Synopsis provides the description of the course purpose so that students know what to expect from the course and why it is important that they learn the content presented and also pre-requisite to the course. b) Course learning outcome A course learning outcome (CLO) is a statement of what the learner is expected to know, understand or be able to do on successful completion of the course programme in higher learning institution (HLI). The following are guidelines in writing CLO:
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i.
At the homepage, CLO statements should clearly state the expected knowledge, skills and moral values (attitudes competencies) that students are expected to acquire. ii. In writing the CLO, should clearly expressed and understandable by multiple background, ethnic, culture and others. iii. The CLO should focus in developing students’ knowledge, skills, facts, concepts and new principles. iv. CLO which has been approved by at the HLI level should be maintained in Malaysia MOOC. v. In stating the CLO, the sentences must be in the form of verbs such as "describe", "explain", "calculate", "apply", others. c) Weekly topics The weekly topics are designed to cover the course learning outcome and the lecture hours which equivalent to the course credit hours. The course learning outcomes are stated for every week of the course lecture. This is to ensure that the student knows what to expect from the weekly content. Each topic will include the introduction of the topic and details of the content. Exercise and quizzes can be provided at the end of the lecture topic. The limit for the weekly topics is set to the minimum of total 10 weeks or main topics. Course duration has been estimated on the basis of the number of hours that are required to transact the content in the classroom. For example, a course in the classroom requires one credit and a credit is equivalent to 15 hours. The content of a course will be taken as 15 week of classroom teaching. One and a half hour of classroom lecture is normally covered by online learning in UTM MOOC.
Step 2: Course design The promotional video is an initial video format which lecturers introduces the course goals and the agenda. It should motivate the participants and provide overview of the course subject and methods that will be used throughout the course. The promotional video is usually in the front page of the course and beneath the video there should be a list of learning outcomes of the topic. The learning outcomes will describe the expected topic upon completion of the studied topic. An initial video will proposed to participants before the course officially starts. The duration of video promotional should be 2 minutes. It is very important that the initial video makes a good impression on participants, since it will be their first experience with the course and will help them decide if they like the course or not. The topic and subtopic are arrange based on learning objectives. It helps students to select which topic or subtopic to learn. Students can engage in learning through varieties of learning material such as through video lectures, online reading and online activities. The learning material is based on weekly video and weekly online reading. The video lectures, online reading and online activities developed for self-paced learning. It can be combined with asynchronous collaboration facilities such as discussion forum and e-mail. The online discussion on the learning materials enriched students learning experience. The interactive activities such as multiple choice, fill in the blank, drag and drop, crossword puzzle and so on are learning activities designed to engage and reinforce learners. Additional resources are online reading to supplement students learning and to get additional
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knowledge in a different perspective. These materials are displayed in a variety of formats such as video, ppt, doc, pdf, html, etc. Step 3: Course development There are 5 elements in UTM-MOOC course development which are storyboard and scripting, course content, assessment materials, learning activities and extra resources as follows: a) Storyboard & Script Developing a storyboard and script before creating video is important. A well planned videos look the most professional. Storyboarding is the process of creating a visual script, or draft, of the shots and scene changes in a video. A well-defined storyboard helps to ensure that everyone understands the goals of the project and how the video and audio footage should work together. See figure 1 example of storyboard and scripting. b) Course Content i. ii. iii. iv. v.
Each topic should have several learning content in a form of video/notes. The learning content should be laid out in a sequence learning. The learning content can also be in the form a link to a video repositories such as YouTube and other. The content in other formats such as ppt, doc, pdf, swf can be provided to strengthen the content of topics. Links to other websites are also recommended to enable students to acquire the same content but in a different perspective.
Weekly/topically activities schedule are to be mapped according to the outline of learning outcomes that covers the content and skills. It is recommended for 10 - 14 weeks/topics of plan. Students shall be taught on the expected outcomes in line with the guidance of effective instructional design. The course content items of weekly/topically activities for learners is describe in Table 1. c) Assessment Materials i. ii. iii.
iv.
Each topic should have a formative assessment (in the content) and summative assessment at the end of the topic. Formative assessment can be placed in the video (main learning material) or separately. Formative assessment can be provided in various forms, one of an example of which is often used in assessment is quiz (MCQ, fill in the blank, drag and drop, matching, rearranging, sequencing, etc.), assignments, reflective journals, wiki group, reflective corners, etc. Summative assessment should be provided at the end of each topic to assess the knowledge and skills that have been generated by the students which referred to the TLO of students that have been assigned to.
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The example as followed:
Figure 2Online Activities – More than 10 types of questions
Figure 3 Students can review the quiz answer
Figure 4 Online Test
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d) Learning Activities i. ii. iii.
iv.
Each topic should have a variety of learning activities. Typically, the main learning activities is in the form of a forum discussion on the discussion board. Instructor and moderator plays a significant role to actively engage the discussion in a meaningful manner that can contribute in develop a thorough understanding to students and achieve TLO. In certain cases, assessment could also be based on student participation in the discussion referred to the student activity (number of posts), articulation of ideas and others.
e) External Resources i. ii.
At the end of each topic, learning material/additional reference related to the topic should be made available for students. Additional reading materials provided should be suitable where the aim for student to support in gaining their knowledge of the topic and to nurture them in achieving the topic learning outcome (TLO). Typically, additional resource material is in the form of links to the website.
f) Setup Course Site The course site can be set-up to customise to the course’s needs under these headers: general, appearance, contents, community, advance and import. Under General, we can tailor what the students see upon entering the site such as promotional video or promotional picture, logo, synopsis and course lecturer’s information. While under Appearance we can select course style & design and navigation links/pages to suit our course’s need. In Contents, the course administrators can arrange all the links and pages previously set in the Appearance header.More options can be customised under Advance such as administrators, groups, enrolment set-up, etc. These are some of the items which are updated in course set-up:
Instructor’s Information The required Instructor’s information are name, photo, academic qualification and correspondence e-mail/id. Additional information also need to be included to highlight the instructor’s academic achievement such as teaching experiences, expertise, industrial experiences, and research and development.
Course’s Start And End Date Each course should have start date, end date and course duration. Course duration normally set between 10-14 weeks. Students are expected to participate in the learning process according the specified dates. Important dates such as deadline for submission of assignments and summative evaluation need to be stated.
ID And Passwords Students who want to join the course need to sign-up in the learning platform either via their Facebook, goukar.com or YouTube account or manually create the account on the open learning registration page by filling up the required details. They need to choose their own ID and password which will be requested to sign-in into the course. For
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students completing the Malaysian University MOOCS, they may be required to submit their student ID.
Announcements Each course should provide area for announcements. The announcement area is needed to inform the registered student on the completed activities and summarised the lessons learned. This area will also be used to inform the students the topic for next week, and can also be utilised to remind the students on main activities such as assignment submission, summative evaluation, group assignment that need to be completed and corresponding dates.
Uploading Course Content In Platform The course contents are uploaded in the Content page under Course Set-up. In this page administrators can add/remove modules, arrange modules, set the dates and activities for each week. The contents such as videos, notes, online activities, wikis, forums, assessments and other resources, to name few can be add/remove/arrange in this page.
Trial Run (Pilot Test) After the MOOC’s contents have been uploaded, trial run was executed to ensure that there will be no problem/weakness when the course is publicly offered later. During the trial run, suitable questionnaires need to be developed/designed to identify the weakness in running the MOOC. Any weakness/problem found during the trial run will be corrected/rectified.
Step 4: Implementation In this phase, there are several steps involves which are pilot test, refinement and publish. Below are the details descriptions about the three phases. a) Pilot Test All the courses are reviewed before implementing to the real target users. The courses will be validated with several experts and further being conducted to students in a focus group. In this pilot test, the checklist will be provided and the semi structured interview will be also conducted to get their comments and suggestions towards the course. b) Refinement After the pilot test phase, the refinement process is conducted with several focus groups in order to check the online activities such as forum, discussion, and also the video and notes provided. c) Publish This phase require all the students to be enrolled in the course. When the course is formally published, the students can register the course by themselves and further involve in all the activities provided. Step 5: Maintenance & Benchmarking This phase involved three main processes which are update the course, get continuous feedback form users and also process of applying copyright.
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a)
Update
During the implementation phase with the real target users (students), the course will be updated frequently based on students’ requirement. b)
Continuous Feedback
The continuous feedbacks from users are used to improve the content. Besides, the feedbacks are also used as a guide for developer to make refinement to the course to meet the standard. c) Copyright Last is the process of applying copyright. The copyright is given to the developer. UTM practices the use of materials with Creative Common License – Videos, photos and materials with © Creative Commons symbol are acceptable. Summary MOOCs require features different from the traditional learning environments. This issue reveals the need for careful considerations in design and development process as the online students deserve at least the same level of quality with their traditional counterparts. A distributed online curriculum and module was developed in this study to fulfil the aforementioned needs. This process is based on the same components found in most models of instructional design and this guideline would be useful for educators who need to build and host courses. Merrill (2013) suggests that the successive application of the first principles and central principle of instruction is task-centered learning. He proposes a hierarchy of importance of these principles, whereby the demonstration principle represents the first level of effectiveness; the application principle the second level of effectiveness; the problemcentred principle defines the third level, while including the activation and integration principles further increases the effectiveness of instruction (Merrill, 2013). The five step by step guide describe in this paper represent a design phase of what we know from contemporary instructional theories about what constitutes effective instruction. Therefore, courses should strive to follow as many of these step by step guide as possible. However, we acknowledge that in some courses implementing all these steps will not be a straightforward task, and that in some courses some of these steps may have to be more strongly emphasised than others. This paper has important guideline for practice. The framework proposed in this study could help faculty and instructors offering MOOCs to design better-quality learning. The guideline could serve as an evaluation framework for quality control and improvement of the implementation of MOOCs. As such the authors follow the practical and philosophical suggestions of Kop & Fournier (2010) to add an individual approach to learning as well as a collaborative learning approach as having potential for self-directed learning success. Existing evaluation frameworks focus on learners' opinions and experiences of learning, but tend to disregard instructional design quality, which is an important variable in the overall quality of a course. Even though MOOCs are still in the experimental phase, they would benefit from the application of instructional design phase. References Conole, G. (2013). MOOCs as disruptive technologies: strategies for enhancing the learner experience and quality of MOOCs. RED, Revista de Educación a Distancia. Número 39. Retrieved on 15 December 2015 from http://www.um.es/ead/red/39/conole.pdf
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Kirschner, A. (2012). A pioneer in online education tries a MOOC. Chronicle of Higher Education, 59(6), B21–22. Koutropoulos, A., Gallagher, M. S., Abajian, S. C., de Waard, I., Hogue, R. J., Keskin, N. O., &Rodgriguez, C. O. (2012). Emotive Vocabulary in MOOCs: Context & Participant Retention. European Journal of Open, Distance and E-Learning, 1. Kop, R., & Fournier, H. (2010). New dimensions to self-directed learning in an open networked learning environment. International Journal of Self-Directed Learning, 7(2). Retrieved on 9 January 2016 from http://www.sdlglobal.com/IJSDL/IJSDL7.22010.pdf
Merrill, M. D. (2013). First principles of instruction: Identifying and designing effective, efficient and engaging instruction. Hoboken, NJ: Pfeiffer/John Wiley & Sons. Milligan, Roth, M. S. (2013). My Modern Experience Teaching a MOOC. Chronicle of Higher Education, 59(34), B18–21
A Review of Flipped Classroom: An Approach to Develop Higher Order Thinking Skills Voon Yeun Ting1, Rozniza Zaharudin1
[email protected],
[email protected] 1 School of Educational Studies, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Malaysia
Abstract Higher order thinking skills (HOTS) is a vital issue that has been discussed in the recent education settings since in the traditional lectures, the students unable to achieve to the higher level of learning. In this situation, flipped classroom gains the attentions among the institutions and educators as the flipped classroom able to promote students’ higher-order thinking skills (HOTS). Flipped classroom is an innovative pedagogy that attracts the educators to implement their lessons since this approach reverses the roles, learning styles, assessments between the educators and the students. Flipped classroom enables the educators to facilitate learners’ learning while the learners able to gain the essential skills that fulfill the needs in 21st century education. The purpose of this research is to provide a clear overview of relevant research regarding flipped classroom and higher- order thinking skills (HOTS), flipped classroom in 21st century education and flipped classroom in higher education. The collected journals and articles are selected based on the relevance to this research. The main results from the collected journals and articles show that flipped classroom is important to be implemented in higher education settings and suitable in 21st century education. Flipped classroom enables the students to develop higher order thinking skills in their learning as the students able to achieve themselves to the higher level of learning through the interactive learning environment in this approach. In conclusion, flipped classroom can be the effective method to fit the need of 21st century education and higher education in order to develop higher order thinking skills (HOTS) among the learners to prepare them for the future. Keywords: Higher Order Thinking Skills, Flipped Classroom, 21st Century Education, Higher Education Introduction Higher order thinking skills (HOTS) is one of the student aspirations that have been emphasized in Malaysia Education Blueprint 2013-2025. According to Malaysia Education Blueprint 2013-2025, higher order thinking skills (HOTS) can be defined in a range of cognitive skills such as (i) creative thinking and innovation; (ii) critical thinking and reasoning and (iii) learning capacity.
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Figure1: Bloom’s Taxonomy and Anderson’s Revised Bloom Taxonomy Students can acquire higher order thinking skills (HOTS) when they handling the unfamiliar problems, uncertainties, questions or dilemmas that they have not encountered before. HOTS occur in Bloom’s taxonomy (levels of analysis, synthesis and evaluation levels) and in Anderson’s revised Blooms taxonomy (levels of analyzing, evaluating and creating). Grapragasem, Krishnan & Mansor (2014) claims that teaching and learning is one of the main trends that can be seen in Malaysian Higher Education. In Malaysia Education Blueprint 2013-2025, flipped classroom is a popular model as the teachers shift their roles from the lecturers to the facilitator. Students watch the online lectures outside class time while the students do the interactive activities and discussion at class time. Hamdan, McKnight, P., McKnight, K.& Arfstrom (2013) point out that a group of academicians from the Flipped Learning Network, along with Pearson (2013) have identified four pillars of flipped classroom approach, an acronym of Flexible Environment, requires a shift in Learning Culture, Intentional Content, and Professional Educator. Flipped classroom is pioneered by Jonathan Bergman and Aaron Sams. Jonathan Bergman, the lead technology facilitator for the 600-student K-8 Kenilworth school district in Illinois, is considered one of the pioneers of the flipped classroom. He and his former fellow teacher Aaron Sams began to teach chemistry by using the flipping technique in 2006 at the 950- student Woodland Park High School in Woodland Park, Calif (Hamdan, et al., 2013). Sams and Bergmann (2012) describes the flipped classroom as reverse, inverse or backwards classroom. According to Johnson, Adams Becker, Estrada & Freeman (2014) NMC Horizon Report 2014 Higher Education Edition, they claim that the flipped classroom as one of the digital strategies that can be used in higher education. According to Restad (2013), flipped classroom fulfil the need in higher education settings as the students obtain 21st century skills such as critical thinking, creativity, communications and collaboration through interactive discussion and activities in class time and this approach is also useful to be implemented in large lecture courses. Methods of Review Current Literature The purpose of this research is to provide a clear overview of relevant research regarding flipped classroom and higher- order thinking skills (HOTS), flipped classroom in 21st century education, and flipped classroom in higher education. There are the research questions that have been selected to guide this research and to ensure that a substantial range of literature was captured relating to the topic of interest:
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1. How flipped classroom can be used to develop higher- order thinking skills (HOTS) among the students in 21st century education and in higher education? Key concepts and search terms related to flipped classroom to develop HOTS, flipped classroom in 21st century education, flipped classroom in higher education were used to capture literature. Inclusion and exclusion criteria have been explained in Table 1 below: Table 1 Inclusion and exclusion criteria Criterion
Inclusion
Exclusion
Articles’ time period
2000-2015
Type of articles
Journals
Language
English
The studies before theses dates Articles from websites, newspapers, magazines Non-English studies
Focus of study
Previous literature studies related to flipped classroom in higherorder thinking skills (HOTS), 21st century education and higher education Undergraduate and postgraduate students who have been implemented flipped classroom in their courses
Population
Articles that are no fulfill the key concepts in the study
All other students
There are some electronic databases were used to search the articles related to the flipped classroom: EBSCOHost, Taylor & Francis Online, ProQuest, ScienceDirect, Wiley Online Library. Google Scholar also has been utilized to search the related articles in this study. The collected journals and articles are selected based on the relevance to this research. Therefore, the collected journals are only selected within the flipped classroom in higher education, the articles on flipped classroom in primary or secondary schools setting were excluded. In the searching process, only the full text-version articles related to flipped classroom have been selected in this study. There are many articles have been removed as the articles are duplicated in the databases. Some articles have been found in the chosen databases and Google Scholar but they did not meet the inclusion criteria. The main results from the collected journals and articles show that flipped classroom is important to be implemented in higher education settings and suitable in 21st century education.
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Flipped Classroom vs Traditional Classroom in Teaching and Learning
Figure 2 Comparison between Flipped Classroom and Traditional Classroom (Nichols,2012) Figure 2 above explains about the comparison between flipped classroom and traditional classroom. The students in flipped classroom watch teachers’ interactive lesson outside class time while they work with teachers and peers in class time. Compare to flipped classroom, students in traditional classroom just follow the teachers’ instructions and guidelines in classroom and do their homework at home.It seems like the students in flipped classroom are more independent and responsible in their learning compare the students in traditional classroom. There are several researchers found that flipped classroom encourage the students to gain greater learning in the flipped model than the students who have been taught in the traditional model (Day & Foley, 2006; Chen, Stelzer & Gladding, 2010; Moravec, Williams, Aguilar-Roca, & O’Dowd, 2010; Lewis & Harrison, 2012; Pierce& Fox, 2012; Sadaghiani,2012). Flipped classroom in 21st Century Education Malaysia Education Blueprint 2013-2025 shows that Malaysia education need new transformation in education system in order to help the students to develop 21st century skills. Teaching and learning have to be improved instead of adding staff and facilities. Rahman, Aris, Mohamed, Zaid (2014) explain the implementation of technology in the Flipped Classroom approach is related with 21st century learning that also emphasizes on the use of technology in education.
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Figure 3 The Framework for 21st Century Learning (Greenhill, 2009) According to Greenhill-Framework for 21st Century learning (2009) in figure 3 above, millennial students need to acquire 21st century skills in 21st Century education. This Framework explains students must master skills, knowledge and expertise to succeed in work and life in 21st century learning. Gajjar (2013) mentions that 21st century education should focus on the ways to prepare students for their future- a competitive job market but most of the education settings still not exist yet. 21st century skills such as critical thinking, creativity, communications and collaboration should be develop by the educator to use flipped classroom model to encourage the student-centered learning activities. Flipped Classroom in Higher Education Many higher education institutions have the goals to increase the quality of instruction by flipping their classrooms and evaluating the efforts to implement this method (Mclaughlin, Roth, Glatt, Gharkholonarehe, Davidson, Griffin, Esserman, & Mumper, 2013). According to Ferreri, S., & O'Connor (2013), teaching approaches which go beyond traditional lecture instruction are the most effective way to promote learning and best engage students. Studentcentered approach which tries to embrace technology has become a teaching medium due to the recent changes in higher education. Ward, Peters & Shelley (2013) assert that the educators need to consider educational materials, instructional methods based on their pedagogical decision-making that can affect the quality of the learning materials in both faceto face and online modalities. Flipped classroom and Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) There are the journals and articles selected based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria. The evidences of the flipped classroom and higher order thinking skills (HOTS) have been explained in Table 2.
34 Table 2 Evidences on Flipped classroom and Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS)
Authors
Year
Location
Population
Evidences
Green and Sparrow
2015
United States
General Education marine science course students
Murphy, Chang & Suaray
2015
United States
Moraros, Islam, Yu, Banow, & Schindelka
2015
Canada
Introductory Linear Algebra class Between traditional students and flipped students Introductory epidemiology Class students
Students able utilize higher-order thinking skills by using flipped classroom model. Flipped students have achieved better performances on a higher level of Bloom’s Taxonomy than traditional students.
Kharat, Joshi, Badadhe, Jejurikar& Dharmadhikari,
2015
India
Case study 1Engineering Students Case study 2 -Microbiology Students Performing Arts students
Danker
2015
Malaysia
Schneider, Munro & Krishnan
2014
Australia
Students in Pharmacokinetics course
Carvalho, H & McCandless
2014
United States
Second year medical students
United States
Nursing students
Towle & Breda
2014
Flipped Classroom enables the students to utilize higher order thinking throughout the course compared to a traditional lecture format. Flipped classroom model enables the students (engineering and microbiology) to develop higher-order thinking skills (HOTS). Students able to work actively and develop higher order thinking skills (HOTS) in flipped classroom. Students able to develop higher order thinking skills (HOTS) when they involved in interactive activities and discussions. Flipped classroom helps the learners to develop higher order thinking skills (HOTS). Flipping classroom enhance critical thinking skills and improved the clinical judgment.
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Sarawagi
2014
United States
Algorithmic thinking course undergraduate
Kiat, P. N., & Kwong, Y. T
2014
Singapore
Software Engineering year two students
McGivney-Burelle & Xue
2013
United States
Calculus students
McLaughlin, Roth, Glatt, Gharkholonarehe, Davidson, Griffin& Mumper
2013
United States
First-year pharmaceutics course students
Flipped classroom is able to encourage the students to learn in the higher levels of learning (applying, analyzing, evaluating and creating as enumerated in the revised Bloom's Taxonomy. Active learning activities, in flipped classroom able to enhance higher-order thinking skills (HOTS) of students. Students in flipped classroom able to receive more teacher and peer support when they participate in higher order-thinking skills activities. Flipped classroom allow the students to develop higher order cognitive skills and also increase their engagement and participation in meaningful learning.
In table 2, there are some researches and evidences that have selected to provide a clear pictures that flipped classroom able the student to utilize the higher order thinking skills in their learning as the students able to achieve themselves to the higher order thinking (HOTS) through the interactive learning environment in this approach. Compare to other countries, Malaysian studies of flipped classroom to develop higher order thinking skills (HOTS) are still limited. Based on the 12 articles reviews that have been selected, flipped classroom approach is able to develop higher-order thinking as the effective use of class time encourage the students to participate in higher-order thinking activities while the students able to achieve lower order thinking skills outside the class time. Conclusion In higher education, many colleges and universities in foreign have been adopted flipped classroom approach to be implemented in their campuses. The instructors in Malaysia should recognize the need for differentiation in the 21st century education. The Malaysia instructors should aware the trends of 21st century education by trying to learn to implement this new approach in the teaching practices. This study provides good evidence to the instructors and the students by provide a clear overview of relevant research regarding flipped classroom and higher- order thinking skills (HOTS), flipped classroom in 21st century education and flipped classroom in higher education.
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This study is significant to the Ministry of Education Malaysia, educators to know how the flipped classroom model can help to develop higher order thinking skills (HOTS) in higher education and one if the strategies that can be used in 21st century education. This study contributes to an innovative pedagogy of teaching and learning in Malaysia higher education. Innovative teaching and learning styles, virtual learning environment are able to meet the need of Malaysia education to produce 21st century learners. Recommendations for future work Further studies Since the research about the flipped classroom in developing higher order thinking skills (HOTS) are still limited especially in Malaysia, more samples, colleges and universities in Malaysia towards this research can be conducted in the future studies. This study is only focuses on the students in higher education. Therefore, more research about the review of flipped classroom to enhance higher order thinking skills (HOTS) in school contexts can be conducted to give a clear and detailed overview towards the use of flipped classroom in education. References Anderson, L.W., Krathwohl, D.R., Airasian, P.W., Cruikshank, K.A., Mayer, R.E., Pintrich, P.R., Raths, J., Wittrock, M.C. (2001). A Taxonomy for Learning, Teaching, and Assessing: A revision of Bloom's Taxonomy of Educational Objectives. New York: Pearson, Allyn & Bacon. Bloom, B. S., & Krathwohl, D. R. (1956). Taxonomy of educational objectives: The classification of educational goals. Handbook I: Cognitive domain. Brame, C., (2013). Flipping the classroom. Retrieved Wednesday, April 9, 2014 from http://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/flipping-the-classroom/ Carvalho, H., & McCandless, M. (2014). Implementing the flipped classroom.Revista Hospital Universitário Pedro Ernesto, 13(4). Chen, Z., Stelzer, T., & Gladding, G. (2010). Using Multimedia Modules to Better Prepare Students for Introductory Physics Lecture. Physical Review Special Topics - Physics Education Research, 6(1), 010108-1--010108-5. Danker, B. (2015). Using Flipped Classroom Approach to Explore Deep Learning in Large Classrooms. the IAFOR Journal of Education, 3(1), 171-186. Day, J. A., & Foley, J. D. (2006). Evaluating a Web Lecture Intervention in a Human– Computer Interaction Course. IEEE Transactions On Education, 49(4), 420-431. doi:10.1109/TE.2006.879792 Ferreri, S., & O'Connor (2013). Instructional design and assessment. Redesign of a large lecture course into a small-group learning course. American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education, 77(1), 1–9. Gajjar, D. N. B. (2013). The Role of Technology in 21st Century. International Journal for Research in Education. ISSN: 2320-091X, Vol. 02, Issue 02, February 2013 pp. 2325. Grapragasem, S., Krishnan, A., & Mansor, A. N. (2014). Current Trends in Malaysian Higher Education and the Effect on Education Policy and Practice: An Overview. International Journal of Higher Education, 3(1), p85. Green, D., & Sparrow, J.(2015) Flipping an Introductory Science Course Using Emerging Technologies. An International Journal in Science Education & Civic Engagement.
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Hamdan, N., McKnight, P., McKnight, K., & Arfstrom, K. (2013). The flipped learning model: a white paper based on the literature review titled a review of flipped learning. Arlington, VA: Flipped Learning Network. Johnson, L., Adams Becker, S., Estrada, V., Freeman, A. (2014). NMC Horizon Report: 2014 Higher Education Edition. Austin, Texas: The New Media Consortium. Kiat, P. N., & Kwong, Y. T. (2014, April). The flipped classroom experience. In Software Engineering Education and Training (CSEE&T), 2014 IEEE 27th Conference on (pp. 39-43). IEEE. Kharat, A. G., Joshi, R. S., Badadhe, A. M., Jejurikar, S. S., & Dharmadhikari, N. P. (2015). Flipped Classroom for Developing Higher Order Thinking Skills. Journal of Engineering Education Transformations, 116-121. Lewis, J. S., & Harrison, M. A. (2012). Online delivery as a course adjunct promotes active learning and student success. Teaching of Psychology, 39(1), 72‐76. McGivney-Burelle, J., & Xue, F. (2013). Flipping calculus. Primus, 23(5), 477-486. McLaughlin, J., Roth, M., Glatt, D., Gharkholonarehe, N., Davidson, C., Griffin, L., & ... Mumper, R. (2014). The Flipped Classroom: A Course Redesign to Foster Learning and Engagement in a Health Professions School. Academic Medicine, 89(2), 236-243. Ministry Education Malaysia (2012). Preliminary Report Malaysia Education Blueprint 2013-2025. Retrieved from www.moe.gov.my/userfiles/file/PPP/PreliminaryBlueprint-Eng.pdf Moraros, J., Islam, A., Yu, S., Banow, R., & Schindelka, B. (2015). Flipping for success: evaluating the effectiveness of a novel teaching approach in a graduate level setting. BMC medical education, 15(1), 1. Moravec, M., Williams, A., Aguilar-Roca, N., & O'Dowd, D. K. (2010). Learn before lecture: a strategy that improves learning outcomes in a large introductory biology class. CBE-Life Sciences Education, 9(4), 473-481. Murphy, J., Chang, J. M., & Suaray, K. (2015). Student performance and attitudes in a collaborative and flipped linear algebra course. International Journal of Mathematical Education in Science and Technology, 1-21. Nichols, D. (2012, September 18). Flip Classroom Instruction: How to Guide Part 1 -Educational technology tips. Educational Technology Tips. Pearson & The Flipped Learning Network (2013). Flipped Learning and Higher Education Retrieved from http://www.flippedlearning.org/cms /lib07/VA01923112/Centricity/Domain/ 41/HigherEdWhitePaper%20FINAL.pdf Phillips, C. R., & Trainor, J. E. (2014). Millennial Students and the Flipped Classroom. Journal of Business & Educational Leadership, 5(1), 102. Pierce, R. & Fox, J. (2012). Vodcasts and active‐learning exercises in a “flipped classroom” model of a renal pharmacotheraphy module. American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education, 76(10): 196. Rahman, A. A., Aris, B., Mohamed, H., & Zaid, N. M. (2014, December). The influences of Flipped Classroom: A meta analysis. In Engineering Education (ICEED), 2014 IEEE 6th Conference on (pp. 24-28). IEEE. Restad, P. (2013). Flipped learning in higher education. Always Learning. Sadaghiani, H. R. (2012). Online prelectures: an alternative to textbook reading assignments. Physics Teacher, 50(5), 301‐303. Sarawagi, N. (2014). A flipped CS0 classroom: applying Bloom's taxonomy to algorithmic thinking. Journal of Computing Sciences in Colleges, 29(6), 21-28. Schneider, J., Munro, I., & Krishnan, S. (2014). Flipping the Classroom for Pharmacokinetics. American Journal of Educational Research, 2(12), 1225-1229.
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Towle, A., & Breda, K. (2014). Teaching the Millennial Nursing Student: Using a. Nursing and Health, 2(6), 107-114. Ward, M. E., Peters, G., & Shelley, K. (2013). Student and faculty perceptions of the quality of online learning experiences. International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning, 11(3), 57–7
Meningkatkan KBAT: Situasi Semasa dan Bagaimana Menanganinya Sabri Mohd Salleh1, Eng Tek Ong1
[email protected],
[email protected] 1 Fakulti Pendidikan dan Pembangunan Manusia, Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris, Tg Malim, Perak, Malaysia
Abstrak Niat Kerajaan Malaysia khususnya Kementerian Pendidikan Malaysia (KPM) dan Kementerian Pengajian Tinggi (KPT) supaya warga Malaysia khususnya graduan universiti dan lepasan sekolah mempunyai kemahiran berfikir adalah suatu yang tidak dapat disangkal kerana ia tertulis dalam dokumen-dokumen rasmi sama ada dokumen kurikulum yang diterbitkan oleh Pusat Perkembangan Kurikulum, KPM mahupun dokumen kurikulum program-program pengajian di peringkat universiti. Bagi guru mengajar kemahiran aras tinggi (KBAT) kepada murid-murid, mereka sendiri mesti fasih mengenai KBAT itu serta bagaimana mengajarnya. Tujuan kajian ini adalah untuk mengesan pengetahuan mengenai KBAT dalam kalangan guru yang sedang mengajar dan pelajar-pelajar yang bakal menjadi guru. Kajian ini menggabungkan pendekatan kuantitatif dan kualitatif. Dapatan kajian mendapati pengetahuan guru-guru ini adalah rendah dan ini selari dengan pandangan Tsui (1999) yang merumuskan bahawa “…despite wide promotion of thinking skill, some researchers have found the amount of growth displayed by students to be disappointingly, if not alarmingly low” (Tsui, 1999: 186). Kenapa ini berlaku mungkin akan diterangkan dengan menggunakan Water Hose Model (Sternberg & Martin, 1988) yang menganalogikan kelemahan pembelajaran KBAT adalah disebabkan oleh [1] The Dry Well Model atau model perigi kering, [2] The Depressurized Water-Spigot Model (model yang tidak mempunyai daya tekanan yang mencukupi), [3] The Holey Hose Model (model paip bocor) atau [4] The No-Good Nozzle Model (model paip tidak baik). Pandangan para guru yang menerangkan kenapa situasi ini berlaku serta bagaimana menanganinya akan dibincangkan dengan menggunakan pendekatan kaedah tema beserta implikasi terhadap pembelajaran KBAT di Malaysia. Kata Kunci: Kemahiran Berfikir Aras Tinggi, Model Pusat Perkembangan Kurikulum, Model Swartz Pengenalan Higgins (2014) mengulas sebuah buku yang cuba menerangkan bagaimana kurikulum yang ada perlu memenuhi matlamat yang ingin dicapai khususnya oleh generasi akan datang. Kurikulum yang tradisional agar sukar membawa warga-warga ke arah yang lebih produktif. Walau bagaimanapun, keinginan ke arah yang lebih baik sahaja belum tentu dapat dioperasikan khasnya jika bantahan-bantahan datang dari pihak yang tidak jelas berkenaan unsur baru yang ingin dibawa masuk. Higgins (2014) memetik Saber-Tooth-Curriculum yang dilaksanakan pada suatu tempoh fiksyen era Paleolitik. Kurikulum ini menyediakan para pelajar untuk berkebolehan dalam tiga kemahiran utama iaitu [1] menangkap ikan dengan tangan semata-mata, [2] memukul kuda hingga mati dan [3] menakutkan harimau bertaring (sabre-tooth tiger) dengan api. Pada masa fiksyen berkenaan, ketiga-tiga isi pelajaran adalah sesuai dan relevan kepada keperluan masyarakt berkenaan. Namun bila masa fiskyen ini berubah akibat perubahan iklim, kemahiran menangkap ikan dengan tangan semata-mata
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tidak lagi sesuai kerana air yang agak kelam menyukarkan melihat pergerakan ikan; ini diganti dengan kurikulum membuat jaring, suatu cara lain menangkap ikan sebagai sumber makanan. Kemahiran kedua yang digunakan adalah untuk memukul kuda (yang digunakan sebagai sumber daging) hingga mati tidak lagi dapat digunakan kerana kuda-kuda berkenaan telah bermigrasi ke tempat lain dan kini digantikan oleh rusa yang jauh lebih laju lariannya, maka warga diajar cara memasang perangkap untuk menangkap rusa yang sukar dikejar ini. Jika dahulu ancaman harimau dapat diatasi dengan memasang api, namun kini beruang yang menggantikan harimau tidak lagi takut pada api, oleh itu, warga diajar untuk menggali parit agar lebih selamat terhadap serangan beruang nanti. Perubahan-perubahan rekaan yang dihuraikan oleh Higgins (2014) ini merupakan analogi terhadap betapa perlunya kemahiran berfikir aras tinggi (kbat) dalam kehidupan warga. Tidak kurang sarjana merujuk kbat sebagai salah satu kemahiran hidup. Kepentingan kbat untuk menjadikan hidup lebih bermakna dilalui meluas dalam literatur. Mengikut Roohi (2014) kemahiran-kemahiran hidup seperti pengurusan diri (yang meliputi pengurusan stress dan marah, pengurusan masa dan kemahiran mengawal diri), kesedaran sosial (yang meliputi empati, pendengaran aktif, mengenali dan menghargai individu dan kumpulan), perhubungan (yang meliputi kebolehan berunding, pengurusan konflik, mengenakan tekanan rakan sebaya, motivasi) serta membuat keputusan yang bertanggung jawab (yang meliputi pengumpulan maklumat, menilai implikasi) kesemuanya memerlukan kbat. Khusus bagi remaja, ia dapat memelihara mereka dari terlibat dengan aktiviti anti-sosial. Selaras dengan lain-lain kemahiran, kbat juga merupakan memenuhi definisi suatu kemahiran hidup yang dicadangkan oleh Roohi (2014) iaitu kebolehan yang diperlukan untuk kebolehan mengubahsuai dengan berkesan dalam menangani keperluan dan cabaran kehidupan harian. Ramai pendidik lain juga berpendapat kbat adalah kemahiran yang penting, antaranya guru-guru di Iran (Asghareidari & Tahriri, 2015) serta para pelajar di Turki (Aksu & Koruklu, 2015). Kbat memberi peluang untuk pelajar melihat sesuatu itu dari pelbagai aspek. Penerapan kbat sewajar diberi penekanan semasa pelajar belajar pelbagai bahasa asing (Liua, Wub & Shieehc, 2015). Usaha menerapkan kbat dalam mata pelajaran antaranya Bahasa Inggeris seperti yang dihuraikan oleh Liua et al (2015), mahupun Odom, Shehane, Moore & McKim (2014) dalam pertanian menunjukan pelbagai kaedah boleh digunakan untuk menerapkan kbat. Liua et al (2015) menggunakan debat sementara Odom et al (2014) lebih menggunakan lawatan sambil belajar yang berimpak tinggi. Odom et al (2014) menggunakan rubrik untuk mengukur kejayaan penguasaan kbat oleh pelajar mereka cuba mengenalpasti pemerolehan kbat dari perspesktif integrasi, kerelevanan, ketepatan, kejelasan, kedalaman, logik dan kesignifikan. Pernyataan masalah Pengukuran itu sendiri bermasalah kerana ia berkait rapat dengan terminologi yang digunakan. Keinginan mengajar kbat atau pemikiran kritis melampaui alat ukur yang dapat mengukur kbat. Weisberg (2013) antara sarjana menonjolkan isu berkaitan pengukuran kbat. Walau bagaimana pun, seruan untuk para pelajar berkebolehan dalam kbat meluas di warwarkan walau pun kadang kala dengan terminologi yang berlainan. Choy dan Cheah (2009) mengutarakan kerisauan dalam memenuhi keinginan masyarakat agar warga boleh mengamalkan kbat. Mengikut mereka, oleh kerana gurulah yang diandaikan berkebolehan dalam kbat dan mereka diyakini mengamalkan pengajaran dalam kbat, tanggungjawab utama adalah untuk memastikan memang para guru yang mengajar kbat berkompetensi seperti yang diharap tetapi mereka sendiri meraguinya. Oleh itu soalan kajian adalah:
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Soalan kajian 1 Apakah prestasi pemahaman makna istilah dalam kbat dalam kalangan pelajar sarjana dari kalangan guru yang sedang mengajar (GSM)? Soalan kajian 2 Adakah terdapat perbezaan prestasi pemahaman makna istilah dalam kbat di antara pelajar sarjana dari kalangan guru yang sedang mengajar (GSM) berbanding pelajar ijazah sarjana muda pendidikan? Konsep Kemahiran Berfikir Aras Tinggi (KBAT) Konsep KBAT yang digunakan adalah seperti mana yang digunakan oleh Pusat Perkembangan Kurikulum seperti di Rajah 1. Kerangka konsep kbat ini kemudian dikembangkan dengan konsep HOTS (higher order thinking skills) yang di teorikan oleh Swartz, Fischer dan Parks (1998) seperti dalam Rajah 2 di bawah.
Rajah 1 Model Pusat Perkembangan Kurikulum
Rajah 2 Model Swartz et al (1988)
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Kedua-dua model ini meletakkan membuat keputusan dan menyelesaikan masalah sebagai kemahiran makro terminal yang perlu dicapai. Model PPK menambah mengkonsepsi selain daripada membuat keputusan dan menyelesaikan masalah. Ketiga-tiga konsep ini PPK melabelkannya sebagai strategi berfikir. Mengikut definisi PPK, KBAT adalah KBKK (kemahiran berfikir kritis dan kreatif) yang dipelopori pada tahun-tahun 90an dan kini dijenamakan semula sebagai KBAT. KBKK sendiri adalah berunsurkan pemikiran kritis (pk) atau critical thinking khususnya berkait dengan definisi oleh Ennis (1995) iaitu deciding what to believe or do yang memerlukan kemahiran terminal membuat keputusan dan menyelesaikan masalah. Status KBAT yang didakwa rendah boleh disebabkan oleh pelbagai perkara, antaranya kbat itu memang sukar (lihat van Gelder 2005). Walaupun banyak institusi meletakkan kbat sebagai tujuan utama kurikulum (Browne, Hoag & Berilla 1995), namun pelaksanaannya menemui pelbagai halangan, antaranya kekangan pentadbiran, kekangan dari pihak tenaga pengajar sendiri (Costa 1985, Haas & Keeley 1998, Khodori Ahmad 2000) atau ketiadaan buku teks yang sesuai (Carlson 1995). Status yang rendah ini mungkin dapat diterangkan dengan lebih jelas melalui analogi yang dikemukakan oleh Sternberg & Martin (1988). Menurut Sternberg & Martin, ramai guru mendakwa yang mereka mengajar murid berfikir “Virtually all teachers believe that they teach for thinking. When we asked them whether they believe that their students are learning to think, however most of them shrug their shoulders or otherwise convey an indefinite response”(1988: 555). Menurut mereka lagi, guru memang berniat ikhlas mengajar murid mereka berfikir tetapi menghadapi masalah dalam menentukan cara yang terbaik dalam transmisi. Dalam menerangkan fenomena ini, Sternberg & Martin (1988) telah menggunakan analogi model paip air (water hose model). Kata mereka transmisi pengajaran berfikir samalah seperti air yang dikeluarkan oleh paip. Empat model tersebut adalah: Model 1 – The Dry Well Model atau model perigi kering. Dalam model ini, kedua-dua guru dan penulis buku teks berusaha mengajar berfikir namun kerana kontennya tiada pada mereka, maka niat mereka ini tidak dapat dilaksanakan iaitu mereka tiada konten berfikir atau perigi mereka kering. Model 2 – The Depressurized Water-Spigot Model (model yang tidak mempunyai daya tekanan yang mencukupi). Mengikut model ini, guru telah berusaha untuk mengajar berfikir tetapi usaha yang mereka laksanakan tidak mencukupi seperti mana air yang walau pun banyak, tidak akan keluar jika punat pengawalnya tidak dibuka secukupnya. Model 3 – The Holey Hose Model (model paip bocor). Dalam model ini guru telah memberikan usaha yang mencukupi tetapi apa yang mereka ingin sampaikan tidak dapat diterima oleh murid akibat kebocoran yang ujud di sepanjang hos berkenaan. Kebocoran atau pencairan bermula daripada masa guru mula menyediakan bahan pengajaran sehinggalah konten berkenaan diterima oleh murid dan seterusnya bila murid ingin menggunakan konten tersebut. Model 4 - The No-Good Nozzle Model (model paip tidak baik). Model ini memberi analogi bahawa apa yang diniatkan oleh guru untuk diajar telah diajar dengan baik dan murid sendiri telah menerimanya dengan baik. Apa yang telah murid serap, mereka tidak dapat gunakan. Pengetahuan yang guru ajar kekal dalam simpanan murid kerana murid tidak tahu dalam keadaan manakah ia sesuai digunakan.
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Analogi ini selaras dengan tujuan kajian ini iaitu untuk mengenal pasti apakah status kbat dalam kalangan guru yang sedang mengajar (GSM). Status KBAT Kini Status sebenar kbat berasaskan prestasi yang piawai tidak ujud. Selain dari laporan yang bersifat kualitatif tanpa data empirikal, prestasi kbat dirujuk sebagai “boleh diterima” jika ia melepasi skor median instrumen-instrumen yang digunakan (Norris 1985). Walau bagaimana pun, kaedah ini terdedah kepada ciri-ciri berbeza populasi yang ditaksir kbatnya. Laporan-laporan tanpa data empirikal yang mendakwa prestasi kbat di Amerika Syarikat adalah rendah adalah banyak (lihat Baron, Granola, Spranca & Teubal, 1993, Derry, Levin & Osana 2000, Keeley, Browne & Kreutzer 1982, Klaczyaski & Fanth 1996, Kuhn 1986, Kyzer 1996, Perkins 1985, Snow 1996, Zohar, Weinberger & Tamir, 1994), Ini dirumuskan oleh Tsui (1999) yang memetik para ilmuan lain mengatakan bahawa “despite wide promotion of critical thinking skill, some researchers have found the amount of growth displayed by students to be disappointingly, if not alarmingly low”(1999: 186). Kesimpulan berkenaan pengaruh jantina terhadap prestasi pk adalah bercampurcampur. Terdapat dapatan yang menunjukkan tiada perbezaan (Myers & Dyer 2004, Sarikat Selamat 1999) dan prestasi perempuan lebih tinggi berbanding lelaki (Chua 2002, 2004). Walau bagaimana pun, ada perbezaan skor pk antara taraf ijazah (Channel 2000, Norris 1985, Onwuegbuzie 2001, Vaughan-Wrobbel, Sullivan & Smith, 1997, Zettergren & Beckett 2004), antara etnik (Gadzella, Masten & Huang, 1999), antara pengajian (Norris 1985) serta antara budaya akademik sekolah biasa dan sekolah tentera (Yang & Lin 2004). Kebanyakan kajian dalam meta analisisnya menunjukkan tiada perbezaan prestasi pk antara bidang (Tsui 1998). Jika ada pun, lebih disebabkan oleh aptitud pelajar. Ini termasuk antara pelajar yang berpengkhususan liberal arts, sains sosial, matematik, sains fizikal, perniagaan dan sain kesihatan (Spaulding & Kleiner 1992), antara pelajar biologi dan bukan biologi (Moll & Allen 1982) dan antara pelajar program sastera dan pelajar program sains (Simon & Ward 1974). Bagi kajian-kajian Terenzini, Springer, Pascarella & Nora (1995), bilangan kursus dan disiplin yang berlainan menunjukkan perkaitan dengan skor pasca ujian pk di hujung Tahun 1 tapi perbezaan ini hilang bila skor pra pk dimalarkan. Begitu juga dengan kajian King, Wood & Mines (1990) yang mendapati pelajar siswazah bidang sains sosial berbanding pelajar siswazah bidang matematik-sains menunjukkan skor yang lebih tinggi dalam Reflective Judgment Inventory atau RJI walaupun tiada perbezaan dikesan bagi kedua-dua kumpulan di peringkat undergraduate Tahun 4. Dengan menggunakan WGCTA dan CCTT pula, pelajar bidang matematik dan sains menunjukkan skor yang tinggi berbanding pelajar bidang sains sosial tetapi perbezaan ini tidak kelihatan bila aptitud akademik dimalarkan. Sejauh mana matlamat yang diinginkan oleh kerajaan masyarakat, para gurulah yang akan dibebani penerapan kbat dalam kalangan para pelajar sekolah. Seperti mana yang dihuraikan dalam Model Sternber dan Martin (1988), mempunyai pengetahuan dan kemahiran dalam kbat dalam kalangan guru adalah perkara utama. Metodologi Rekabentuk Kajian ini menggunakan rekabentuk deskriptif inferensi kerana bertujuan membandingkan prestasi kbat dalam kalangan guru yang sedang mengajar dengan bakal guru yang belum mengajar.
44
Persampelan Kajian ini menggunakan persampelan secara kebetulan (convenient sampling) dimana seramai 30 orang pelajar yang berdaftar untuk kursus sarjana dilibatkan. Mereka ini adalah guru-guru yang sedang mengajar di sekolah-sekolah rendah dan menengah diseluruh semenanjung. Juga dilibatkan adalah 21 orang pelajar ijazah sarjana muda yang mengambil pengkhususan pendidikan. Oleh kerana kajian ini membandingkan prestasi guru-guru yang sedang mengajar disekolah iaitu pelajar sarjana dengan bakal guru yang belum mengajar disekolah dan sedang menghadiri program sarjana muda pendidikan, maka pemilihan sampel berkenaan adalah wajar. Instrumen Instrumen yang digunakan adalah bersifat ujian. Terdapat 28 istilah kbat yang digunakan seperti dalam senarai di bawah dan adalah berdasarkan Swartz dan PPK. Para pelajar dikehendaki memadankan istilah atau nama kbat dengan makna kbat tersebut. Jadual 1 Istilah KBAT dan Makna No. KBAT 1. Mencirikan (Attributing) 2.
Membanding beza (Comparing and contrasting)
3.
Mengumpul dan mengelas (Grouping and classifying)
4.
Membuat urutan (sequencing)
5.
Menyusun mengikut keutamaan (Prioritizing/ ranking) Menganalisis (Analysing)
6.
7.
Mengesan kecondongan (Detecting bias)
8.
Menilai (Evaluating)
Makna Mengenal pasti kriteria seperti ciri, sifat, kualiti dan unsur sesuatu konsep atau objek (Identifying characteristics, features, qualities and elements of a concept or an object). Mencari persamaan dan perbezaan berdasarkan kriteria seperti ciri, sifat, kualiti dan unsur sesuatu objek atau peristiwa (Finding similarities and differences based on criteria such as characteristics, features, qualities and elements of a concept or event) Mengasingkan dan mengumpulkan objek atau fenomena kepada kumpulan masing-masing berdasarkan kriteria tertentu seperti ciri atau sifat. Pengumpulan ini adalah berdasarkan ciri atau sifat sepunya. (Separating objects or phenomena into categories based on certain criteria such as common characteristics or features). Menyusun objek dan maklumat mengikut tertib berdasarkan kualiti atau kuantiti ciri atau sifatnya seperti saiz, masa, bentuk atau bilangan. (Arranging objects and information in order based on the quality or quantity of common characteristics or features such as size, time, shape or number) Menyusun objek atau maklumat mengikut tertib berdasarkan kepentingan atau kesegeraan (Arranging objects and information in order based on their importance or priority) Mengolah maklumat dengan menghuraikannya kepada bahagian yang lebih kecil bagi memahami sesuatu konsep atau peristiwa serta mencari makna yang tersirat (Examining information in detail by breaking it down into smaller parts to find implicit meanings and relationships) Mengesan pandangan atau pendapat yang berpihak kepada atau menentang sesuatu (Identifying views or opinions that have the tendency to support or oppose something in an unfair or misleading way) Membuat pertimbangan tentang sesuatu perkara dari segi kebaikan dan keburukan, berdasarkan bukti atau dalil yang sah (Making judgements on the quality or value of something based on valid reasons or evidence)
45 No. KBAT 9. Membuat kesimpulan/ mencari sebab (finding reason/ making conclusion) 10. Menjana idea (generating ideas/ possibilities) 11. Menghubung kait (Relating)
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
Makna Membuat pernyataan tentang hasil sesuatu kajian yang berdasarkan kepada sesuatu hipotesis atau mengukuhkan sesuatu perkara berdasarkan penyiasatan (Making a statement about the outcome of an investigation that is based on a hypothesis) Menghasilkan idea yang berkaitan dengan sesuatu perkara (Producing or giving ideas in a discussion)
Membuat perkaitan dalam sesuatu keadaan atau peristiwa untuk mencari sesuatu struktur atau corak perhubungan (Making connections in a certain situation to determine a structure or pattern of relationship) Membuat inferens Membuat kesimpulan awal yang munasabah, yang mungkin benar (Making inferences) atau tidak benar untuk menerangkan sesuatu peristiwa atau pemerhatian (Using past experiences or previously collected data to draw conclusions and explain events) Meramal (prediction) Membuat jangkaan tentang sesuatu peristiwa berdasarkan pemerhatian dan pengalaman yang lalu atau data yang boleh dipercayai (Stating the outcome of a future event based on prior knowledge gained through experiences or collected data) Membuat hipotesis Membuat sesuatu pernyataan umum tentang hubungan antara (Drawing/ making a pemboleh ubah yang difikirkan benar bagi menerangkan sesuatu hypothesis) perkara atau peristiwa. Pernyataan ini boleh diuji untuk membuktikan kesahihannya (Making general statement about the relationship between manipulated variables and responding variables to explain observations or events. The statements can be tested to determine validity) Mensintesis Menggabungkan unsur yang berasingan untuk menghasilkan satu (Synthesizing) gambaran menyeluruh dalam bentuk seperti pernyataan, lukisan dan artifak (Combining separate elements or parts to form a general picture in various forms such as writing, drawing or artefact) Mengitlak Membuat pernyataan umum terhadap sesuatu perkara untuk (Generalization) keseluruhan kumpulan berdasarkan pemerhatian ke atas sampel atau beberapa maklumat daripada kumpulan itu (Making a generalization or a general conclusion about a group based on observations on, or information from, samples of the group) Membuat gambaran Membuat tanggapan atau membayangkan sesuatu idea, konsep, mental (Making mental keadaan atau gagasan dalam minda atau fikiran (Recalling or images) forming mental images about a particular idea, concept, situation or vision). Membuat analogi/ Membentuk kefahaman tentang sesuatu konsep yang kompleks atau Menganalogi/ drawing a mujarad secara mengaitkan konsep itu dengan konsep yang mudah metaphor (creating atau maujud yang mempunyai ciri yang serupa. (Understanding analogy/ metaphor) abstract or complex concepts by relating them to simpler or concrete concepts with similar characteristics) Mereka cipta Perbuatan kreatif yang menghasilkan suatu alat, objek, idea, (Inventing) prosedur, proces atau teknik/kaedah yang cukup unik untuk menghasilkan perubahan yang bermakna dalam penggunaan teknologi (Producing something new or adapting something already in existence to overcome problems in a systematic manner) Mengkonsepsi Membayangkan atau menggambarkan perkaitan sesuatu sekumpulan (Conceptualizing) konsep dalam minda (Making generalisations based on interrelated and common characteristics in order to construct meaning, concept or model)
46 No. KBAT 21. Membuat keputusan (Making decision)
22.
Penyelesaian masalah (Problem solving)
23.
Perkaitan bahagian dan keseluruhan (parts/ whole relationship)
24.
Menganalisa hujah (analyzing arguments) Mencari sebab/ buat kesimpulan (Finding reasons for occurrence of an event) Mengenal pasti andaian (uncovering assumptions) Menganalisa/ menentukan kebolehpercayaan sumber (Determinig reliability of the source of information) Menganalisa atau menentukan kebolehpercayaan atau ketepatan pemerhatian (Determining the accuracy of an observation)
25.
26.
27.
28.
Makna Membuat pilihan dari pilihan-pilihan yang ada berdasarkan kriteriakriteria spesifik untuk memenuhi matlamat tertentu (Selecting the best solution from various alternatives based on specific criteria to achieve a specific aim) Tiada pilihan yang wujud dan alternatif atau penyelesaian perlu dijana secara sistematik (Finding solutions to challenging or unfamiliar situations or unanticipated difficulties in a systematic manner) Menghubungkait keseluruhan dan bahagian-bahagian yang menyumbang yang menyumbang secara sumatif kepada keseluruhan struktur organisasi (Relating parts to whole as a summative to organizational structure) Sejauh mana sesuatu hujah itu disokong oleh bukti (The extent to which an argument is supported by evidence/s) Mengenal pasti punca sesuatu itu terjadi (Determining factors that cause an event)
Menerima sesuatu sebagai benar tanpa bukti yang nyata, akibat tabiat atau trenda (accepting something as the truth without needing to provide evidence, normally due to habit or trends) Menentukan sejauh mana sesuatu itu boleh dipercayai kebenarannya berdasarkan sumber asalnya (Determining the reliability of a source of information)
Menentukan sejauh mana sesuatu pemerhatian boleh diterima sebagai fakta (Determining the accuracy of an observation and accepted as a fact)
Analisa data Data yang telah dipungut telah dimasukkan dengan menggunakan perisian SPSS dan seterusnya di kira dengan menggunakan ujian t. Dapatan Kajian Soalan kajian 1 Apakah prestasi pemahaman makna istilah dalam kbat dalam kalangan pelajar sarjana dari kalangan guru yang sedang mengajar (GSM)? Berdasarkan Jadual 1 yang dipaparkan di atas, prestasi pemahaman makna istilah dalam kbat dalam kalangan pelajar sarjana dalam kalangan guru yang sedang mengajar (GSM) adalah pada keseluruhannya rendah. Jika semua 30 orang pelajar berjaya memadankan istilah dengan makna, maka min seharusnya 1.0. Tersenarai dibawah adalah prestasi setiap kemahiran berfikir dalam susunan menurun.
47
Jadual 1 Jenis Kemahiran Berfikir dan Min Penguasaan Jenis Kemahiran Berfikir Menjana idea Mereka cipta Mencirikan Membanding beza Mengumpul dan mengelas Menyusun mengikut keutamaan Mencari sebab Mengenal pasti andaian Kebolehpercayaan sumber Membuat urutan Menghubungkait Meramal Mengesan kecondongan Menganalisis hujah Menilai Membuat keputusan Ketepatan pemerhatian Perkaitan bahagian dan keseluruhan Membuat hipotesis Membuat kesimpulan Menganalisis Membuat inferens Membuat gambaran mental Menyelesaikan masalah Mensintesis Membuat analogi Mengkonsepsi Mengitlak
min .87 .83 .80 .80 .70 .70 .70 .70 .70 .67 .67 .60 .50 .50 .43 .40 .40 .40 .37 .33 .23 .23 .23 .20 .10 .07 .07 .03
Paparan dalam Jadual 0 menunjukkan yang prestasi GSM adalah amat rendah. Kecuali bagi istilah Menjana idea (min=.87), Mereka cipta (min=.83), mencirikan (min=.80) dan Membanding beza (min=.80), prestasi adalah tidak mencapai .8 iaitu aras yang kerap digunakan dalam pendekatan masteri. Ini selaras apa yang dirisaukan oleh Choy dan Cheah (2009). Bila di dilakukan statistic deskriptif mengikut individu, daripada maksima 28 markah (1 markah untuk setiap kemahiran), min pelajar GSM adalah 13.07, sp=4.81, dengan julat skor 5 – 25. Manakala pelajar sarjana muda pula, min adalah 12.48, sp 3.40 dengan jular skor 6 – 21. Sekali lagi adalah suatu data yang merisaukan kerana prestasi 13.07 hanyalah 46.4% sahaja. Soalan kajian 2 Adakah terdapat perbezaan prestasi pemahaman makna istilah dalam kbat di antara pelajar sarjana dari kalangan guru yang sedang mengajar (GSM) berbanding pelajar ijazah sarjana muda pendidikan?. Bagi menjawab soalan kajian 2, tersenarai di bawah adalah jadual dan penerangan bagi setiap KBAT
48
Jadual 1 Prestasi memahami makna responden Pembolehubah Jumlah skor Pelajar sarjana (GSM) .631 Pelajar sarjana muda
n
min
sp
t
30
13.07
4.81
.483
21
12.48
3.40
p
Jumlah skor optima sepatutnya 30. Bila skor tidak mencapai maksima khasnya bila tidak memberi makna sesuatu istilah itu, maka sukar dipercayai bahawa guru GSM dapat menguasai pengetahuan yang lebih tinggi dalam kbat. menunjukkan min yang lebih tinggi 13.07, sp=4.81 berbanding pelajar erkaitan soalan hanya a muda yang belum menjadi guru yang min mereka adalah 12.48, sp=3.40. Walau bagaimana pun, perbezaan kedua-dua min adalah tidak signifikan iaitu t=.483, p=.631. Ini bermakna pengetahuan guru di sekolah mengenai makna kbat tertentu adalah tidak berbeza secara signifikan dari segi statistik bila dibandingkan dengan bakal guru yang belum praktikum di sekolah. Jadual 2 Prestasi pemahaman makna kemahiran mencirikan dalam kalangan guru yang sedang mengajar (GSM) Pembolehubah 1.Mencirikan Pelajar sarjana (GSM) .487 Pelajar sarjana muda
n
min
sp
t
30
.80
.41
.700
21
.71
.46
p
Bagi kemahiran mencirikan, GSM menunjukkan min yang lebih tinggi .80, sp=0.41 berbanding pelajar sarjana muda yang belum menjadi guru yang min mereka adalah .71 sp=.46. Walau bagaimana pun, perbezaan kedua-dua min adalah tidak signifikan iaitu t=.700, p=.487. Ini bermakna pengetahuan guru di sekolah mengenai makna kbat mencirikan adalah tidak berbeza secara signifikan dari segi statistik bila dibandingkan dengan bakal guru yang belum praktikum di sekolah. Jadual 3 Prestasi pemahaman makna kemahiran membandingbeza dalam kalangan guru yang sedang mengajar (GSM) Pembolehubah 2.Membandingbeza Pelajar sarjana (GSM) .086 Pelajar sarjana muda
n
min
sp
t
30
.80
.41
.700
21
.71
.46
p
Bagi kemahiran membandingbeza, GSM menunjukkan min yang lebih tinggi .80, sp=0.41 berbanding pelajar sarjana muda yang belum menjadi guru yang min mereka adalah .71 sp=.46. Walau bagaimana pun, perbezaan kedua-dua min adalah tidak signifikan iaitu t=.700, p=.086. Ini bermakna pengetahuan guru di sekolah mengenai makna kbat
49
membandingbeza, adalah tidak berbeza secara signifikan dari segi statistik bila dibandingkan dengan bakal guru yang belum praktikum di sekolah. Jadual 4 Prestasi pemahaman makna kemahiran mengumpul dan mengelas dalam kalangan guru yang sedang mengajar (GSM) Pembolehubah 3.Mengumpul dan mengelas Pelajar sarjana (GSM) .200 Pelajar sarjana muda
n
min
sp
t
30
.70
.47
-1.298
21
.86
.36
p
Bagi kemahiran Mengumpul dan mengelas, GSM menunjukkan min yang lebih rendah .70, sp=0.47 berbanding pelajar sarjana muda yang belum menjadi guru yang min mereka adalah .86 sp=.36. Walau bagaimana pun, perbezaan kedua-dua min adalah tidak signifikan iaitu t= -1.298, p=.200. Ini bermakna pengetahuan guru di sekolah mengenai makna kbat Mengumpul dan mengelas adalah tidak berbeza secara signifikan dari segi statistik bila dibandingkan dengan bakal guru yang belum praktikum di sekolah. Jadual 5 Prestasi pemahaman makna kemahiran membuat urutan dalam kalangan guru yang sedang mengajar (GSM) Pembolehubah 4.Membuat urutan Pelajar sarjana (GSM) .499 Pelajar sarjana muda
n
min
sp
t
30
.67
.48
.682
21
.57
.51
p
Bagi kemahiran membuat urutan, GSM menunjukkan min yang lebih tinggi .67, sp=0.48 berbanding pelajar sarjana muda yang belum menjadi guru yang min mereka adalah .57 sp=.51 Walau bagaimana pun, perbezaan kedua-dua min adalah tidak signifikan iaitu t=.682, p=.499. Ini bermakna pengetahuan guru di sekolah mengenai makna kbat membuat urutan adalah tidak berbeza secara signifikan dari segi statistik bila dibandingkan dengan bakal guru yang belum praktikum di sekolah. Jadual 6 Prestasi pemahaman makna kemahiran menuyusn ikut keutamaan dalam kalangan guru yang sedang mengajar (GSM) Pembolehubah 5.Menyusun ikut keutamaan Pelajar sarjana (GSM) .914 Pelajar sarjana muda
n
min
sp
t
30
.70
.47
-.108
21
.71
.46
p
50
Bagi kemahiran menyusun ikut keutamaan, GSM menunjukkan min yang lebih tinggi .80, sp = 0.41 berbanding pelajar sarjana muda yang belum menjadi guru yang min mereka adalah .71 sp=.46. Walau bagaimana pun, perbezaan kedua-dua min adalah tidak signifikan iaitu t=.700, p=.487. Ini bermakna pengetahuan guru di sekolah mengenai makna kbat menyusun ikut keutamaan adalah tidak berbeza secara signifikan dari segi statistik bila dibandingkan dengan bakal guru yang belum praktikum di sekolah. Jadual 7: Prestasi pemahaman makna kemahiran menganalisis dalam kalangan guru yang sedang mengajar (GSM) Pembolehubah 6.Menganalisis Pelajar sarjana (GSM) .043** Pelajar sarjana muda
n
min
sp
t
30
.23
.08
.359
21
.19
.40
p
Bagi kemahiran Menganalisis, GSM menunjukkan min yang lebih tinggi .23, sp = 0.08 berbanding pelajar sarjana muda yang belum menjadi guru yang min mereka adalah .19 sp=.40. Walau bagaimana pun, perbezaan kedua-dua min adalah tidak signifikan iaitu t=.359, p=.043. Ini bermakna pengetahuan guru di sekolah mengenai makna kbat Menganalisis adalah berbeza secara signifikan dari segi statistik bila dibandingkan dengan bakal guru yang belum praktikum di sekolah. Walau terdapat perbezaan yang signifikan, namun prestasi kedua-dua kumpulan adalah amat rendah kerana hanya 23% dari GSM yang memadankan dengan betul istilah menganalisis dengan maknanya. Jadual 8: Prestasi pemahaman makna kemahiran mengesan kecondongan dalam kalangan guru yang sedang mengajar (GSM) Pembolehubah 7.Mengesan kecondongan Pelajar sarjana (GSM) .870 Pelajar sarjana muda
n
min
sp
t
30
.50
.51
-.164
.21
.19
.40
p
Bagi kemahiran Mengesan kecondongan, GSM menunjukkan min yang lebih tinggi .50, sp=0.51 berbanding pelajar sarjana muda yang belum menjadi guru yang min mereka adalah .19 sp=.40. Walau bagaimana pun, perbezaan kedua-dua min adalah tidak signifikan iaitu t=-.164, p=.870. Ini bermakna pengetahuan guru di sekolah mengenai makna kbat Mengesan kecondongan adalah tidak berbeza secara signifikan dari segi statistik bila dibandingkan dengan bakal guru yang belum praktikum disekolah.
51
Jadual 9: Prestasi pemahaman makna kemahiran menilai dalam kalangan guru yang sedang mengajar (GSM) Pembolehubah 8.Menilai Pelajar sarjana (GSM) .482 Pelajar sarjana muda
n
min
sp
t
30
.43
.51
.709
21
.33
.48
p
Bagi kemahiran Menilai, GSM menunjukkan min yang lebih tinggi .43, sp = 0.51 berbanding pelajar sarjana muda yang belum menjadi guru yang min mereka adalah .33 sp=.48. Walau bagaimana pun, perbezaan kedua-dua min adalah tidak signifikan iaitu t=.709, p=.482. Ini bermakna pengetahuan guru di sekolah mengenai makna kbat Menilai adalah tidak berbeza secara signifikan dari segi statistik bila dibandingkan dengan bakal guru yang belum praktikum di sekolah. Jadual 10: Prestasi pemahaman makna kemahiran membaut kesimpulan dalam kalangan guru yang sedang mengajar (GSM) Pembolehubah 9.Membuat kesimpulan Pelajar sarjana (GSM) .095 Pelajar sarjana muda
n
min
sp
t
30
.33
.48
.724
21
.24
.44
p
Bagi kemahiran Membuat kesimpulan, GSM menunjukkan min yang lebih tinggi .33, sp=0.48 berbanding pelajar sarjana muda yang belum menjadi guru yang min mereka adalah .24 sp=.44. Walau bagaimana pun, perbezaan kedua-dua min adalah tidak signifikan iaitu t=.724, p=.095. Ini bermakna pengetahuan guru di sekolah mengenai makna kbat Membuat kesimpulan adalah tidak berbeza secara signifikan dari segi statistik bila dibandingkan dengan bakal guru yang belum praktikum di sekolah. Jadual 11Prestasi pemahaman makna kemahiran menjana idea dalam kalangan guru yang sedang mengajar (GSM) Pembolehubah 10.Menjana idea Pelajar sarjana (GSM) .685 Pelajar sarjana muda
n
min
sp
t
30
.87
.35
-.408
21
.90
.30
p
Bagi kemahiran Menjana idea, GSM menunjukkan min yang lebih rendah .87, sp=0.35 berbanding pelajar sarjana muda yang belum menjadi guru yang min mereka adalah .90 sp=.46. Walau bagaimana pun, perbezaan kedua-dua min adalah tidak signifikan iaitu t=.408, p=.685. Ini bermakna pengetahuan guru di sekolah mengenai makna kbat Menjana idea
52
adalah tidak berbeza secara signifikan dari segi statistik bila dibandingkan dengan bakal guru yang belum praktikum di sekolah. Jadual 12 Prestasi pemahaman makna kemahiran menghubungkait dalam kalangan guru yang sedang mengajar (GSM) Pembolehubah 11.Menghubungkait Pelajar sarjana (GSM) .725 Pelajar sarjana muda
n
min
sp
t
30
.67
.48
-.354
21
.71
.46
p
Bagi kemahiran Menghubungkait, GSM menunjukkan min yang lebih rendah .67, sp=.48 berbanding pelajar sarjana muda yang belum menjadi guru yang min mereka adalah .71 sp=.46. Walau bagaimana pun, perbezaan kedua-dua min adalah tidak signifikan iaitu t=.354, p=.725. Ini bermakna pengetahuan guru di sekolah mengenai makna kbat Menghubungkait adalah tidak berbeza secara signifikan dari segi statistik bila dibandingkan dengan bakal guru yang belum praktikum di sekolah. Jadual 13 Prestasi pemahaman makna kemahiran membuat inferen dalam kalangan guru yang sedang mengajar (GSM) Pembolehubah 12.Membuat inferens Pelajar sarjana (GSM) .075 Pelajar sarjana muda
n
min
sp
t
30
.23
.43
1.818
21
.05
.22
p
Bagi kemahiran Membuat inferens, GSM menunjukkan min yang lebih tinggi .23, sp=0.43 berbanding pelajar sarjana muda yang belum menjadi guru yang min mereka adalah .05 sp=.22. Walau bagaimana pun, perbezaan kedua-dua min adalah tidak signifikan iaitu t=1.818, p=.075. Ini bermakna pengetahuan guru di sekolah mengenai makna kbat Membuat inferens adalah tidak berbeza secara signifikan dari segi statistik bila dibandingkan dengan bakal guru yang belum praktikum di sekolah. Jadual 14 Prestasi pemahaman makna kemahiran meramal dalam kalangan guru yang sedang mengajar (GSM) Pembolehubah 13.Meramal Pelajar sarjana (GSM) .842 Pelajar sarjana muda
n
min
sp
t
30
.60
.50
.200
21
.57
.51
p
53
Bagi kemahiran Meramal, GSM menunjukkan min yang lebih tinggi .60, sp=0.50 berbanding pelajar sarjana muda yang belum menjadi guru yang min mereka adalah .57 sp=.51. Walau bagaimana pun, perbezaan kedua-dua min adalah tidak signifikan iaitu t=.200, p=.842. Ini bermakna pengetahuan guru di sekolah mengenai makna kbat Meramal adalah tidak berbeza secara signifikan dari segi statistik bila dibandingkan dengan bakal guru yang belum praktikum di sekolah. Jadual 15 Prestasi pemahaman makna kemahiran mencirikan dalam kalangan guru yang sedang mengajar (GSM) Pembolehubah 14.Membuat hipotesis Pelajar sarjana (GSM) .181 Pelajar sarjana muda
n
min
sp
t
30
.37
.49
1.357
21
.19
.40
p
Bagi kemahiran Membuat hipotesis, GSM menunjukkan min yang lebih tinggi .37, sp=0.49 berbanding pelajar sarjana muda yang belum menjadi guru yang min mereka adalah .19 sp=.19. Walau bagaimana pun, perbezaan kedua-dua min adalah tidak signifikan iaitu t=1.357, p=.181. Ini bermakna pengetahuan guru di sekolah mengenai makna kbat Membuat hipotesis adalah tidak berbeza secara signifikan dari segi statistik bila dibandingkan dengan bakal guru yang belum praktikum di sekolah. Jadual 16 Prestasi pemahaman makna kemahiran mengsintesis dalam kalangan guru yang sedang mengajar (GSM) Pembolehubah 15.Mensintesis Pelajar sarjana (GSM) .219 Pelajar sarjana muda
n
min
sp
t
30
.10
.31
-1.332
21
.24
.44
p
Bagi kemahiran Mensintesis, GSM menunjukkan min yang lebih rendah .10, sp = 0.31 berbanding pelajar sarjana muda yang belum menjadi guru yang min mereka adalah .24 sp=.44. Walau bagaimana pun, perbezaan kedua-dua min adalah tidak signifikan iaitu t=1.332, p=.219. Ini bermakna pengetahuan guru di sekolah mengenai makna kbat Mensintesis adalah tidak berbeza secara signifikan dari segi statistik bila dibandingkan dengan bakal guru yang belum praktikum di sekolah.
54
Jadual 17 Prestasi pemahaman makna kemahiran mengitlak dalam kalangan guru yang sedang mengajar (GSM) Pembolehubah 16.Mengitlak Pelajar sarjana (GSM) .408 Pelajar sarjana muda
n
min
sp
t
30
.03
.18
.834
21
0
.00
p
Bagi kemahiran Mengitlak, GSM menunjukkan min yang lebih tinggi .03, sp=0.18 berbanding pelajar sarjana muda yang belum menjadi guru yang min mereka adalah 0 sp=0. Walau bagaimana pun, perbezaan kedua-dua min adalah tidak signifikan iaitu t=.834, p=.408. Ini bermakna pengetahuan guru di sekolah mengenai makna kbat Mengitlak adalah tidak berbeza secara signifikan dari segi statistik bila dibandingkan dengan bakal guru yang belum praktikum di sekolah. Jadual 18 Prestasi pemahaman makna kemahiran membuat gambaran mental dalam kalangan guru yang sedang mengajar (GSM) Pembolehubah 17.Membuat gambaran mental Pelajar sarjana (GSM) .441 Pelajar sarjana muda
n
min
sp
t
30
.23
.43
-.777
21
.33
.48
p
Bagi kemahiran Membuat gambaran mental, GSM menunjukkan min yang lebih rendah .23, sp=0.43 berbanding pelajar sarjana muda yang belum menjadi guru yang min mereka adalah .33 sp=.48. Walau bagaimana pun, perbezaan kedua-dua min adalah tidak signifikan iaitu t=-.777, p=.441 Ini bermakna pengetahuan guru di sekolah mengenai makna kbat Membuat gambaran mental adalah tidak berbeza secara signifikan dari segi statistik bila dibandingkan dengan bakal guru yang belum praktikum di sekolah. Jadual 19: Prestasi pemahaman makna kemahiran membuat analogi dalam kalangan guru yang sedang mengajar (GSM) Pembolehubah 18.Membuat analogi Pelajar sarjana (GSM) .715 Pelajar sarjana muda
n
min
sp
t
30
.07
.25
-.367
21
.10
.30
p
Bagi kemahiran Membuat analogi, GSM menunjukkan min yang lebih rendah .80, sp=0.25 berbanding pelajar sarjana muda yang belum menjadi guru yang min mereka adalah .10 sp=.30. Walau bagaimana pun, perbezaan kedua-dua min adalah tidak signifikan iaitu t=.367, p=.715. Ini bermakna pengetahuan guru di sekolah mengenai makna kbat Membuat analogi mencirikan adalah tidak berbeza secara signifikan dari segi statistik bila dibandingkan dengan bakal guru yang belum praktikum di sekolah.
55
Jadual 20 Prestasi pemahaman makna kemahiran mereka cipta dalam kalangan guru yang sedang mengajar (GSM) Pembolehubah 19.Mereka cipta Pelajar sarjana (GSM) .822 Pelajar sarjana muda
n
min
sp
t
30
.83
.38
-.226
21
.86..
.36
p
Bagi kemahiran Mereka cipta, GSM menunjukkan min yang lebih rendah .83, sp=0.38 berbanding pelajar sarjana muda yang belum menjadi guru yang min mereka adalah .86 sp=.36. Walau bagaimana pun, perbezaan kedua-dua min adalah tidak signifikan iaitu t=.700, p=.487. Ini bermakna pengetahuan guru di sekolah mengenai makna kbat Mereka cipta mencirikan adalah tidak berbeza secara signifikan dari segi statistik bila dibandingkan dengan bakal guru yang belum praktikum di sekolah. Jadual 21 Prestasi pemahaman makna kemahiran mengkonsepsi dalam kalangan guru yang sedang mengajar (GSM) Pembolehubah 20.Mengkonsepsi Pelajar sarjana (GSM) .781 Pelajar sarjana muda
n
min
sp
t
30
.07
.25
.279
21
.05
.22
p
Bagi kemahiran Mengkonsepsi, GSM menunjukkan min yang lebih tinggi .07, sp=0.25 berbanding pelajar sarjana muda yang belum menjadi guru yang min mereka adalah .05 sp=.22. Walau bagaimana pun, perbezaan kedua-dua min adalah tidak signifikan iaitu t=.279, p=.781. Ini bermakna pengetahuan guru di sekolah mengenai makna kbat Mengkonsepsi adalah tidak berbeza secara signifikan dari segi statistik bila dibandingkan dengan bakal guru yang belum praktikum di sekolah.
Jadual 22 Prestasi pemahaman makna kemahiran membuat keputusan dalam kalangan guru yang sedang mengajar (GSM) Pembolehubah 21.Membuat keputusan Pelajar sarjana (GSM) .236 Pelajar sarjana muda
n
min
sp
t
30
.40
.50
1.200
21
.24
.44
p
Bagi kemahiran Membuat keputusan, GSM menunjukkan min yang lebih tinggi .40, sp = 0.24 berbanding pelajar sarjana muda yang belum menjadi guru yang min mereka adalah .24 sp=.44. Walau bagaimana pun, perbezaan kedua-dua min adalah tidak signifikan iaitu t=1.200, p=.236. Ini bermakna pengetahuan guru di sekolah mengenai makna kbat Membuat
56
keputusan adalah tidak berbeza secara signifikan dari segi statistik bila dibandingkan dengan bakal guru yang belum praktikum di sekolah. Jadual 23 Prestasi pemahaman makna kemahiran menyelesaikan masalah dalam kalangan guru yang sedang mengajar (GSM) Pembolehubah 22.Menyelesaikan masalah Pelajar sarjana (GSM) .751 Pelajar sarjana muda
n
min
sp
t
30
.20
.41
-.319
21
.24
.44
p
Bagi kemahiran Menyelesaikan masalah, GSM menunjukkan min yang lebih rendah .20, sp = 0.41 berbanding pelajar sarjana muda yang belum menjadi guru yang min mereka adalah .24 sp=.44. Walau bagaimana pun, perbezaan kedua-dua min adalah tidak signifikan iaitu t=-.319, p=.751. Ini bermakna pengetahuan guru di sekolah mengenai makna kbat Menyelesaikan masalah adalah tidak berbeza secara signifikan dari segi statistik bila dibandingkan dengan bakal guru yang belum praktikum di sekolah. Jadual 24 Prestasi pemahaman makna kemahiran perkaitan bahagian & keseluruhan dalam kalangan guru yang sedang mengajar (GSM) Pembolehubah
n
23.Perkaitan bahagian & keseluruhan Pelajar sarjana (GSM) 30 .392 Pelajar sarjana muda 21
min
sp
t
.40
.50
-.864
.52
.51
p
Bagi kemahiran Perkaitan bahagian & keseluruhan, GSM menunjukkan min yang lebih rendah .40, sp = 0.50 berbanding pelajar sarjana muda yang belum menjadi guru yang min mereka adalah .52 sp=.51. Walau bagaimana pun, perbezaan kedua-dua min adalah tidak signifikan iaitu t=-.864, p=.392. Ini bermakna pengetahuan guru di sekolah mengenai makna kbat Perkaitan bahagian & keseluruhan adalah tidak berbeza secara signifikan dari segi statistik bila dibandingkan dengan bakal guru yang belum praktikum di sekolah. Jadual 25 Prestasi pemahaman makna kemahiran mengnalisisi hujah dalam kalangan guru yang sedang mengajar (GSM) Pembolehubah 24.Menganalisis hujah Pelajar sarjana (GSM) .411 Pelajar sarjana muda
n
min
sp
t
30
.50
.51
-.830
21
.62
.50
p
Bagi kemahiran Menganalisis hujah, GSM menunjukkan min yang lebih tinggi .50, sp=0.51 berbanding pelajar sarjana muda yang belum menjadi guru yang min mereka adalah
57
.62 sp=.50. Walau bagaimana pun, perbezaan kedua-dua min adalah tidak signifikan iaitu t=.830, p=.411. Ini bermakna pengetahuan guru di sekolah mengenai makna kbat Menganalisis hujah adalah tidak berbeza secara signifikan dari segi statistik bila dibandingkan dengan bakal guru yang belum praktikum di sekolah. Jadual 26 Prestasi pemahaman makna kemahiran mencari sebab dalam kalangan guru yang sedang mengajar (GSM) Pembolehubah 25.Mencari sebab Pelajar sarjana (GSM) .914 Pelajar sarjana muda
n
min
sp
t
30
.70
.47
-.108
21
.71
.46
p
Bagi kemahiran Mencari sebab, GSM menunjukkan min yang lebih rendah .47, sp=0.47 berbanding pelajar sarjana muda yang belum menjadi guru yang min mereka adalah .71 sp = .46. Walau bagaimana pun, perbezaan kedua-dua min adalah tidak signifikan iaitu t=-.108, p=.914. Ini bermakna pengetahuan guru di sekolah mengenai makna kbat Mencari sebab adalah tidak berbeza secara signifikan dari segi statistik bila dibandingkan dengan bakal guru yang belum praktikum di sekolah. Jadual 27 Prestasi pemahaman makna kemahiran mengenal pasti andaian dalam kalangan guru yang sedang mengajar (GSM) Pembolehubah 26.Mengenal pasti andaian Pelajar sarjana (GSM) .607 Pelajar sarjana muda
n
min
sp
t
30
.70
.47
.518
21
.14
.36
p
Bagi kemahiran Mengenal pasti andaian, GSM menunjukkan min yang lebih tinggi .70, sp=0.47 berbanding pelajar sarjana muda yang belum menjadi guru yang min mereka adalah .14 sp=.36. Walau bagaimana pun, perbezaan kedua-dua min adalah tidak signifikan iaitu t=.518, p=.607. Ini bermakna pengetahuan guru di sekolah mengenai makna kbat Mengenal pasti andaian adalah tidak berbeza secara signifikan dari segi statistik bila dibandingkan dengan bakal guru yang belum praktikum disekolah. Jadual 28 Prestasi pemahaman makna kemahiran kebolehpercayaan sumber dalam kalangan guru yang sedang mengajar (GSM) Pembolehubah 27. Kebolehpercayaan sumber Pelajar sarjana (GSM) .805 Pelajar sarjana muda
n
min
sp
t
30
.70
.47
.248
21
.67
.48
p
58
Bagi kemahiran Kebolehpercayaan sumber, GSM menunjukkan min yang lebih tinggi .70, sp=0.47 berbanding pelajar sarjana muda yang belum menjadi guru yang min mereka adalah .67 sp=.48. Walau bagaimana pun, perbezaan kedua-dua min adalah tidak signifikan iaitu t=.248, p=.805. Ini bermakna pengetahuan guru di sekolah mengenai makna kbat Kebolehpercayaan sumber adalah tidak berbeza secara signifikan dari segi statistik bila dibandingkan dengan bakal guru yang belum praktikum di sekolah. Jadual 29 Prestasi pemahaman makna kemahiran ketepatan pemerhatian dalam kalangan guru yang sedang mengajar (GSM) Pembolehubah 28. Ketepatan pemerhatian Pelajar sarjana (GSM) .597 Pelajar sarjana muda
n
min
sp
t
30
.40
.50
-.532
21
.48
.51
p
Bagi kemahiran Ketepatan pemerhatian, GSM menunjukkan min yang lebih rendah .40, sp = 0.50 berbanding pelajar sarjana muda yang belum menjadi guru yang min mereka adalah .48 sp=.51. Walau bagaimana pun, perbezaan kedua-dua min adalah tidak signifikan iaitu t=-.532, p=.597. Ini bermakna pengetahuan guru di sekolah mengenai makna kbat Ketepatan pemerhatian adalah tidak berbeza secara signifikan dari segi statistik bila dibandingkan dengan bakal guru yang belum praktikum di sekolah. Data yang dipaparkan dalam Jadual 1 – 29 menunjukkan bahawa tiada perbezaan antara pemahaman makna konsep-konsep kbat antara pelajar belum menjadi guru dengan guru-guru yang telah mengajar disekolah. Mungkin agak terlalu keras untuk dikatakan bahawa seorang guru yang mengajar di sekolah dan sendiri tidak tahu makna konsep kbat dapat menerapkan kbat dalam aktiviti pengajaran dan pembelajaran mereka. Kelemahan yang nyata dalam pengistilahan mencetuskan kerisauan mendalam. Kenapa ini terjadi mungkin dapat diterangkan melalui masalah yang diperturunkan dibawah dimana GSM atau guru sedang mengajar yang sedang menjalani kursus di peringkat sarjana ditanya berkaitan Perayaan Hari Guru. “Setiap tahun boleh dikatakan disetiap sekolah pada 16 Mei, dirayakan Hari Guru. Guru-guru diberi hadiah, jamuan, permainan, semuanya biasanya dikelolakan oleh muridmurid. Boleh dikatakan setiap 16 Mei, guru dilayan sebagai raja sehari. Para guru ditanya “Kenapa 16 Mei dijadikan sebagai Hari Guru”. Tiga respon GSM dipaparkan: Pelajar Sarjana GSM 1 “Saya tidak tahu kenapa 16 Mei diraikan sebagai Hari Guru kerana bagi saya ia tidak penting dan perlu untuk saya mengetahuinya walaupun saya adalah seorang guru. Apa yang penting dan perlu bagi saya ialah dapat mendidik dan memberi tunjuk ajar yang sempurna kepada anak murid saya supaya menjadi murid yang cemerlang dan terbilang samada didunia dan akhirat. Saya berharap anak murid saya dapat mengaplikasikan ilmu yang diajar dalam kehidupan seharian bagi terus menerajui dunia yang penuh cabaran dan dugaan dimasa akan datang”.
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Pelajar Sarjana GSM 2 “Selama ini tiada siapa yang memberitahu saya sejarah tarikh tersebut. Sejarah ini tidak pernah diwar-warkan semasa sambutan hari guru sebelum ini. Walau bagaimanapun mungkin salah saya juga yang kurang ambil tahu. Sebagai guru saya harus ambil endah asal usul atau sejarah sesuatu perayaan itu disambut. Kurang ambil tahu seperti ini menunjukkan kelemahan saya sendiri. Mungkin jika sesuatu isu itu melibatkan keuntungan material seperti kenaikan gaji, insan bergelar guru seperti saya akan lebih peka. Pengajarannya ialah jangan terlalu meterialistik. Ambil endah sejarah dan isu pendidikan Negara. Di samping itu pihak berwajib boleh mengambil sedikit ruang di portal KPM contohnya untuk meng‟highlight‟kan perkara seperti ini. Selamat Hari Guru.” Pelajar Sarjana GSM 3 “Suatu hari saya dikejutkan dengan pertanyaan asal usul mengapa 16 Mei dipilih sebagai hari guru. Soalan yang tidak dijangka ini memberi satu tamparan hebat kepada guru yang kononya ingin melangkah ke alam „sarjana‟. Selang dua hari berikutnya sambutan hari guru telah diadakan di sekolah saya. Tanpa disangka pamplet sempena sambutan hari tersebut ada tertera sejarah mengapa 16 Mei dipilih. Kenapa tarikh 16 Mei disambut sebagai hari guru di Malaysia? Setiap tahun 16 Mei akan diraikan sebagai hari guru. Namun begitu saya tidak tahu kenapa tarikh 16 Mei dipilih sebagai hari guru yang sentiasa disambut setiap tahun oleh semua warga pendidik di seluruh Negara. Hal ini berlaku berpunca daripada sikap diri saya sendiri. Sikap diri sendiri yang sering tidak acuh dalam mengambil tahu sesuatu sebab peristiwa berlaku menjadi faktor utama dalam perkara ini. Tambahan pula, sikap diri sendiri yang tiada kesedaran dan hanya mengikut sahaja budaya menyambut hari guru tanpa mengambil tahu sebab kenapa tarikh 16 mei disambut setiap tahun sebagai hari guru. Selain itu, sikap saya yang kurang membaca membuatkan saya ketinggalan dengan perkara-perkara seperti ini. Bagaimana saya mengetahui tentang sambutan hari guru?” Respon tiga GSM tentu sekali tidak bertujuan untuk membuat generalisasi, tetapi ia ada kaitan kenapa mereka rendah dalam mengenali makna jenis-jenis kbat. Ia juga berkait rapat dengan apa yang disebut oleh Sternberg & Martin (1988). Walaupun agak menyedihkan bahawa fakta 16 Mei dipilih tidak diketahui oleh warga guru, namun apa yang lebih membahayakan adalah sikap guru yang setiap tahun walaupun seronok dilayan dengan begitu baik tetapi tiada atau kurang rasa ingin tahu (inquisitiveness). Tema utama kenapa guru rendah dalam terminologi kbat bolehlah dirumuskan sebagai tiada atau kurang rasa ingin tahu mereka. Jika pemahaan terhadap penaksiran berasaskan sekolah dijadikan asas yang ramai guru dilaporkan tidak memahami apa yang disarankan oleh Lembaga Peperiksaan Malaysia yang merupakan sebahagian tugas hakiki para guru, apatah lagi penerapan kbat yang tidak teratur juga akan membuahkan Dry Well Model yang dianalogikan oleh Sternberg dan Martin (1988) Perbincangan Analogi yang digunakan oleh Sternberg & Martin (1988) telah diutarakan agak lama. Keinginan masyarakat dan pendidik guru agak jelas apa yang mereka ingin dikuasi oleh para pelajar generasi akan datang. Model Dry Well memaparkan guru yang tiada isi kandungan berkenaan kbat, mungkin antara contoh adalah GSM dalam sampel kajian dan berharap sangat tidak pada lain-lain guru yang sedang mengajar di sekolah. Dalam model kedua, Depressurized water-spigot Model, guru telah pun mempunyai isi kandungan kbat selain dari
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bidang pelajaran masing-masing, namun kejayaan untuk memenuhi kehendak masyarakat masih tidak dijalankan dengan berkesan akibat kurang usaha, mungkin kerana kurang yakin kepentingan kbat itu sendiri. Dalam Model Holey Hose Model, guru telah pun mempunyai kandungan kbat dan yakin akan kepentingannya tetapi mungkin kurang arif dengan cara mengajar yang berkesan hingga berlaku ketirisan dalam aktiviti pengajaran dan pembelajarannya. Guru-gur yang dikategorikan dalam model inilah yang ingin di pertingkatkan dengan aktiviti yang akan dibincangkan seterusnya iaitu bagaimana menangani kekurangan kbat pada murid setelahnya gurunya sendiri mempunyai kbat. Heinrich, Habron, Johnson dan Goralnik (2015) mencadangkan bahawa rekabentuk instruksi yang boleh menyokong pdp kbat mestilah yang melibatkan kaedah, penguasaan isi kandungan dan hasil pembelajaran kbat yang eksplisit. Pelaksanaan ini kata mereka perlu bersifat scaffold dengan latihan dan proses yang bersesuaian. Uzuntiryaki-Kondakci dan Capa-Aydin (2013) merumus pandangan sarjana lain seperti Norris, Facione, Kuhn dan Halpern bahawa kbat adalah sensitif pada konteks, tetapi ia boleh di kembangkan dengan bimbingan yang berkesan dan amat berkait rapat dengan metakognisi. Kajian mereka terhadap pelajar Turki dalam Kimia menunjukkan perkaitan yang rapat antara efikasi kemahiran-kemahiran kognitif dan pemikiran kritis atau kbat. Oleh itu keyakinan dalam mempelajari kbat adalah satu aspek yang penting untuk diusahakan oleh para guru. Pengajaran dan Pembelajaran kemahiran hidup termasuklah kbat memerlukan persekitaran yang interaktif khasnya yang dibawah kawalan guru (Roohi, 2014). Sultan dan Hussan (2014) menunjukkan kemahiran sosial serta berkoloborasi penting dalam meningkatkan unsur keboleh belajar. Walaubagaimana pun keyakinan amat berkait dengan masteri dan dalam kes 30 orang guru tadi masteri mereka adalah amat rendah. Keyakinan boleh dipertingkat dengan memahami kenapa sesuatu itu berlaku khasnya jika dilakukan refleksi. Odom et al (2014) mencadangkan penggunaan Model DEAL (atau Describe, Examine and Articulate Learning) dalam mereflek pengalaman yang dilalui. Jika di dua langkah pertama iaitu Langkah Describe dan Langkah Examine, pelajar diminta mengambarkisahkan apa yang berlaku, maka kedalaman pelaksanaan diteruskan di Langkah Articulated Step dimana para pelajar akan bertanya pada diri mereka sendiri soalan-soalan reflektif seperti “Apakah yang saya pelajari”, “ Bagaimana saya telah pelajarinya” dsbnya. Ini didakwa oleh pengkaji dapat merangsang guru bertanya makna istilah kbat yang mereka pelajari. Bantuan rakan dalam menjalankan semakan semula atau peer review ditunjukkan dapat meningkatkan kualiti hasil kerja (Moore dan Teather, 2013; Gan dan Hill, 2014). Kefasihan guru sebagai pemudah cara amat penting seperti yang dicadangkan oleh Yew dan Yong (2014) dalam kajian mereka menggunakan pembelajaran berasaskan masalah yang menekankan peri pentingnya guru sebagai pakar isi kandungan dan dalam masa yang sama mempamerkan konkruen antara kemahiran sosia dan kebolehan kognitif. Pembelajaran kearah kbat memerlukan kemahiran sosial sebagai unsur peting (Notari, Baumgartner dan Herzog, 2014). Kesiapsagaaan guru menangani pelajar yang berkelakuan seperti “penumpang-penumpang” dalam pembelajaran adalah kemahiran yang wajar dikuasai oleh guru (Dingel Wei dan Aminul Huq, 2013). Kajian yang menunjukkan pengaruh kuat rakan sebaya banyak dihuraikan dalam literatur antaranya oleh Lundberg (2014) dan Gok (2014). Oleh itu salah satu cadangan meningkatkan kbat dalam kalangan guru dan murid adalah melalui pembelajaran aktif khasnya yang melibatkan pembelajaran koloborasi. Fawcett dan Garton (2005) mencadangkan lima langkah dalam pelaksanaan iaitu: 1. Mengembangkan pelan sokongan rakan sebaya 2. Memilih dan menjemput rakan sebaya pasangan 3. Mengorientasikan pelajar terahdap peranan mereka
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4. Bekerjasam dalam kelas 5. Memudahcarakan onteraksi dan sokongan 6. Refleksi keatas kesan Dalam pengajaran kbat yang diamalkan, para pelajar diperkenal dulu kepada konsep dan istilah kbat serta mengkaitkan kbat berkenaan dengan terminologi yang digunapakai oleh PPK. Seterusnya dengan berpandukan Model Tyler, para pelajar terlebih dahuu membina item-item yang selari dengan kbat berkenaan. Item dirintis dan diindeks. Kemudian barulah cara menyebatikan kbat berkenaan kedalam matapelajaran yang diajar di sekolah serta untuk kehidupan harian dilaksanakan. Penutup Keinginan masyarakat agar warga negara akan datang akan lebih menggunakan kbat amat penting dipenuhi tetapi tentulah pelaksanaan yang rapi sahaja akan membuahkan hasil yang bermanafaat. Perancangan ini mesti bermula dengan memastikan para guru sendiri mempunyai kbat-kbat berkenaan dan kemudian menerapkan dalam pengajaran dan pembelajaran para pelajar mereka. Tujuan kertas ini adalah untuk menunjukkan situasi semasa berkaitan taraf kbat dalam kalangan guru yang amat rendah dan kenapa ia sebegitu serta telah mencadangkan aktiviti pengajaran da pembelajaran yang mungkin boleh menanganinya Rujukan Aksu, G & Koruklu, N. (2015). Determination the effects of vocational high school students‟ logical and critical thinking skills on mathematical success. Eurasion Journal of Educational Research, 59: 181 - 206 Asgharheidari, F. & Tahriri, A. (2015). Survey of EFL teachers‟ attitude towards critical thinking instruction. Journal of Language Teaching and Research, 6(2): 388 - 396 Baron, J., Granalo, L., Spranca, M. & Teubal, E. (1993). Decision-making biases in children and early adolescents: Explotary studies. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 39(1): 22-46. Browne, M.N.; Hoag, J.H. & Berilla, B. (1995). Critical Thinking in Graduate Programs: Faculty Perceptions and Classroom Behavior. College Student Journal, 29(1); 37-43. Carlson, E.R. (1995). Evaluating the credibility of sources: a missing link in the teaching of critical thinking. Teaching of Psychology, 22(1): 39-41. Channel, S.W. (2000). Think different: A comparison of the critical thinking of education majors. Disertasi PhD. University of Nevada, Las Vegas. (atas talian). UMI ProQuest Digital Dissertations (19 Mac 2003). Chua, Y.P. (2002). Brain hemisphericity, creative thinking and critical thinking of Malaysia science and arts students. Tesis PhD. UPM. Chua, Y.P. (2004). Tahap penumpuan perhatian keatas pelajaran dan stail kemahiran berfikir. Persidangan kebangsaan pengajaran dan pembelajaran kemahiran berfikir. 1-4 April 2004. Intekma Resort. Shah Alam. Costa, A.L. 1985. The need to teach students to think. Dlm. Costa, A.L. (pnyt) (1985). Developing Minds: A Resource Book For Teaching Thinking. Alexandria, VA: ASCD. Derry, S.J., Levin, J.R., Osana, H.P., Jones, M.S & Peterson, M. (2000). Fostering students‟ statistical and scientific thinking: Lessons learned from an innovative college course. American Educational Research Journal, 37(3): 747-773.
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Amalan Pengajaran Guru Pendidikan Islam Berdasarkan Kemahiran Berfikir Aras Tinggi (KBAT) Di Sekolah Rendah Di Malaysia: Satu Tinjauan Awal Mohd Syaubari Bin Othman1, Ahmad Yunus Bin Kassim2
[email protected],
[email protected] 1 Sekolah Kebangsaan Seri Samudera, Manjung, Perak 2 Fakulti Sains Kemanusiaan, Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris, Tanjung Malim, Perak
Abstrak Kajian ini bertujuan untuk mengenal pasti amalan pengajaran guru berdasarkan Kemahiran Berfikir Aras Tinggi (KBAT). Kajian ini melibatkan keseluruhan Malaysia namun kajian ini merupakan satu tinjauan awal sebelum kajian lanjut di jalankan. Komponen berfikir aras tinggi seperti kemahiran banding beza, kemahiran menyusun urutan, kemahiran membuat ramalan, kemahiran membuat definasi dan kemahiran mencipta anologi yang di lihat dalam tiga komponen utama pengajaran guru iaitu permulaan pengajaran, perkembangan pengajaran dan penutup pengajaran dipilih sebagai kerangka konseptual kajian. Kajian ini menggunakan analisis diskriptif (melalui instrumen soal selidik). Kesemua instrumen pengutipan data ini dibina oleh pengkaji dengan pengubahsuaian daripada instrument KBAT Kementerian Pendidikan Malaysia dan kandungannya disahkan oleh panel rujukan pakar. Tahap nilai kebolehpercayaan alfa Cronbach yang diperoleh adalah tinggi iaitu antara (0.82173). Seramai 400 orang guru pendidikan Islam dipilih secara rawak berstrata dan berkelompok untuk menjawab instrumen soal selidik. Data kajian di analisis secara deskriptif menggunakan frenkuasi dan peratusan min. Secara keseluruhannya, hasil kajian mendapati amalan pengajaran guru berdasarkan kemahiran berfikir aras tinggi adalah berada pada tahap tinggi menerusi min bagi keseluruhan (4.43) dan berdasarkan komponen amalan pengajaran yang terdiri daripada permulaan pengajaran yang mencatatkan min (4.45), perkembangan pengajaran mencatatkan min (4.44) dan penutup pengajaran mencatatkan min (4.40). Implikasi dan cadangan yang dikemukakan dapat memberi gambaran yang bermanfaat kepada kementerian, sekolah, guru dan masyarakat dalam meningkatkan tahap amalan pengajaran guru berdasarkan kemahiran berfikir aras tinggi (KBAT) seperti yang dihasratkan di dalam Pelan Pembangunan Pendidikan 2013-2025. Kata Kunci : Pengajaran Akidah, Amalan Guru Pendidikan Islam, Kemahiran Berfikir Aras Tinggi, Sekolah Rendah Pengenalan Kemahiran berfikir aras tinggi adalah kemahiran yang memerlukan mengorganisasikan pemikiran berdasarkan keupayaan untuk menghuraikan, menterjemahkan, mencipta, merefleksikan dan menghubungkaitkan dengan situasi semasa. Penekanan KBAT ini dalam sistem pendidikan negara adalah lanjutan daripada pelaksanaan kemahiran berfikir secara kritis dan kreatif (KBKK) yang telah dilaksanakan bermula 1993. Proses pelaksanaan KBAT ini adalah bersumberkan taksonomi bloom dan diubahsuai oleh lorin Anderson menerusi empat heiraki teratas iaitu mengaplikasi, menganalisis, menilai dan mencipta. Transformasi kurikulum pendidikan dalam Pelan Pembangunan Pendidikan Malaysia (PPPM ) 2013-2025 memberi penekanan utama terhadap konsep kemahiran berfikir aras tinggi (KBAT) yang berupaya melahirkan generasi mempunyai keupayaan dalam pemikiran
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kritis dan kreatif. Pendekatan ini diperkenalkan untuk mencapai matlamat utama pendidikan iaitu menghasilkan lebih banyak pelajar yang mempunyai keupayaan kognitif aras tinggi melalui pedagogi secara pembelajaran aktif di dalam pengajaran dan pembelajaran. Namun, matlamat masih belum tercapai sepenuhnya maka pelbagai pendekatan telah diperkenalkan untuk menghasilkan modal insan yang cerdas, kreatif dan inovatif bagi memenuhi cabaran abad ke-21 agar negara mampu bersaing di persada dunia. Menurut (Amabile et al, 2010). “Jika inginkan pelajar yang berpotensi untuk berfikir dan mampu menyelesaikan masalah kita perlu mula menyediakan tugasan tugasan yang kompleks yang berkognitif tinggi ”. Maka pengertian ini seiring dengan penekanan yang diberikan oleh Islam iaitu keupayaan akal merupakan elemen utama dalam pembentukan pelajar yang bersifat holistik iaitu keseimbangan di antara kecemerlangan akademik dan kemantapan sahsiah. Sebagaimana di ungkapkan oleh Muaz Bin Jabal ketika ditamya oleh Rasulullah s.a.w : “Bagaimana engkau akan memutuskan hukum jika ditanyakan perkara kepadamu?” Mu‟adz menjawab, “Saya akan memutuskan perkara itu sesuai dengan hukum Allah (Kitabullah). Apabila aku tidak menjumpai di dalam Kitabullah, aku akan memutuskan dengan Sunnah Rasulullah, saya akan melakukan ijtihad dengan kemampuanku”.(Abd Karim Zaidan, 2006). Maka proses tranformasi Pendidikan Islam telah dirangka berdasarkan pelaksanaan pengajaran guru di sekolah melalui pengubahsuaian melibatkan komponen keupayaan kurikulum, pembentukan budaya sekolah, penambahbaikan pengetahuan guru dan tahap kemampuan pelajar mengaplikasi setiap isi kandungan pembelajaran yang diperolehi agar matlamat pengenalan pengajaran dan pembelajaran berorentasikan KBAT dapat dilaksanakan dengan berkesan.(Noor Hisham, 2011 ; Zuraidah, 2013). Latar Belakang Masalah Kemahiran Berfikir Aras Tinggi menurut (Brookhart, 2010) adalah mempersoalkan, berupaya, memahami dan menganalisa sesuatu untuk memahami pemikiran sendiri dan orang lain. Di antara aktiviti yang boleh dijalankan untuk kemahiran berfikir aras tinggi (KBAT) ini adalah melalui berfikir aktif, melihat konteks persekitaraan berdasarkan persepektif yang berbeza dan menyusun setiap idea dengan teratur (Sukiman Saad et al, 2013). Berdasarkan definasi yang dikemukakan oleh Kementerian Pendidikan Malaysia iaitu keupayaan untuk mengaplikasi pengetahuan, kemahiran dan nilai dalam membuat penaakulan dan refleksi bagi menyelesaikan masalah, membuat keputusan, berinovasi dan berupaya mencipta sesuatu (KPM, 2014) Berdasarkan konsep Taksonomi Bloom, terdapat beberapa hirarki kemahiran yang dipetik dari Taksonomi Bloom yang perlu dipraktikkan di kalangan pelajar iaitu kemahiran untuk menjana idea serta cara baru , kemahiran membuat keputusan atau tindakan yang sesuai, kemahiran mengenal pasti dan mengkelaskan maklumat , konsep atau teori, kemahiran mengaplikasi maklumat atau idea dalam satu situasi yang baru, kemahiran untuk menerangkan idea atau konsep dan kemahiran mengingat kembali maklumat atau idea. Kajian ini akan menggunakan pembolehubah iaitu kemahiran dalam melaksanakan KBAT di dalam pengajaran guru seperti berikut :
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Kemahiran Membuat Kategori Kemahiran ini memerlukan keupayaan pelajar untuk membina kefahaman tentang perbezaan yang wujud dalam sesuatu kandungan seperti amalan ibadah yang dikategorikan ibadah atau yang dikategorikan adat. Maka menjadi keperluan kefahaman pelajar di isi dengan pengetahuan amalan ibadah dan adat seperti yang terdapat di dalam kandungan pengajaran (Zainuddin et al, 2005) Kemahiran Menyusun Mengikut Urutan Penyusun mengikut urutan adalah kemahiran yang dijana menerusi pemikiran yang kritikal dan tersusun. Penyusunan ini melibatkan sama ada daripada abstrak kepada kejelasan, mudah kepada susah, khusus kepada umum dan keutamaan kepada kebiasaan. Penyusunan ini dilakukan dengan mengumpul keseluruhan kandungan isi penyusunan dan kemahiran ini memerlukan penganalisaan yang tinggi di dalam memastikan susunan yang dilakukan adalah bertepatan dengan struktur ilmu terbabit (N.S Ragendran, 2001 ; Zainuddin et al, 2005). Kemahiran Membuat Ramalan Kemahiran mengandaikan perkara yang dijangka berlaku daripada pendekatan yang kita gunakan adalah melalui terma-terma yang telah ditetapkan. Keupayaan untuk menjangka ini memerlukan menganalisis dan menilai keseluruhan item agar segala dapatan menuju kepada perkembangan yang sepatutnya. Kemampuan membuat ramalan mampu menjadi pembudayaan untuk menganalisis adalah sebahagian kerangka penerapan kepada para pelajar (Shahrom et al, 2008). Kemahiran Menjana Idea Keupayaan pelajar untuk mengembangkan fakta yang di dapati berdasarkan pengetahuan yang disampaikan oleh guru. Proses penjanaan idea ini memerlukan penstrukturan dan panduan agar idea yang dikembangkan bertepatan dengan kehendak objektif yang dikendaki. Proses penjanaan idea memerlukan penguasaan kemahiran oleh guru melalui kefahaman berkaitan bagaimana idea yang seharusnya dikembangkan dan dihubungkait dengan idea yang lain.(Wan Mat et al, 2011). Kemahiran Mencipta Definasi Keupayaan pelajar untuk mendefinasikan sesuatu perkara menandakan kefahaman yang ada pada pelajar. Definasi merupakan gambaran keseluruhan sesuatu kandungan ilmu yang menjadi kerangka untuk penghuraian seterusnya yang lebih mendalam. Guru bertanggungjawab membimbing pelajar untuk mempunyai kemahiran dalam pendefinasikan sesuatu kandungan ilmu walaupun setiap pelajar mungkin mempunyai kepelbagaian definasi tetapi selagi berada di dalam lingkungan ilmu tersebut, maka definisi harus diterima (Zainuddin et al, 2005 ; Wan Mat et al, 2011). Kemahiran Mencipta Analogi Proses kemahiran untuk mencipta perumpaan atau analogi memerlukan kefahaman yang sepenuhnya dalam kandungan ilmu kerana menghubung kaitkan kandungan ilmu dengan situasi semasa memerlukan keupayaan menganalisa dan mengaplikasi yang tinggi di
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kalangan pelajar. Ketidakmampuan untuk mencipta analogi menandakan penguasaan yang belum sepenuhnya berkaitan kemahiran berfikir aras tinggi (KBAT), maka guru perlu menerapkan kemahiran ini di dalam setiap pengajaran dan pembelajaran (PdP) yang di jalankan.( Zainudin et al, 2005 ; Shahrom & Nur Laili, 2008). Pelaksanaan KBAT ini melibatkan keseluruhan kandungan pembelajaran dan kompenan di sekolah termasuk mata pelajaran pendidikan Islam. Pengenalan kurikulum, pedagogi dan penilaian yang menekankan KBAT ini di masukkan ke asas Kurikulum Standard Sekolah Rendah (KSSR) yang mula diperkenalkan pada tahun 2011. Pembentukan kurikulum ini bagi menggantikan Kurikulum Bersepadu Sekolah Rendah (KBSR) menutut pembelajaran Pendidikan Islam mengaplikasikan konsep penghayatan dan pengamalan dalam kehidupan seharian seiring dengan penekanan yang ditekan di dalam Al-Quran dan AsSunnah (Zuraidah, 2013) Kajian ini akan melihat bagaiman struktur pengamalan guru pendidikan Islam dalam pelaksanaan KBAT terutama bagi peringkat persekolahan rendah yang menuntut cabaran berbeza daripada penerapan bagi peringkat sekolah menengah. Aspek guru dan bagaimana guru mengaplikasi teori pemikiran berstruktur oleh Bloom dan Anderson dengan disesuaikan model pengajaran Imam Ghazali dan Ibn Khaldun dan diselarikan dengan pandangan Abdullah Nasir Ulwan menjadi kerangka teoritikal dalam kajian ini. Gabungan daripada ilmuan Islam dan barat ini mampu menghasilkan satu kerangka aras pemikiran bersumber Islam tanpa mengkesampingkan asas heiraki pemikiran yang telah diperkenalkan oleh Bloom dan Anderson. Pernyataan Masalah Al-Quran amat menekankan penggunaan akal yang seharusnya melibatkan elemen kefahaman, pengaplikasian, penghayatan dan penerapan dalam kehidupan seharian. Maka peranan akal dibahaskan di dalam Al-Quran dengan matlamat bagaimana manusia boleh menggunakan akal seiring dengan peredaran pemikiran manusia pada abad ini. Ini boleh diperjelaskan melalui firman Allah S.W.T bermaksud: (Al-Shafi’I, 2010). “Apakah mereka tidak memperhatikan kerajaan langit dan bumi dan segala sesuatu yang diciptakan Allah, dan (memikirkan) kemungkinan telah dekatnya kebinasaan mereka? Maka kepada berita manakah lagi sesudah (datangnya al-Quran) itu mereka akan beriman?” (al-A‟raf, 7: 185) Maka proses perkembangan budaya penggunaan akal ini di aplikasikan kepada proses pendidikan yang merupakan asas utama kepada perkembangan penggunaan akal dan pemikiran yang beraras tinggi di kalangan pelajar dan ini seiring dengan kehendak Al-Quran dan As-Sunnah (Sidek Baba, 2010). Walaupun tumpuan utama kepada mata pelajaran seperti matematik dan sains, mata pelajaran pendidikan Islam juga tidak terkecuali dalam menerapakan elemen pemikiran aras tinggi kerana ianya merupakan saranan yang telah ditetapkan di dalalm Al-Quran (Khairiah, 2013). Atas kerangka keupayaan penggunaan akal ini masyarakat dunia mempercayai bahawa pengetahuan dan kemahiran sangat diperlukan oleh pelajar dalam menghadapi cabaran di abad ke-21. Walaupun terdapat perbezaan dari segi maksud terminalogi kemahiran abad ke-21 (21st century skills) di antara negara-negara di dunia, namun kesemuanya memberi penekanan terhadap pengetahuan, kemahiran dan nilai (Saavedra & Opfer, 2012). Selain itu, Laporan yang dikeluarkan oleh Perunding Kestrel Education daripada England dan 21st Century School daripada Amerika Syarikat pada 2011 menyatakan bahawa pemikiran aras tinggi dalam kalangan guru dan pelajar di Malaysia masih rendah.
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Berdasarkan kajian yang dilakukan bagi guru melaksanakan pengajaran yang mengandungi pedagogi berdasarkan kemahiran berfikir aras tinggi (KBAT), ianya berupaya untuk meningkatkan pencapaian pelajar (Boaler, 2008; Siti Marlina, 2013 ; KPM, 2014). Berdasarkan kajian yang dilakukan oleh (Ab. Halim Tamuri et.al., 2010) dalam kajian terhadap 89 daripada 91 orang pelajar yang ditemubual dan melakukan pemerhatian di negeri Selangor, Perak dan Terengganu mendapati bahawa kaedah pengajaran yang kerap digunakan guru ialah kaedah kuliah dan penerangan dalam pengajaran pendidikan Islam. Ini bererti kaedah pengajaran dan pembelajaran pendidikan Islam masih berpusatkan guru dan secara tidak langsung kurang memberi peluang kepada pelajar untuk sama-sama terlibat dalam aktiviti-aktiviti yang berteraskan KBAT di bilik darjah. Kajian ini disokong berdasarkan kajian (Wan Hassan et al, 2013) mendapati guru-guru pendidikan Islam dalam pengajaran mata pelajaran pendidikan Islam, tahap penggunaan bahan bantu mengajar (BBM) dalam pengajaran pendidikan Islam di sekolah-sekolah berada pada tahap sederhana sahaja disebabkan tumpuan pengajaran kepada kaedah penerangan sahaja. Ini bertentangan dengan amalan pengajaran KBAT yang mengkehendaki BBM digunakan secara optimum. Ini seiring dengan kajian yang dilakukan oleh (Kamarul Azmi et al, 2012) mendapati guru pendidikan Islam menyampaikan pengajaran menggunakan 80% kaedah kuliah dan syarahan dalam sesuatu masa yang diperuntukkan. Ini menyebabkan wujudkan elemen kebosanan, tiada kefahaman, tidak dapat mengaitkan dengan situasi semasa, mengantuk dan hilang tumpuan di kalangan pelajar. Ini dibuktikan berdasarkan kajian (Siti Marlina, 2013) proses pendidikan itu dijalankan kepada pelajar-pelajar bagi peringkat persekolahan rendah, pembentukan elemen-elemen imaginasi, animasi, fantasi dan muzikal adalah di antara pendekatan yang bersesuian dalam proses pengajaran yang berkesan kepada peringkat kanakkanak yang berumur 7-12 tahun . Kajian yang dijalankan oleh (Asmawati Suhid et al, 2012) menyatakan sesuatu informasi yang diterima oleh seseorang kanak-kanak itu hanya di aras pengetahuan tanpa adanya penyemaian aqidah dan pemantapan akhlaq, maka sudah pastilah nilai penghayatannya kontang dan proses aplikasinya tidak dapat diterjemah dalam bentuk nilai peradaban yang sempurna. Akibatnya, generasi Islam yang dihasilkan mungkin bijaksana dan tinggi tahap perkembangan akademik tetapi pada hakikatnya ketidak mampuan menterjemahkan kefahaman yang diperolehi dalam bentuk amalan yang bertepatan dengan syariat Allah S.W.T maka menjadi keperluan keseimbangan ini di praktikan dalam setiap diri pelajar dan ini menjadi keperluan KBAT untuk dilaksanakan di dalam Pendidikan Islam seiring dengan penerapan bagi subjek lain seperti sains dan matematik (Rosnani Hashim, 2012). Oleh itu, kajian ini melihat pengamalan guru pendidikan Islam berdasarkan kemahiran berfikir aras tinggi (KBAT) di sekolah rendah dengan pembahagian tiga komponen utama iaitu permulaan pengajaran, perkembangan pengajaran dan penutup pengajaran. Keupayaan kemahiran berfikir aras tinggi ini dilihat berdasarkan (kemahiran membuat kategori, menyusun mengikut urutan, membuat ramalan, membanding dan membeza, kemahiran menjana dan menghasilkan idea, mencipta definisi, metafora dan kemahiran mencipta analogi). Objektif Kajian i) ii)
Mengenalpasti amalan permulaan pengajaran guru pendidikan Islam berdasarkan Kemahiran Berfikir Aras Tinggi (KBAT) bagi peringkat sekolah rendah Mengenalpasti amalan perkembangan pengajaran guru pendidikan Islam Kemahiran Berfikir Aras Tinggi (KBAT) bagi peringkat sekolah rendah
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iii)
Mengenalpasti amalan penutup pengajaran guru pendidikan Islam Kemahiran Berfikir Aras Tinggi (KBAT) bagi peringkat sekolah rendah Kajian Kepustakaan
Penekanan Al-Quran merupakan pencetus kepada tranformasi pendidikan pada abab ini melalui penggunaan akal untuk meneroka kefahaman terhadap sesuatu isu yang diperbahaskan. Al-Quran telah membicarakan kepentingan akal 1400 tahun lepas iaitu bagaimana meneroka ilmu dan menterjemahkan ke dalam kehidupan tetapi proses itu difahami dalam konteks bidang teologi tanpa memperkembangkan kepada ilmu-ilmu keduniaan lain, maka dunia barat telah mengeluarkan teori yang melihat akal dan pemikiran sebagai sesuatu yang bernilai dan perlu di manfaatkan, maka wujud kepelbagaian ilmu yang meletakkan penerokaan akal sebagai teras utama. Ilmu-ilmu seperti ilmu kemahiran berfikir, ilmu logik, ilmu meta kognisi, ilmu pemikiran aras tinggi dan ilmu reflektif menghuraikan bagaimana proses pemikiran itu dijalankan dan hasil daripada ilmu ini berbagai pendekatan, teori dan kaedah pengajaran diperkenalkan dalam memastikan proses kefahaman manusia mempunyai asas yang berstruktur dan bersistematik (Azhar Ahmad, 2006). Berdasarkan pencapaian Malaysia dalam ujian antarabangsa PISA pada tahun 2009 amat menyedihkan kerana berada pada kedudukan satu pertiga terendah di dunia. Malahan Thailand mengatasi kedudukan kita. Ini amat mengecewakan apabila kerajaan Malaysia membelanjakan peruntukan yang besar , malah jauh lebih tinggi daripada negara yang mengatasi Malaysia dalam keputusan PISA tersebut. Prestasi ini berlaku ketika nisbah guru : pelajar di Malaysia adalah yang tertinggi iaitu 1:13 berbanding negara lain. Kita lihat bahawa bentuk soalan dalam ujian PISA ini lebih kepada menyelesaikan masalah yang memerlukan kemahiran berfikir aras tinggi seperti menganalisis, menilai dan mensintesis dan bukan sekadar aplikasi. Justeru, ia memberi kita petanda bahawa sistem pendidikan kita masih lemah dalam melengkapkan pelajar dengan kemahiran tersebut (KPM, 2014). Maka terpanggil daripada isu ini, pihak kementerian telah melaksanakan dasar Pelan Pembangunan Pendidikan Malaysia (PPPM) 2013-2025 yang menggariskan enam aspirasi yang wajar dimiliki oleh setiap pelajar demi menghadapi cabaran globalisasi dan semasa, sejajar dengan Falsafah Pendidikan Kebangsaan iaitu: • Pengetahuan • Kemahiran berfikir • Kemahiran memimpin • Kemahiran dwibahasa • Etika dan kerohanian • Identiti nasional. Kerangka kemahiran berfikir diterjemahkan kepada Kemahiran Berfikir Aras Tinggi (KBAT) yang diterapkan kepada 7 elemen utama iaitu kurikulum, pentaksiran, pedagogi, kokurikulum, bina upaya, sumber dan sokongan komuniti & swasta. Penjalinan semua elemen ini akan memastikan proses pelaksanaan KBAT ini dapat mencapai matlamat dan hasrat yang ditetapkan (Bahagian Pembangunan Kurikulum, 2015). Kajian yang dilaksanakan oleh Kementerian Pendidikan Malaysia menerusi Bahagian Pembangunan Kurikulum membuktikan penekanan kepada kemahiran berfikir aras tinggi ini perlu melibatkan pembangunan keupayaan guru dalam pengajaran yang melibatkan hampir semua negara di dunia dengan matlamat melahirkan pelajar yang berdaya saing, berpengetahuan, berfikiran kritis, kreatif, berkemahiran dan berkemampuan mencipta idea baru (Savedra & Opfer, 2012 ; Brookhart, 2012).
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Berdasarkan kajian yang dilakukan oleh American Management Association (AMA) dan Partnership Malaysia for 21st Century Skill pada 2010 berkaitan tahap keperluan kemahiran yang diperlukan oleh pelajar untuk cemerlang dalam pembelajaran abad ke 21.Ini berdasarkan jadual 1 Jadual 1 Tahap keperluan pembelajaran abad ke 21. Kemahiran Kemahiran Berfikir Kritikal Kemahiran Komunikasi Kemahiran Kreativiti dan Inovasi Kerjasama dalam Kumpulan
Peratusan 97% 95% 92% 92%
Berdasarkan jadual 1 ini membuktikan keperluan pembentukan pelajar yang mempunyai keupayaan pengetahuan, kemahiran, krtikal, kreatif, kritis dan berinovasi. Pembentukan pelajar ini lebih baik sekiranya ianya dimulakan dari peringkat sekolah rendah kerana kemampuan pelajar untuk menyerap segala maklumat adalah lebih baik dan berkesan (Abdullah Nasir Ulwan, 2002). Kemahiran berfikir berkembang apabila kanak-kanak terlibat dalam aktiviti yang memberi peluang mereka memerhati, bermain, berimaginasi dan meneroka berdasarkan keperluan untuk menguji sikap berdikari pada peringkat sekolah rendah (Khalid. T, 2010) (Sarmah et al, 2011) dalam kajiannya berkaitan persepsi pelajar terhadap amalan pengajaran guru pendidikan Islam di lima buah sekolah peringkat menengah di Selangor. Dapatan kajian menunjukkan amalan pengajaran guru berada pada tahap tinggi dengan komponen permulaan pengajaran seperti item memperkenalkan tajuk pengajaran (min 4.44), memastikan pelajar dalam keadaan bersedia (min 4.39), memulakan pengajaran dengan set induksi yang menarik (min 3.97) seterusnya amalan penggunaan BBM (min 3.66) berada pada tahap sederhana dan aspek penutup dan rumusan seperti menyoal pelajar (min 4.09), memberi nasihat (min 4.43), memberi latihan (min 4.43) juga berada pada tahap tinggi sekolah rendah Manakala kajian yang yang dijalankan terhadap pelaksanaan amalan pengajaran guru bagi peringkat sekolah rendah telah dilakukan oleh (Zuraidah, 2013) berkaitan kesediaan, amalan dan strategi pengajaran pendidikan Islam kurikulum standard sekolah rendah (KSSR) tahun satu. Kajian tinjauan ini melibatkan 160 responden guru yang mengajar tahun satu dari 101 buah sekolah. Dapatan kajian telah menunjukkan tahap kesediaan guru tinggi dalam melaksanakan pengajaran dan pembelajaran Pendidikan Islam KSSR Tahun Satu dengan tidak ada perbezaan yang signifikan tahap kesediaan guru berdasarkan tempoh pengalaman mengajar. Dapatan kajian juga menunjukkan bahawa amalan strategi pengajaran yang digunakan oleh guru adalah strategi pemusatan guru dan strategi pemusatan pelajar yang berteraskan amalan pengajaran KBAT. Manakala kajian yang dilakukan oleh (Kamarul Azmi et al, 2010) menyatakan dalam kajiannya amalan pengajaran guru cemerlang Pendidikan Islam (GCPI) peringkat menengah di Malaysia. Hasil kajian yang dijalankan berdasarkan persepsi pelajar dengan matlamat dan objektif pengajaran berada pada tahap tinggi (min 4.17); set induksi berada pada tahap sederhana tinggi (min 3.91) dan penggunaan BBM berada pada tahap sederhana rendah (min 2.68). Secara umumnya, kajian lebih dikhususkan dan terhad kepada GCPI yang bilangannya amat terbatas serta kebiasaan memiliki criteria tertentu untuk dipilih sebagai guru cemerlang. Kajian berkaitan KBAT ini juga dijalankan oleh (Caroline@Lorena David dan Abdul Said Ambotang, 2014) menerusi tajuk profesionalisme guru novis dalam pengetahuan, kesediaan mengajar dan kemahiran berfikir aras tinggi (KBAT) terhadap pelaksanaan
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pengajaran di sekolah. Kajian ini melihat kepada komponen berkaitan profesionalisme guru dalam pengurusan pengetahuan, kesediaan mengajar dan pelaksanaan pengajaran di sekolah. Kajian ini melibatkan 400 guru melibatkan keseluruhan negeri Sabah dengan tumpuan kepada guru yang mengajar di antara satu sehingga tiga tahun. Dapatan kajian mendapati bahawa guru novis mempunyai tahap profesionalisme yang tinggi berkaitan pengurusan pengetahuan, kesediaan mengajar dan kemahiran berfikir aras tinggi (KBAT) dengan analisis faktor (EFA) mendapati item instrumen yang melebihi faktor pemuatan (loading factor) 0.50 melibatkan 85 item. Gabungan keseluruhan kajian ini membuktikan terdapat amalan pengajaran yang berkesan di kalangan guru dan ianya mampu diperkukuhkan lagi melalui penerapan elemen kemahiran berfikir aras tinggi melalui keupayaan guru melaksanakan (kemahiran membuat kategori, menyusun mengikut urutan, membuat ramalan, membanding dan membeza, kemahiran menjana idea, mencipta definisi dan kemahiran mencipta analogi) di dalam pengajaran dalam memastikan penghasilan pelajar yang memenuhi aspirasi nasional iaitu pelajar bukan sahaja mampu memahami dan menguasai tetapi mampu mengaplikasi serta menyumbangkan kefahaman untuk perkongsian bersama. Metodologi Kajian Reka Bentuk Kajian Reka bentuk kajian ini merupakan kaedah tinjauan yang bersifat kuantitatif. Hasil dapatan kajian ini dilihat melalui bentuk perkiraan yang merangkumi nombor dan formula tertentu. Menurut (Creswell, 2009) kaedah tinjauan merupakan satu cara yang spesifik bagi mengumpul maklumat berkenaan sekumpulan besar populasi. Kaedah tinjauan ini menggunakan kaedah soal selidik bertujuan untuk melakukan penilaian yang melibatkan 3 kompenen utama a) Permulaan pengajaran yang melibatkan (kemahiran banding beza, menyusun urutan, membuat definasi, kemahiran membuat ramalan, kemahiran menjana idea dan kemahiran membuat analogi). b) Perkembangan pengajaran yang melibatkan strategi pengajaran, persembahan pengajaran dan bahan pengajaran (kemahiran banding beza, menyusun urutan, membuat definasi, kemahiran membuat ramalan, kemahiran menjana idea dan kemahiran membuat analogi). c) Penutup pengajaran yang melibatkan rumusan pengajaran, refleksi pengajaran dan perkaitan dengan pelajaran yang berikutnya (kemahiran banding beza, menyusun urutan, membuat definasi, kemahiran membuat ramalan, kemahiran menjana idea dan kemahiran membuat analogi). Kajian ini merupakan satu tinjauan awal yang hanya menggunakan soal selidik dan kaedah pengukuran berdasarkan ujian analisis deskriptif iaitu min bagi menentukan ciri-ciri pembolehubah tanpa melakukan generilisasi. Kajian ini menggunakan instrumen bagaimana pelaksanaan kemahiran berfikir aras tinggi dilaksanakan dalam pengajaran pendidikan Islam Populasi dan Sampel Kajian Kajian ini melibatkan guru-guru pendidikan Islam bagi peringkat sekolah rendah di Malaysia yang berjumlah 400 orang dengan pembahagian taburan kajian menggunakan 4 zon utama di Malaysia melibatkan Kedah, Perak. Selangor, Melaka dan Kelantan. Jumlah
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keseluruhan guru pendidikan Islam di Malaysia adalah 38,502 orang berdasarkan maklumat daripada Bahagian Pendidikan Islam, Kementerian Pendidikan Malaysia namun berdasarkan jadual (Krajie & Morgan, 1970, Mohd Majid, 2005 ; Cohen, 2007) menerusi penentuan sampel daripada populasi jumlah yang bersesuian ditetapkan 382 orang, namun dalam kajian ini menggunakan 400 orang guru terlibat dalam kajian ini. Guru-guru yang terpilih adalah di antara guru-guru yang mengajar berdasarkan jantina, kelayakan akademik, umur dan pengalaman mengajar. Instrumen Kajian Instrumen kajian atau alat kajian yang digunakan dalam ujian ini adalah set soal selidik. Borang soal selidik ini terbahagi kepada dua bahagian. Pada bahagian I terdapat beberapa item berkenaan latar belakang responden. Pada bahagian II pula adalah instrumen yang terdiri daripada 30 soalan berkaitan persoalan pengaplikasian KBAT di dalam pengajaran. Semua soal selidik diteliti terlebih dahulu untuk memastikan responden telah mengikut arahan yang tepat agar dapat memberikan maklumat seperti yang diperlukan. Setelah berkeyakinan dengan item soal selidik, penyelidik menjalankan ujian terhadap responden kajian (Mohd Majid, 2005 ; Pallant J, 2010). Soal selidik ini telah diubahsuai daripada i) instrumen pengajaran guru berdasarkan KBAT yang dibangunkan oleh KPM. ii) Soal selidik yang dilakukan di dalam tesis PHD amalan pengajaran guru oleh Mohd Aderi Che Noh dan Paharuddin Arbain. iii)Instrumen penilaian KBAT yang dibangunkan oleh Lembaga Peperiksaan Malaysia. Pengumpulan dan Analisis Data Dapatan data yang diperolehi ini akan dianalisis oleh penyelidik bagi menjawab persoalan kajian ini. Daripada data yang diperolehi adalah diharapkan agar penyelidik dapat mengenalpasti pelaksanaan amalan pengajaran guru pendidikan Islam berdasarkan kemahiran berfikir aras tinggi dengan melihat dari perspektif sekolah rendah. Kebolehpercayaan untuk soal selidik ini berada pada tahap tinggi iaitu nilai Alpha Cronbach mencatatkan (0.82173). SPSS 20.0 digunakan untuk mencari nilai kekerapan, peratus dan min. (Mohd Majid, 2005 ; Pallant, 2010 ) Jadual 2 menunjukkan bagi nilai kebolehpercayaan melibatkan komponen permulaan yang mencatatkan (0.7727), komponen perkembangan pengajaran (0.8905) dan penutup pengajaran mencatatkan (0.8020). Jadual 2 Nilai Pekali Kebolehpercayaan Instrumen Soal Selidik _____________________________________________________________ Pembolehubah Nilai Alpha Cronbach _____________________________________________________________ Permulaan Pengajaran 0.7727 Perkembangan Pengajaran 0.8905 Penutup Pengajaran 0.8020 ______________________________________________________________ Skala Likert lima mata digunakan dalam kajian ini. Kaedah skor yang digunakan ialah Sangat Tidak Setuju (STS) dengan skor 1 mata, Tidak Setuju (TS) dengan skor 2 mata, Kurang Pasti (KP) dengan skor 3 mata, Setuju (S) dengan skor 4 mata dan Sangat Setuju (SS) dengan skor 5 mata. Data yang diperolehi ini di analisis mengunakan statistik deskriptif yang melibatkan kekerapan, peratusan dan min.
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Analisis Data Data telah di ringkaskan dan di analisis berdasarkan jadual 3 berdasarkan analisis frekuensi dan peratus untuk jantina, umur, taraf pendidikan, pengalaman mengajar berdasarkan guru pendidikan Islam dalam pelaksanaan kemahiran berfikir aras tinggi (KBAT) pendidikan Islam. Jadual 3 : Analisis frekuensi dan peratus untuk jantina, umur, taraf pendidikan, pengalaman mengajar berdasarkan guru pendidikan Islam Pemboleh Ubah Frekuensi Peratus Jantina 1) Lelaki 151 37.75 2) Perempuan 249 62.25 28.25 Umur 1) Kurang 35 tahun 113 47.00 2) 35 – 45 tahun 188 24.75 3) 46 tahun ke atas 169 17.0 Taraf Pendidikan 1) STPM 68 52.75 2) Diploma 211 20.75 3) Sarjana Muda 83 9.50 4) Sarjana 38 68 17.0 Pengalaman Mengajar 1) 1 – 4 tahun 83 20.75 2) 5- 8 tahun 38 9.5 3) 9 -12 tahun 211 52.75 4) Lebih 13 tahu Berdasarkan jadual ini, taburan jantina bagi guru yang terlibat dalam kajian ini adalah terdiri daripada 151 lelaki dan 249 perempuan dengan majoritinya berumur di dalam lingkungan 35-45 tahun. Ini menunjukkan kebanyakan guru berada pada tahap produktif dalam menyumbang kepada amalan pengajaran yang berkesan dan berteraskan KBAT. Kajian ini juga melibatkan guru yang berumur kurang daripada 35 tahun iaitu seramai 113 orang dan guru yang berumur 46 tahun ke atas seramai 169 orang. Bagi kategori taraf pendidikan, di dapati ramai guru yang berada pada tahun diploma dan sedang melanjutkan pengajian bagi peringkat ijazah, ini membuktikan guru mempunyai komitmen meningkatkan pengetahuan berkaitan pendekatan pengajaran yang berkesan dan ini merupakan salah satu daripada elemen di dalam pelaksanaan kemahiran berfikir aras tinggi iaitu guru berpengetahuan. Bagi kategori taraf pendidikan ini, di dapati guru yang mempunyai taraf STPM adalah seramai 68 orang, di ikuti Ijazah sarjana muda seramai 83 orang dan peringkat sarjana seramai 38 orang. Untuk kategori pengalaman mengajar di dapati guru yang terlibat dalam kajian ini adalah terdiri daripada guru yang mempunyai pengalaman mengajar melebihi 13 tahun iaitu seramai 211 orang dan ini mengambarkan tidak akan wujud permasalahan dalam pelaksanaan kemahiran berfikir aras tinggi ini disebabkan mempunyai asas pengajaran yang mampu dalam mempelbagaikan kaedah yang dapat menarik perhatian pelajar. Bagi kategori pengalaman mengajar ini, guru yang kurang daripada 4 tahun adalah seramai 68 orang, 9 hingga12 tahun seramai 38 orang dan 5 hingga 8 tahun seramai 83 orang.
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Dapatan Kajian Huraian berdasarkan analisis deskriptif iaitu min serta gambaran setiap item kajian. Jadual 4 Dapatan Keseluruhan Kajian ___________________________________________________________________________ Pernyataan Purata Min Tahap ___________________________________________________________________________ 1. Pengaplikasian KBAT pada permulaan Pengajaran 4,45 Tinggi 2. Pengaplikasian KBAT pada perkembangan pengajaran
4.44
Tinggi
3. Pengaplikasian KBAT pada penutup pengajaran
4.40
Tinggi
Purata 4.43 Tinggi ___________________________________________________________________________ Perbincangan Perbincangan berkaitan hasil dapatan kajian adalah berdasarkan komponen pengajaran yang terdiri daripada permulaan pengajaran, perkembangan pengajaran dan penutup pengajaran. Dapatan kajian permulaan pengajaran Pengkaji mendapati pengaplikasian KBAT dalam mata pelajaran pendidikan Islam dikalangan guru-guru sekolah rendah di pada permulaan pengajaran berada pada tahap tinggi dengan purata min (4.43). Berdasarkan dapatan kajian bagi permulaan pengajaran, mencatatkan peratusan min yang tertinggi adalah guru sentiasa menetapkan objektif berdasarkan analisis yang dilakukan terhadap tajuk yang telah di ajarkan sebelum. Ini membuktikan guru sentiasa mengambil berat objektif yang akan ditetapkan seharusnya berdasarkan tahap keupayaan pelajar yang di dapati daripada pencapaian pembelajaran sebelumnya. Ini menunjukkan elemen kemahiran berfikir aras tinggi sentiasa diberi penekanan oleh guru pendidikan Islam di dalam kelas. Namun penambahbaikan yang perlu dijalankan adalah berkaitan guru memohon pandangan pelajar berkaitan BBM yang perlu digunakan di dalam pengajaran, ini kerana masa yang diperuntukkan adalah terhad, maka BBM yang digunakan kebiasaan terhad kepada hanya satu atau dua alat sahaja. Dari segi keseluruhannya, kajian ini mendapati wujud pengamalan yang tinggi dalam amalan permulaan pengajaran guru pendidikan Islam. Dapatan perkembangan pengajaran Guru-guru mengaplikasikan KBAT pada peringkat perkembangan pengajaran berada pada tahap yang tinggi dengan purata min (4.39). Berdasarkan dapatan kajian bagi perkembangan pengajaran, mencatatkan peratusan min yang tertinggi adalah guru sentiasa memberi aktiviti dalam proses pengayaan pengetahuan dan kefahaman pelajar dengan tertakluk kepada sukatan yang telah ditetapkan. Ini membuktikan guru menggunakan
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keupayaan kreativiti untuk meningkatkan keupayaan pelajar melalui aktiviti seperti kerja kumpulan, kajian mata pelajaran dan kemahiran menganalisis sesuatu topik yang di ajar. Ini menunjukkan terdapat penerapan elemen kemahiran berfikir aras tinggi (KBAT) oleh guru pendidikan Islam di dalam kelas. Namun penambahbaikan yang perlu dijalankan adalah berkaitan guru memberi masa kepada pelajar untuk berbincang, ini pendekatan yang sukar dilaksanakan di peringkat sekolah rendah kerana tahap kemampuan memahami konsep kerja dalam kumpulan berada pada tahap rendah dan guru bimbang sekiranya pelajar diberi kebenaran, pelajar bukan berbincang berkaitan kandungan yang di ajar tetapi berkaitan hal lain yang tidak berkaitan Dapatan Penutup Pengajaran Guru-guru mengaplikasikan KBAT pada peringkat penutup pengajaran berada pada tahap yang tinggi dengan purata min (4.40). Berdasarkan dapatan kajian bagi penutup pengajaran mencatatkan peratusan min yang tertinggi adalah guru melakukan refleksi berkaitan pengajaran manakala pelajar melakukan refleksi semasa pembelajaran. Ini membuktikan guru memberi kebebasan kepada pelajar untuk melakukan refleksi berdasarkan tahap kefahaman, keupayaan dan kemampuan pelajar tetapi akhirnya guru akan membuat rumusan keseluruhan, namun sebahagian proses penerapan kemahiran berfikir aras tinggi yang berpusatkan pelajar, pelajar didedahkan dengan bagaimana proses refleksi di lakukan. Ini menunjukkan wujudnya kefahaman guru pendidikan Islam dalam kemahiran berfikir aras tinggi untuk diterapkan kepada pelajar. Namun dalam kajian ini mendapati, masih terdapat guru mengukur kefahaman pelajar hanya bertujuan untuk peperiksaan sahaja bukannya untuk penguasaan ilmu kerana guru terikat dengan penilaian prestasi berdasarkan keupayaan pelajar dalam peperiksaan, perubahan ini memerlukan keseluruhan sistem termasuk dasar, pentadbiran dan proses pelaksanaan. Dari segi gambaran keseluruhannya menerusi tinjauan awal ini mendapati sememangnya wujud pengamalan yang tinggi dalam amalan penutup pengajaran guru pendidikan Islam di Malaysia Dapatan Keseluruhan Dapatan daripada hasil soal selidik yang dijalankan, pengaplikasian KBAT guru pendidikan Islam di dalam amalan pengajaran mata pelajaran pendidikan Islam mencatatkan min yang tinggi iaitu (4.43). Ini terhasil daripada dapatan bagi komponen permulaan pengajaran yang mencatatkan min (4.45), manakala bagi komponen perkembangan pengajaran mencatatkan min (4.44) manakala bagi komponen penutup pengajaran yang mencatatkan min (4.40) daripada (elemen kemahiran membanding beza, menyusun mengikut urutan, membuat ramalan, kemahiran menjana idea, mencipta definisi, dan kemahiran mencipta analogi). Ini menunjukkan bahawa penerapan KBAT sememangnya berlaku di dalam amalan pengajaran guru pendidikan Islam namun beberapa penambahbaikan perlu dilakukan seperti interaksi pelajar sesama pelajar, pengendalian sesi perbincangan di kalangan pelajar dan penilaian yang melihat penguasaan pelajar agar momentum pelaksanaan KBAT ini dapat dicapai seiring seperti yang dihasratkan oleh Kementerian Pendidikan Malaysia. Selain itu menerusi kajian ini keupayaan guru menghasilkan KBAT melalui perancangan yang tersusun daripada guru. Berdasarkan hasil kajian ini, menujukkan beberapa penambahbaikan di peringkat permulaan pengajaran, perkembangan pengajaran dan penutup pengajaran hendaklah menekankan aspek-aspek yang berikut iaitu, aktiviti-aktiviti yang dilaksanakan hendaklah melalui penilaian yang berterusan sama ada KBAT dilaksanakan atau tidak dan
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ianya harus meliputi keseluruhan pengajaran. Selain itu, kepelbagaian aktiviti-aktiviti yang dijalankan hendaklah mencapai objektif pengajaran. Selain itu, elemen penyoalan perlu dipertingkatkan dan dipelbagaikan seperti adakah arahan guru tentang sesuatu tugas itu berkaitan dengan pengajaran yang disampaikan?, adakah tugasan itu sesuai dan sejajar dengan pengajaran guru?,adakah tugasan yang diberi itu ada kaitannya dengan pelajaran yang akan datang? adakah tugasan itu hasil daripada inisiatif guru sendiri, atau cuma diambil daripada buku-buku teks?.Semua persolan ini menjadi pendorong kepada guru dalam meningkatkan asas kemahiran berfikir aras tinggi seiring dengan dapatan yang diperolehi. Rumusannya keseluruhan daripada dapatan kajian ini dapat mengukuhkan dan memantapkan isi kandungan pengajaran guru dalam pelaksanaan KBAT dalam mata pelajaran pendidikan Islam dan menfokuskan kepada terma-terma penting di dalam elemen pemikiran aras tinggi serta beberapa persoalan-persoalan baru dalam memantapkan kefahaman pelajar tentang kepentingan memahami, menganalisis dan menerapkan amalan di dalam kehidupan seharian Rumusan Berdasarkan tinjauan awal, kajian ini telah mengemukakan data yang menunjukkan bahawa guru-guru secara signifikan mempunyai tahap amalan yang tinggi terhadap kemahiran pedagogi untuk mengajar KBAT melalui pendidikan Islam. Guru-guru ini percaya persediaan dari aspek ilmu pengetahuan, kemahiran pedagogi, dan sikap untuk mengajar pendidikan dan guru mempercayai bahawa kurang kesediaan dari aspek ilmu pengetahuan, kemahiran pedagogi dan sikap untuk mengajar KBAT menyebabkan proses pengajaran hanya akan bersifat statik dan membosankan. Data yang dikumpulkan ini melalui soal selidik menyokong kajian-kajian sebelum ini bahawa amalan pengajaran guru di bilik-bilik darjah ini tahap keberkesanan yang berbeza sekiranya elemen pengajaran KBAT tidak diberi perhatian. Maka dalam kajian yang seterusnya, elemen seperti sikap, kemahiran, pengetahuan dan nilai guru boleh menjadi fokus kajian dalam memastikan kerangka pelaksanaan KBAT dapat diterapkan dalam setiap aspek amalan pengajaran guru di dalam kelas. Kajian yang seterusnya boleh melibatkan penelitian amalan kemahiran berfikir aras tinggi (KBAT) sama ada melibatkan elemen kurikulum, pentaksiran dan bina upaya dan menggunakan analisis data kajian yang lebih mendalam dan terperinci. Rujukan Al-Quran. Ab Halim Tamuri dan Mohammad Khairul Azman AJuhary. (2010). Amalan pengajaran guru Pendidikan Islam berkesan berteraskan konsep “ muallim”. Journal Islamic and Arabic Education 2(1) 43-56. Abdullah Nasih Ulwan (2002), Pendidikan Anak-anak Dalam Islam.Syed Ahmad Semait (terj.) Singapura: Pustaka Nasional Pte.Ltd. Abd Karim Zaidan. (2006). Al-Wajiz fil Usul Fiqh. Lebanon : Resalah Publishers. Al-Shāfi’i, Hasan Muhammad. (2010). Lamhāt Min al-Fikr al-Kalāmī. Qahirah : Dar alBasair. Amabile , Hennessey, B. A, and, T. M. (2010). Creativity. Annual Review of Psychology ; 61, 569-598. Asmawati Suhid, dan Fathiyah Mohd Fakhruddin , (2012) Gagasan pemikiran falsafah dalam pendidikan Islam: hala tuju dan cabaran. JIAE: Journal of Islamic and Arabic Education, 2 (4). pp. 57-70. ISSN 1985-6236
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Azhar Ahmad. (2006). Strategi pembelajaran pengaturan kendiri pendidikan Islam dan penghayatan akhlak pelajar sekolah menengah. Tesis Ph.D. Fakulti Pendidikan, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Boaler, J. (2008). Promoting „Relational Equity‟ and High Mathematics Achievement Through an Innovative Mixed Ability Approach. British Educational Research Journal. 34 (2), 167-194 Brookhart, S. (2010), How to Assess Higher Order Thinking Skills in Your Classroom, ASCD Caroline@Lorena David dan Abdul Said Ambotang (2014). Profesionalisme guru novis dalam pengurusan pengetahuan, kesediaan mengajar dan kemahiran berfikir aras tinggi terhadap pelaksanaan pengajaran di sekolah. Kota Kinabalu : Universiti Malaysia Sabah Cohen, J. Lawrence Manion and Keith Marrison (2007). Research Method in Educatio. London ; Routledge, Francais and Taylor Group Creswell, J. W. (2009). Educational research: Planning, conducting, and evaluating quanitative and qualitative research. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Education, Inc. J. Pallant. (2010). SPSS Survival Manual A Step by Step Guide to Data Analysis using SPSS for Windows ,4rd Edition, Crows West , New South Wales. Kamarul Azmi Jasmi, Ab. Halim Tamuri, dan Mohd Izham Mohd Hamzah. (2010). Faktor pentadbir dan pengetua dalam kecemerlangan guru cemerlang Pendidikan Islam dan guru di sekolah menengah: satu kajian kes. JIAE: Journal of Islamic and Arabic Education, 2 (1). pp. 13-20. ISSN 1985-6236. Kementerian Pendidikan Malaysia. (2014), Buku dasar elemen kemahiran berfikir aras tinggi (Kurikulum). Putrajaya: Bahagian Pembangunan Kurikulum. Kementerian Pendidikan Malaysia. (2014), Buku dasar elemen kemahiran berfikir aras tinggi (Pedagogi). Putrajaya: Bahagian Pembangunan Kurikulum Kementerian Pendidikan Malaysia. (2014), Buku dasar elemen kemahiran berfikir aras tinggi (Pentaksiran). Putrajaya: Bahagian Pembangunan Kurikulum Khairiah Binti Razali, (2013). Kemahiran Berfikir Aras Tinggi dalam Pendidikan Islam. Batu Pahat. Kementerian Pendidikan Malaysia Khalid, T. (2010). An Integrated Inquiry Activity in an Elementary Teaching Methods Classroom. Science Activities: Classroom Projects and Curriculum Ideas. Krejcic, R.V & Morgan, D.W. (1970). Determining sample saiz for research activities, education and psychogical measurement, 30 : 608-619 Mohd Majid Konting. (2005). Kaedah penyelidikan pendidikan. Kuala Lumpur : Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka Noor Hisham Md Nawi. (2011). Pengajaran dan pembelajaran : penelitian semula konsepkonsep asas menurut perspektif gagasan Islamisasi ilmu moden. Kongres pengajaran dan pembelajaran ; Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia. Partnership for 21st Century Skills. (2010). Beyond the Three Rs: Voter Attitudes Toward 21st Century Skills. Tucson, AZ. Rajendran, Nagappan. (2001). Teaching higher-order thinking skills in language classrooms: The need for transformation of teaching practice. Paper presented at the 9thInternational Conference on Thinking, Auckland, New Zealand. Rosnani Hashim. (2012). Rethinking Islamic Education in Facing the Challenges of the Twenty-first Century. American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences, 22(4): 133-147 Saavedra, A. & Opfer, V. (2012). Learning 21st-century skills requires 21st-century teaching. Phi Delta Kappan, 94(2), 8-13. Sarmah Mokhtar, Ab Halim Tamuri, Mohd Aderi Che Noh, Nurul Huda Hassan, Mohamad Maliki Ali, Mohd Kashfi Mohd Jailani, Zahiah Haris@ Harith & Mustafa Kamal
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Ahmad Kassim. (2011). Kajian persepsi pelajar terhadap personaliti dan amalan pengajaran guru pendidikan Islam sekolah menengah di Selangor. Prosiding penyelidikan international conference and exhibition on research Islamic And Arabic language education. Bangi : Association of Malaysian Muslim Intellectual. Sidek Baba. (2010). Kehidupan Sejahtera Terbina Atas Pendidikan Bersepadu. Pendidik Bilangan 73. Siti Marlina Binti Sabran. (2013). Kemahiran Berfikir Aras Tinggi (KBAT) pelajar tingkatan lima dalam penyelesaian matematik. Johor Bharu : Universiti Teknologi Malaysia. Shaharom Bin Noordin & Nur Laili Binti Lockman. (2008). Tahap Penguasaan Kemahiran Meramal Dan Kemahiran Mengawal Pembolehubah Dalam Kalangan Pelajar Pendidikan Kimia. Fakulti Pendidikan, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia. Sukiman Saad, Noor Shah Saad, Mohd Uzi Dollah. (2013) : Pengajaran kemahiran berfikir : persepsi dan amalan guru matematik semasa pengajaran dan pembelajaran di bilik darjah : Jurnal Pendidikan Sains dan Matematik Malaysia, Tanjung Malim ; Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris. Wan Mat bin Sulaiman dan Hjh Norkhairiah Binti Pg Hj Hashim. (2011). Aplikasi kemahiran berfikir dalam pengajaran Pengetahuan Agama Islam. Journal of Applied Research in Education, Vol 15, No.1 & 2, 2011, pp.43-58. Zaharah Hussin. (2005). Keperluan pendidikan akhlak dalam latihan perguruan pendidikan Islam latihan perguruan. (The needs of akhlak education in Islamic Education teacher training) Dlm : Pentadbiran dalam Pembangunan Pendidikan. Bentong : PTS Publication. Zainudin Hassan, Hamdan Said, Jamilah Omar, Haslita Hassan. (2005). Pengaplikasian kemahiran berfikir dalam pengajaran kemahiran hidup bersepadu di sekolah menengah daerah kota bahru, Kelantan. Johor Bharu : Universiti Teknologi Malaysia. Zuraidah Binti Ramdzan@Ramban. (2013). Kesediaan, amalan dan strategi pengajaran pendidikan Islam Kurikulum Standard Sekolah Rendah Tahun Satu (KSSR). Johor Bharu. Universiti Teknologi Malaysia.
The Implementation of Higher Order Thinking Skills at Universitas Teknologi Yogyakarta in Indonesia: Opportunities and Challenges Juhansar1, Mustaqim Pabbajah1, Sayit Abdul Karim1
[email protected],
[email protected],
[email protected] 1Faculty of Education, Universitas Teknologi Yogyakarta, Indonesia
Abstract This article explores the emergence of Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) in a classroom practice at Universitas Teknologi Yogyakarta (UTY), Indonesia. It is not easy to implement in the classroom since it requires more work, time, deeper practical understanding, a number of strategies and practices in the different contexts and situation. However, it is a must to apply in the learning-teaching at a classroom because it brings positive effects to both students and lecturers. Thus, this article provides the opportunities and the challenges of HOTS implementation at UTY. It found that the implementation HOTS at UTY is really hard but fully beneficial for getting a better outcome of learning-teaching in the classroom setting. HOTS can be applied in the forms questioning and answering the problems critically, arousing students’ class participation actively, and accessing the newest information continuously. However, it was still found a number of challenges in its implementation like the need of extra time, students’ motivation, lecturers’ competence and professionalism, classroom management, and resources but it does not mean that HOTS cannot be implemented at UTY. Keywords: Higher Order Thinking Skills, University, Classroom Practice, Opportunity, Challenge. Introduction High Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) has been a hot issue in the educational setting throughout the world. It basically means thinking that is taking place in the higher-levels of the hierarchy of cognitive processing proposed by Benjamin S. Bloom in 1956 which was revised in 1995. The cognitive processing is well-known as Bloom‟s Taxonomy. In 1956, it was viewing a continuum of thinking skills ranging from six words of noun as follows: Knowledge, Comprehension, Application, Analysis, Synthesis, and Evaluation. In 1995, the taxonomy was revised by Bloom using verbs. The verbs are: Remembering, Understanding, Applying, Analysing, Evaluating, and Creating. The new taxonomy used in Indonesia as a basic conceptual framework in developing the curriculum so-called Kerangka Kualifikasi Nasional Indonesia (KKNI) or Indonesia Qualification Framework (IQF). Bloom‟s taxonomy can be categorized into two thinking-level skills. The two thinking-level skills are Low Order Thinking Skills (LOTS) and High Order Thinking Skills (HOTS). In this case, Remembering, Understanding, and Applying are considered as verbs used for Low Order Thinking Skills (LOTS), while the three others; Analysing, Evaluating, and Creating refer to High Order Thinking Skills (HOTS). In relation to this matter, Krulik and Rudnick (1999) divided thinking skill into four levels, they are recall thinking, basic thinking, critical thinking, and creative thinking. The first, recall thinking or memorization is the lowest level of thinking skill. The skill is almost automatic or reflexive nature. In Indonesia, this skill still can be found in every level of educational institutions. The second, basic thinking refers to concepts understanding such as
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additional and subtraction, including its applications in questioning. The third, critical thinking is thinking that checking, connecting, and evaluating all aspects of the situation or problem. This includes collecting, organizing, remembering, and analyzing information. Critical thinking includes the ability to read with understanding and identifying the materials which are needed and not needed. Critical thinking is very necessary for both students and lecturers. This is in line with Cottrell (2005), states that students are expected to develop critical tihinking so that they can dig deeper below the surface of the subjects they are studying and engage in critical dialogue with its main theories and arguments. For university students and lecturers, it is strongly encouraged to think critically and persuade other people by logic arguments. Arguments as states by Bowell (2002) attempts to provide people with reasons for believing a claim, desiring or doing something. The ability draw the right conclusions from the data provided and be able to determine the inconsistencies and contradictions in the data group is part of critical thinking skills. In other words, critical thinking is an analytical and a reflexive thinking. The last is creative thinking. The objectives of creative thinking tend to be more complex and more complicated. It is to synthesize and create the new ideas holistically. Those theories, Bloom (1956, 1995) and Krulik (1999), are actually closely related. They only have different term of naming but essentially they are the same. In relation to the subject matter, there were many scholars had conducted a research. Yen & Halili (2015: 41) in their article on Effective Teaching of Higher Order Thinking (HOT) in Education found that “one critical aspect in discussing effective teaching is examining the effectiveness of lecturers in developing students‟ capability to think while ensuring content mastery at the same time”. This is a good research; nevertheless, it tends to be Lecturer-Centered Learning (TCL). Another research by Edwards & Briers (1998) on Higher Order and Lower Order Thinking Skills Comparison at School showed that “students‟ achievement for LOTS was slightly more than half of the 70% passing standard and slightly less for HOTS”. If students got more achievement percentage for LOTS meaning that lecturer should find appropriate techniques and analyze and/or evaluate the challenges found in the learning-teaching to get better achievement for HOTS. On the other hand, Miri et al (2007) in their research on Teaching for the Promotion Critical Thinking Skill mentioned that “the experimental group showed a statically significant improvement on critical thinking components and disposition toward critical thinking subscales compared with the control group”. It means that there is a good chance for a consequent development of critical thinking capabilities if a lecturer purposely and persistently practices higher order thinking strategies. Based on those researches, the writers find the necessity to explore more the gaps which were not mentioned in the previous literatures. Thus, this paper aims at providing the techniques of fostering lecturers HOTS at UTY in order to facilitate learning-teaching in the classroom setting. Besides, it provides opportunities and challenges of HOTS implementation at UTY. The implementation of HOTS at a higher educational institution is not only in term of teaching but also learning. This is strongly important to develop and build a better learning-teaching transformation for getting new critical and creative academic generations. To reach the objective before, the writers will firstly explore what HOTS in general as a preunderstanding for further discussion. Secondly, the writers will see HOTS in a global to local perspective to find the basic belief based on Bloom‟s Taxonomy. Finally, the writers will examine the opportunities including the benefit and the appropriate HOTS techniques and strategies applied in learning-teaching at UTY and also the its challenges including factors influencing the ineffectiveness of the implementation.
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What is Higher Order Thinking Skills? HOTS at a Glance Science education reforms worldwide are derived from the constructivist views of teaching and learning. These reforms explicitly ask lecturers to change their teaching strategies by shifting the emphasis from the traditional textbook-based, rote learning, to exploration, inquiry-based learning situated in real-world phenomena. The constructivist theory recognises that students need to be exposed to learning experiences that enable them to construct their own knowledge and promote their thinking skills (Cobb, 1994). For decades, the promotion of students‟ thinking has been the focus of educational studies and programs (de Bono, 1976). Each of these programs has its own definition of thinking and/or of skills. Some use the phrase „cognitive skills‟ (Leou et al., 2006) and others refer to „thinking skills‟ (Zohar & Dori, 2003) but they all distinguish between Lower Order Thinking Skills (LOTS) and Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS). Resnick (1987) maintained that thinking skills resist precise forms of definition; yet, HOTS can be recognised when they occur (Miri et al, 2007: 354). Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) or high-level thinking skills described by Gunawan (2003: 171) as a process of thinking that requires students to manipulating information and ideas in a way that gives them understanding and new implications. For example, when students combine facts and ideas then synthesize, generalize, explain, hypnotize, and analyze it until they arrive at a conclusion. indeed, HOTS can occur when someone relates the new received information to the stored memory she or he has, then put it together and/or styling re and develop the information in order to reach a goal or an the completion of a difficult situation solved. According to Miri et al (2007: 356) that Higher Order Thinking Skill (HOTS) can be conceptualised as a non-algorithmic, complex mode of thinking that often generates multiple solutions. Such thinking involves uncertainty, application of multiple criteria, reflection, and self-regulation (Resnick, 1987). Framed in more traditional terms, higher order thinking corresponds with the taxonomy of Bloom are overlapping levels above comprehension. Accordingly, recall of information would be an example of a lower order cognitive pattern, or thinking skills, whereas analysis, evaluation, and synthesis would be considered higher order thinking skills. Indeed, learning experiences focused around analysis, evaluation, and synthesis, develop skills in problem solving, inferring, estimating, predicting, generalising and creative thinking (Wilks, 1995), which are all considered as higher order thinking skills. Other examples of such skills include: question posing, decision making, and critical and systemic thinking (Dillon, 2002). HOTS covering aspects of critical thinking skills, creative thinking skills, and abilities solve the problem. Critical thinking is the ability to analyze, create and using objective criteria, and evaluate the data. Creative thinking is the ability to use the complex structural thinking that raises new and original ideas. Pohl in Lewy (2009: 15) reveals Bloom's Taxonomy is the foundation for higher-level thinking. The basis of The idea is that some types learning requires a process of cognition more than others, but it has benefits are more common. Krathwohl in Lewy (2009: 16) states that indicators to measure the ability includes analyzing higher-order thinking, evaluate, create. HOTS in Indonesia In 1990, higher order thinking skills were introduced and related to educational setting In Indonesia (Nurhayati, 2014). HOTS has been a hot issue in Indonesia education,
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ranging from elementary level to the highest level of education. Lecturers are encouraged to develop students‟ higher order thinking skills which enable students to think critically and creatively. For years, universities in Indonesia prepared students to be good citizenship, good workers, and good graduates. As social, technological and economic changes shape the occupational outlook of today‟s Indonesian students, then universities have started to include the need of higher order thinking skills in order to promote the development of thinking skills to enable them to be critical and creative thinkers. The commitment toward higher order thinking skills are relevant to global economic growth, the development of information and communications technology (ICT), a knowledge-based economy and a fast-paced world (Yee et al, 2012). HOTS has become an issue in Indonesia educational setting. The stakeholders in education sector are challenged to develop students‟ higher order thinking skills which enable them to be critical and creative thinkers. However, developing students‟ higher order thinking skills in a pre-service English lecturer class is not easy due to many factors such as cultures and individual differences (Nurhayati, 2014: 664). She went on to say that some students in Indonesia are raised in a culture that respect “humble” persons, or people who do not like to “show off”. That is why some still believe in proverbial saying “silence is gold” and implement this in the classroom by not contributing adequately in class sessions that require them to raise complex questions, responding to complex questions, developing sound and consistent arguments, and expressing opinion critically and creatively. Apart from culture, general custom and belief aspects, the Indonesian students‟ characteristic is also different from one to others. Some students are extroverted and others might be introverted students, some have high motivation (active learners), but some others have low motivation (inactive learners) during the learning-teaching process. The government of Indonesia through the Ministry of Education has put high efforts to develop and enhance students‟ intellectual capacity and committed to developing the potential of every individuals. HOTS at Universitas Teknologi Yogyakarta Teaching HOTS at Universitas Teknologi Yogyakarta (UTY) has its own challenges and opportunities among the lecturers throughout departments. At the present time, UTY has nineteen study programs (within six departments). As the rising university, the institution is committed to promoting students‟ HOTS in every classroom practice. The importance of higher order thinking makes it priority in the classroom practice. It is needed skill for every individual in any educational setting. The institution (UTY), encourages all lecturers to in cooperate the higher order thinking skills in their classroom practice because they have enormous benefit for the students. HOTS can lead students be able to combine facts and ideas, synthesize, generalize, explain, hypothesise or arrive at some conclusion or interpretation on their own learning materials. We have a strong believe that by experiencing these skills through the process allow students of UTY to think critically, creatively and solve problems easily. Therefore, in cooperating higher order thinking skills in learning-teaching process during the classroom practice is one of the strategies to develop students‟ capability in developing their critical thinking, decision making, and problem solving. We, at UTY, believe that possessing a good thinking and problem solving skills make learned knowledge applicable in the real world. At present, the teaching of HOTS have not widely implemented in the lecturers‟ classroom practice throughout the departments at UTY. Based on our Focus Group Discussion (FGD) with our colleagues and comprehensive observation in the classroom during the last semester, academic year 2015/2016, we figured it out that the lecturers found
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it hard to implement and taught higher order thinking skills to their students in the classroom setting for some reasons, first, higher order thinking skills require extra works and efforts; second to implement them need much time; third, the lecturers should have deeper practical understanding; and fourth, to implement higher order thinking skills need a number of strategies and practices in different contexts and situation. In most classroom practice, teaching higher order thinking skills is not really popular among the lecturers. Only a few lecturers did it when they had sessions with the students in the classroom setting. Therefore, higher order thinking skills received little attention in the classroom practice. For instance, lecturer did not stimulate students to actively ask for questions and let students confused by their own. Besides, most of them still have lecturer-centred learning paradigm. It is clearly seen that when they handled the class lecturers rarely made efforts to sustain students‟ flow of higher order thinking. It was happened perhaps due to lecturers‟ disinterest or incompetency in pursuing learning outcomes. Meanwhile, the institution encourages the lecturers to implement HOTS in their classroom setting because our ever-changing and challenging world requires students to be our future citizens. So, the university is the hub of the fostering of higher order thinking skills. In relations to the lecturers‟ roles and responsibilities, they should promote the students with learning materials and tasks which reflect the level of high order thinking as proposed by Bloom‟s Taxonomy in order to be able to compete the world and have good future citizen students. Ideally, to teach higher order thinking skills to university students, the lecturers need to pay attention to a number of points such as perform more work, time, deeper practical understanding, and strong commitment towards students‟ critical thinking development. One of the ways to endorse higher order thinking skills among the students of UTY is by providing learning tasks that will influence students to inquire from different perspective, assess the value of their sources, and reflect their findings, exchange ideas and adopt personal position base on rational thinking. Higher order thinking skills leads students to take active roles in constructing meaning and deep understanding. We have strong believe that some of these skills can be promoted in the classroom. HOTS at UTY: An Opportunity to Build a Critical and a Creative New Generation Learning-teaching based HOTS is a stepping stone to create an academic excellence at UTY and to form a good basic foundation of a new generation because it has a number of benefits for both students and lecturers at UTY. The benefits are as follows: the first, students are trained to be critical and a creative thinkers, therefore during the learning-teaching process, lecturers provide some cases to be solved critically and creatively by students using their own ideas and perspectives. Being able to solve problem during the learning-teaching process is extremely important. Students solve the problems they encountered in the classroom by either discuss with their friends or by himself/herself. How a student goes about solving his/her problems is necessary in terms of how successful the results will be. Problems need to be worked through systematically and logically in order to come up with a satisfactory conclusion and/or decision. The second, students are trained to be creative thinkers, so it makes them possible to elaborate their creation because creative thinkers do not copy others‟ or creation. The third, HOTS generates brilliant ideas for students to explain more about what they are discussing. Some ideas can come from students‟ insights; a spontaneous cohesion of several thoughts. Insights are great thoughts that can help students to understand and realize something that might not have been seen or figured out before. The fourth, HOTS can lead lecturers to brainstorm the students‟ perspective in the classroom setting. The aim of brainstorming the students‟ paradigm is to stimulate them to purpose as many as ideas and point of views on certain cases, regardless of the feasibility of theirs. The
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fifth, HOTS create students‟ mindset to possess metacognition skill. Metacognition may lead students to aware of their strengths and weakness points. Besides, the lecturers may know whether the students are good at solving problem, understanding concepts, and being critical and creative thinkers. The last but not least, HOTS can be used to attach the value of life, e.g. wisdom. This value of life can be inserted in the teaching of HOTS to the students in order to respect the differences of ideas, perspectives and insights. Wisdom will leads students to be wise, to look out not just for themselves but others. The Appropriate HOTS Techniques Applied in Learning-Teaching Asking and Answering Questions Critically and Creatively Asking question is one of the techniques to arouse students‟ interests and lead them to actively participate in learning-teaching process. Skills of asking and answering questions are necessary to know by lecturers because it helps generating higher order thinking skills. Therefore, lecturers should know the techniques of asking questions and responding to students‟ questions. These skills are important and characterize students‟ thinking skills. Questioning is the key to gaining more information. We use information to learn, to help us solve problems, to aid our decision making processes and to understand each other more clearly. We ask questions for a number of reasons such as to gain information, to actively involve the students in the lesson, to increase motivation, to evaluate students‟ preparation, to review previous lessons, and to develop critical thinking. By asking and answering questions, lecturers will find out more about their students‟ real condition (level of thinking). Asking and answering questions are used to clarify something, to explore the feelings, beliefs, opinions, ideas and attitudes of the students being questioned. In addition, question is used to encourage further thought and explore about something more deeply. When asking questions to students, lecturers should vary their purpose during the learning-teaching process. Our observation uncovered that the instruction involving questioning is more effective than instruction without questioning. Questioning is one of the nine research-based strategies presented in Classroom Instruction That Works (Marzano, 1993). To promote higher order thinking skills, a lecturer may relate types of questions as proposed by Bloom‟s Taxonomy into six categories namely: Knowledge-recall data or information, Comprehensionunderstanding meaning, Application-use a concept in a new situation, Analysis-separate concepts into parts; distinguish between facts and inferences, Synthesis-combine parts to form new meaning, and Evaluation-make judgements about the value of ideas or products. As lecturers, they have to know the classification of questions of lower and higher cognitive questions that lead students to possess critical thinking skill. Lower cognitive questions (e.g. fact, closed, direct, recall, and knowledge questions) involve the recall of information. While higher cognitive questions (e.g. open-ended, interpretive, evaluative, inquiry, inferential, and synthesis questions) involve the mental manipulation of information to produce or support the answer. Here are some examples of questions that may be raised by lecturers in the classroom setting: 1. How can you differentiate between Canadian and American? 2. Why do Australian choose Bali Island as their first tourism destination in Indonesia? 3. In which situation is it better to travel by land transportation rather than air transportation?
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Building Students Participation Getting students‟ attention is one of the lecturers‟ jobs in the classroom. These activities aim at arousing students‟ curiosity and classroom participation. A lecturer may vary his/her questions by asking speculative question, an interesting issue of the day, showing a picture, telling a little story, or singing a related song to generate discussion and interest in the upcoming lesson. Besides, a lecturer can bring along the realia (artificial objects) related to the topic or theme given so that the students will have an idea about what they are discussing. In addition, she/he can use humour, or special properties, and a bit of theatrics to get attention and peek interest. Apart from the props, a lecturer also needs to pay attention to his/her eye contact. Students should be facing you when you are speaking, especially while instructions are being given. If students are seated in clusters, have those students not directly facing you turns their chairs and bodies around when signal to do so. Use higher-level questioning techniques, and ask for questions that are open-ended, require reasoning and stimulate critical and creative thinking. Accessing Newest and Factual Information Students should get any information they may need to generate their critical and creative thinking skill and make use of any information access available in the institution. They may have a right to get any related information and accurate knowledge in order to have a potential solution to their problem and construct their mind so that they can be critical and creative thinkers. While there are times when this might be effective for students to sharpen their saw and learn about how humans tend to think, react, and behave. The students of UTY are now encouraging finding and searching for any learningteaching resources not only from their lecturers, but also from any resources such as textbooks, papers, research articles, proceedings, and open access journal. For instance, Ejournal (via internet access), make knowledge and discovery freely available for the students who need it. Open access journal make it possible for students who search for information to possess the new perspectives, knowledge and experience, and also new findings. Therefore, our institution encourages lecturers to bridge the gap among the students by providing opportunities and times to read and search for information needed. Open-Ended Discussion This technique is very useful to encourage a full, meaningful answer using the subject‟s own knowledge and/or feeling. Lecturer‟ ability to ask open-ended questions is very important in fostering students‟ critical and creative thinking skills. Unlike a closed-ended question, which encourages a short or single-word answer. Open-ended questions tend to be more objective and provide a great opportunity for students to express themselves naturally. The students are free to express what they have in their mind about something they know, feel, and like. The words/phrases such as why, how, what, why do you like...?, how do you feel...?, what do you think about...? are some examples of open-ended question which implicitly requires for responses. The following are examples of open-ended questions that may be useful to generate students‟ critical thinking: 1. How do you book a ticket for a flight? 2. What were the major effects of Bali bombing to the hospitality industry? 3. Which city do you think better to live in, Lombok or in Bali?
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Collaborative Learning The next technique to promote students‟ higher order thinking skills is collaborative learning. The idea is that two or three heads are better than one. Collaborative learning is based on the view that knowledge is a social construct. Therefore, this technique makes it possible for learners to work in groups which benefit for bridging the gap among the students. As we know that, students at UTY are varied in terms of level of mastery the subject matter, knowledge, motivation, courage, and interests. Working in a group is one of the solutions to shape cognitive, affective skills, and propose ideas. Unlike lecturer-centred learning, this technique is good because lecturer will no longer dominate the class. Recent phenomena indicate that conventional teaching and learning (lecturer-cantered learning) is still dominated the learning process in Indonesia, including at UTY. Collaborative learning is one of the solutions to the problem because it involves students working in pairs or small groups to discuss concepts, or find solutions of the problems. Our recent study shows that the benefits of collaborative learning in UTY include but not limited to; development of higher-level thinking, oral communication, selfmanagement, and leadership skills, promotion of student-faculty interaction, increase in student retention, self-esteem, and responsibility, exposure to and an increase in understanding of diverse perspectives. HOTS at UTY: A Challenge in Learning-Teaching HOTS is a thinking paradigm which is necessary indeed to be implemented in the learning-teaching process moreover at a higher educational institution. It is required to enhance both lectures‟ and students‟ critical and creative thinking to face the complex global world. It is possible to apply since it is not a natural function and it is needed to be developed (Puchta, 2013: 5). However, it is not easy to apply because it has many factors influencing its implementation. The factors as mentioned by Yen & Halili (2015: 43-45) is like what influencing its implementation at UTY. The factors are time and students‟ motivation, lecture‟s competency and professionalism, classroom management, and resources. Time and Students’ Motivation In learning-teaching process based HOTS needs much time to spend. Extra time and hard effort are needed to stimulate and develop students‟ capacity and ability to explore, examine, judge, test, critique, construct, build, design, and etc., the subject matters received critically and creatively. However, being a critical and a creative student is not an instant matter. It does need long process. Otherwise, a lecturer should have extra time and work hard also to facilitate students to be critical and creative ones. It means, a lecturer ought to prepare everything related to subject matter before learning teaching begun. Another factor influencing the effectiveness of HOTS implementation is students‟ motivation. Many students having less motivation to take and to face challenges before their eyes. They tend to take the easy way without considering the output and/or outcome of the material. They are commonly attending the class not to understand the lesson but to get higher grade. For some students, grade highest grade is much more important that understanding the lesson.
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Lecturers’ Competence and Professionalism Lecturers themselves are confused over the definitions of thinking skills (Beyer, 1984) and they sometimes find it difficult to differentiate levels in thinking (Rajendran, 2002). This lack of knowledge on HOT may eventually lead to lecturers‟ inability to assess students‟ HOT. Furthermore, lecturers are not always sure of how to teach HOT. Rajendran (2002) discovered that the majority of lecturers had only adequate skills to promote HOT. It also was found that “in-service and pre-service lecturers‟ initial knowledge of thinking strategies was often not sound enough for purposes of instruction” (Zohar, 2013: 235). To conclude, lecturers lack the appropriate pedagogical knowledge to teach HOT (Zohar & Schwartzer, 2005). As lecturers are confused themselves, they sometimes thought that they are teaching HOT when in reality they could be just inducing lower-order thinking among their students (Sparapani, 1998). Some lecturers may also be unaware that they have been unconsciously integrating HOT in their instruction, (Zohar & Schwartzer, 2005). Lecturers see it easier to prepare simplistic lessons that let the textbook do the teaching (Sparapani, 1998: 274). The integration of HOT into the curriculum is being compromised (Zohar & Schwartzer, 2005). Some other lecturers rely solely on Bloom‟s taxonomy without realizing that the taxonomy is not prescribed specifically for the teaching of HOT (Ivie, 1998). Classroom Management Classroom management is another factor influencing the effectiveness of HOTS implementation at UTY. It can be seen from the traditional way of desk arrangement which has been maintained up to this day, especially at UTY classrooms. Students usually sit in pairs in rows facing the lecturer and the whiteboard at the front. Such seating is neat and formal-like for the teaching and learning process. If classrooms are to be platforms for lively exchanges of intellect, lecturers have to provide a stimulating atmosphere which encourages deep thinking (Sparapani, 1998). The other is the learning-teaching tradition which has greatly been inherited from drill-and-practice and rote learning. Lecturers need to provide scaffolding for transition from this type of passive learning to active learning based HOTS. Indeed, it has been claimed that critical thinking is a western product where UTY students are unable to make it because such practice is an alien especially in Indonesia. Resources Support in resources to ensure an engaging learning-teaching process among the lecturer and the students is less indeed. Practising HOTS with students in the classroom is intense and could always throw the lecturers‟ pre-planned lesson out the window. Thus, having a variety of resources (e.g., textbooks, article, open access journals, newspapers, etc.) is a must to cater the on-going intellectual interaction in the classroom. Shortly speaking, resources are really mean to develop lecturers‟ and students‟ professional knowledge of HOT and pedagogical knowledge not only to think and learn but also to teach HOTS effectively. Conclusion Teaching based HOTS is very necessary because it can lead students be able to combine facts and ideas, synthesize, generalize, explain, hypothesise then come up to some conclusion or interpretation on their own learning materials. The lecturers are encourage to facilitate students develop their higher order thinking skills in order to enable them think
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critically and creatively. Cooperating higher order thinking skills in learning-teaching process during the classroom practice is one of the strategies to develop students‟ capability in developing their thinking paradigm including in decision making and problem solving. There are a number of techniques and startegies which can be used to teach HOTS such as; drilling to ask for answer questions critically and creatively, motivating the studenst to actively participate during the learning-teaching process, providing students with the newest and factual information, trying to construct open-ended questions, and using the collaborative learning method by putting them in groups in order to work together and shape cognitive, affective skills, and propose ideas. Teaching Higher Order Thinking Skills also has a number of benefits for students and lecturers at UTY. Firstly, students are trained to be critical and creative thinkers which lead them to be good problem solvers. Secondly, HOTS generates brilliant ideas for students to explain more about what they are discussing. Thirdly, HOTS can lead lecturers to brainstorm the students‟ perspective in the classroom setting. Fourthly, HOTS generates students‟ mindset to possess metacognition skill. The last but not least, HOTS can be used to attach the value of life. Indeed, teaching HOTS brings enermous benefits not only for students but also for lecturers, nevertheless, the writers still find that it is hard to implement in the classroom setting at UTY for a number of reasons such as; time consuming, students‟ motivation, lecturers‟ competence and professionalism, classroom management, and resources. References Beyer, B. K. (1984). Improving Thinking Skills: Defining the Problem. The Phi Delta Kappan, 65 (7). 486-490. Bowell, T. & Kemp, G. (2002). Critical Thinking: A Concise Guide. First Published. New York: Routledge. Cobb, P. (1994). Constructivism in Mathematics and Science Education. Educational research, 23, 4. Cottrell, S. (2005). Critical Thinking Skilss: Developing Effective Analysis Argument. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. de Bono, E. (1976) Teaching Thinking. London: Penguin. Dillon, J. (2002). Perspectives on Environmental Education-Related Research in Science Education. International Journal of Science Education, 24, 1111–1117. Edwards, M. C., & Briers, G. E. (1998). Assessing the Inservice Needs of Entry-phase Agriculture Teachers in Texas: A Discrepancy Model versus Direct Assessment. Proceedings of the 25th National Agricultural Education Research Meeting, 25, 322332. Gunawan, A. W. (2003). Genius Learning Strategy: Petunjuk Praktis untuk Menerapkan Accelerated Learning. Jakarta: PT. Gramedia Pustaka Utama. Ivie, S. D. (1998). Ausubel’s Learning Theory: An Approach to Teaching Higher Order Thinking Skills. The High School Journal, 35-42. Krulik, S., & Rudnick, J. A. (1999). Innovative Tasks to Improve Critical and Creative Thinking Skills. in L. Stiff & F. Curcio (Eds.), Developing Mathematical Reasoning in Grades K-12, 138-145. Reston, VA: National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. Leou, M., Abder, P., Riordan, M., & Zoller, U. (2006). Using HOCS-centered Learning as a Pathway to Promote Science Teachers’ Metacognitive Development. Research in Science Education, 36 (1-2), 69-84.
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Lewi, Z. & Nyimas A. (2009). Pengembangan Soal untuk Mengukur Kemampuan Berpikir Tingkat Tinggi Pokok Bahasan Barisan dan Deret Bilangan di Kelas IX Akselerasi SMP Xaverius Maria Palembang. Jurnal Pendidikan Matematika, Volume 3 No. 2, 14-28. Marzano, R. J. (1993). How Classroom Teachers Approach the Teaching of Thinking. Theory into Practice, 32(3), 154-160. Miri B. et al. (2007). Purposely Teaching for the Promotion of Higher-Order Thinking Skills: A Case of Critical Thinking. Journal on line Springer Science + Business Media B.V,. 353-369. Miri, B., Ben-Chaim, D. & Zoller, U. (2007). Purposefully Teaching for Development of Higher-Order Skills. Research in Science Education, 37, 353-369. Nagappan, R. (2001). The Teaching of Higher-Order Thinking Skills in Malaysia. The Journal of Southeast Asian Education, Vol 2, No. 1, 2001. 1-22. Nurhayati, L. (2014). Promoting Higher-Order Thinking Skills in Applied Linguistics Class. Proceedings of the 3rd UAD TEFL International Conference Yogyakarta, 664-674. Puchta, H. (2012). English Language Teaching: Developing Thinking Skills in the Young Learners’ Classroom. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Rajendran, N. (2000). Language Teaching and the Enhancement of Higher-Order Thinking Skills. Paper presented at the Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization Regional Language Centre‟s 35. Resnick, L. (1987). Education and Learning to Think. Washington D.C.: National Sparapani, E. F. (1998). Encouraging Thinking in High School and Middle School: Constraints And Possibilities. The Clearing House, 71(5), 274-276. Wilks, S. (1995). Critical and Creative Thinking: Strategies for Classroom Inquiry. Armidale, NSW: Eleanor Curtain. Yen, T. S. & Halili S.T. (2015). Effective Teaching of Higher-Order Thinking (HOT) in Education. The Journal online of Distance Education and e-Learning, Vol 3, Issue 2. Zohar, A. (2013). Challenges in Wide Scale Implementation Efforts to Foster Higher Order Thinking (HOT) in Science. Zohar, A., & Dori, Y. J. (2003). Higher Order Thinking Skills and Low Achieving Students: Are They Mutually Exclusive?. Journal of the Learning Sciences, 12(2), 145–183. Zohar, A., & Schwartzer, N. (2005). Assessing Teachers’ Pedagogical Knowledge in the Context of Teaching Higher-Order Thinking. International Journal of Science Education, 27(13), 1595-1620.
An Exploration of Mathematics Learning Environment from High Achievers' Perspectives Nurulhuda Md Hassan1, Saemah Rahman1
[email protected],
[email protected] 1 Faculty of Education, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Malaysia
ABSTRACT Learning environment and teachers' role are crucial in determining students' academic success. This qualitative study was conducted to explore mathematics learning environment from students' perspective. Six high achieving adolescent students were interviewed individually using semi-structured questions. Data analysis produced five themes; four of them supported the theoretical foundations of the Learning Environment Model as suggested by Bransford, Brown and Cocking (2004), namely, learner-centered, knowledge-centered, assessment-centered, and community-centered, while one additional theme was related to teachers' role. All themes were found to be important in helping students to improve their academic achievement, particularly in mathematics. Keywords: Learning environment, qualitative study, high achieving adolescent students, academic achievement, mathematics education INTRODUCTION Most students feel demotivated when it comes to learning mathematics(Afari, Aldridge, & Fraser, 2012). Unfortunately, this condition can lead to poor student achievement. Reports from the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) (NCES, 2003) revealed deficiencies in students’ mathematical understanding and fluency, especially among adolescents. Learning environment has been found to be among the factors that lead to such situations (Boe & Shin, 2005). As a result, several mathematics education reform initiatives has been conducted which indicate a major departure from traditional mathematics teaching methods towards incorporating constructivist-based instructional strategies. In this reform, strong emphasis has been given on approaches that promote the development of metacognitive skills as well as the incorporation of mathematical argumentation (Forman et al., 1998; Kramarski, Mevarech, & Arami, 2002; Stein, 2001). This reform can be perceived as a reaction towards the findings of previous research which indicated that the development of metacognitive skills are also important in helping students become better problem solvers and mathematics experts beside the mastery of mathematical skills (Mayer, 1998). As for adolescents, numerous research revealed the fundamental importance of the emotional quality of the classroom as a key to their learning (Allen et al, 2013). Higher academic achievement among adolescents as a result of being exposed to positive classroom interactions is consistent with developmental theory even though it is not yet well documented in the educational literature (Allen et al., 2013). Teachers' ability to establish a positive emotional climate, teachers' sensitivity to student needs, and the structuring of classroom and lessons in ways that recognize adolescents' needs for a sense of autonomy and control, for an active role in their learning, and for opportunities for peer collaboration were all associated with higher student achievement. In classroom, such climate can be established by laughing with students, engaging them as they enter the room, and asking about events
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outside of class at the beginning and end of a lesson period. Apart from that, choices should be given to students to determine the ways of approaching learning assignments. Being regarded as a key determinant of the effectiveness of teaching and learning process, learning environment has been a major concern in educational research after being introduced by Lewin (1936) and Murray (1938) ( Afari et al., 2012; Robinson & Fraser, 2013). Learning environment involves various aspects that influence students intellectual development, which include psychological, emotional, social, and cultural (Afari, Aldridge, Fraser, & Khine, 2013). Previous studies conducted for more than 40 years ago yielded convincing evidence that learning environment play vital role in influencing student learning (Fraser 2007, 2012). Besides, previous research also proposed that academic success can be achieved by focusing on both the individual and social aspects of learning (Cross, 2009). Recognition of the importance of these practices has resonated internationally, acknowledging that learning comprises individual and social components; both of which are critical to academic success (Cobb et al., 1991; Lesh et al., 2003; Pontecorvo, 1993; Schoenfeld, 1992). Apart from that, previous studies also revealed that students show better learning performance when they perceive the classroom environment more positively (Afari et al., 2012, 2013; Dorman & Fraser, 2009). LEARNING ENVIRONMENT MODEL Changes in educational goals requires rethinking about what is taught, how teachers teach, and how what students learn is assessed. The new science of learning proposed that emphasis should be given to students' pre-existing knowledge, learning with understanding, feedback, and learning community. Based on key findings of research on learning, Bransford, Brown, and Cocking (2004) developed a learning environment model which is believed to optimize students' learning. The model has four dimensions that are aligned to each other namely, learner-centered, knowledge-centered, assessment-centered, and community-centered. Learner-centered Environments Learner-centered environments refer to the learning environments that attend to students' pre-existing knowledge, skills, attitudes, and beliefs. Besides, it also entails the importance of integrating students' cultural background into the teaching and learning process and a sense of respect to the students' language practices in order to help students engage in meaningful learning. In the context of mathematics, student engagement (Finn & Voelkl, 1993; Park, 2005) and language play significant part in helping student develop an understanding about what they are learning and have been considered as among the factors that can influence students' mathematics learning. In order to provide learner-centered environments, it is crucial for teachers to draw out students' preconceptions as they serve as a basis to a more formal understanding of what is being learnt (McCombs & Miller, 2007). Besides, such environments requires teachers to cultivate authentic learning by creating a link between what is learnt in the classroom with the real experience encountered by students outside the school setting (Murdoch & Wilson, 2008; Sharifah Fauziah Hanim, Farah Eliza & Ismin Izwani, 2012). Use of instructional learning formats that encourage active student participation and provide variety in classroom approaches can also predict student achievement, as were lessons that require high levels of analysis and problem solving. Other than that, teachers may also adopt various learner-centered teaching approaches such as responsive teaching (Irvin & Armento, 2001; Bowers & Flinders, 1990) and diagnostic teaching. Additionally, student engagement can be cultivated by making mathematical content relevant to students’ lives outside
93 school (Nicol, 2002; Taylor, Fraser, & Fisher, 1997). Further, it also entails the ability of teachers to use the mathematical language that suits the students' level. In mathematical context, language that facilitate the development of mathematical proficiency is commonly known as mathematical argumentation which include activities such as sharing, explaining, and justifying mathematical ideas (Cobb et al., 1991; Leonard, 2000; Stein, 2001).
Knowledge-centered Environments Knowledge-centered environments refer to learning environments that emphasize on learning with understanding (Schellenberg et al., 2011; Tomlinson & McTighe, 2006; Wiggins & McTighe, 2005) and subsequent transfer (Cree & Macaulay, 2000). Learning with understanding involves students' ability to organize their knowledge meaningfully(Schellenberg et al., 2011; Tomlinson & McTighe, 2006; Wiggins & McTighe, 2005), while transfer entails students' ability to apply their knowledge in multiple contexts (Shelley & Yildirim, 2013). In order to encourage learning with understanding and learning transfer, knowledge-centered environments focus on the information and activities that are believed to help students develop an in-depth and integrated understanding of a particular discipline. In addition, knowledge-centered environments also emphasize on sense-making through metacognitive approaches (Miller & Geraci, 2011; Roll et al., 2007; Sandi‐Urena, Cooper, & Stevens, 2011;Tanner, 2012) that can help student to become metacognitive experts who can regulatetheir own learning. Within the area of mathematics education, students are believed to be able to build deeper conceptual understandings when the instructions provided emphasize on the development of metacognitive skills and the incorporation of discourse in classroom instruction(Cross, 2009) as such understandings are linked to increased mathematical achievement. Thus, in order to provide knowledge-centered environments, attention should be given to what is taught, why it is taught, and how mastery looks like. Besides, it also requires major concepts to be taught in multiple contexts (Perin, 2011) so that learning can be transferred from one context to the other. Assessment-centered Environments Assessment-centered environments refer to learning environments that emphasize the importance of feedback in helping students to improve their learning. Besides, such environments stress more on formative assessments as they can provide information about students' level of understanding continuously. This affect the design of assessment and marks a major shift of traditional belief that mathematics are about memorization of formulae. In this regard, assessments are required to be designed to assess students' understanding (Nitko & Brookhart, 2011) and higher order thinking skills. Apart from that, assessment-centered environments also stress on the importance of helping students to develop self-assessment skills which help them to monitor their own learning (Boud, 1995). Assessment-centered environments can be provided by providing continuous feedback to students. In this regard, Tomlinson and McTighe recommended that the feedback should be on time, specific. understandable, and provide room for improvement. Other than that, various types of assessments should be conducted so that student learning can be assessed more accurately. However, such assessments should be designed carefully in order to be able in assessing higher order thinking skills possessed by students.
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Community-centered Environments Community-centered environments refer to learning environments that emphasize on the establishment of positive norms to learn from each other by giving freedom for teachers and students to make mistakes (Donovan & Bransford, 2005). This requires a collaboration among learning community members with the goal of improving student learning (Lemlech, 2004). The establishment of learning community is very important for student success since all members work collaboratively to achieve common learning goals (Kendricks, 2011). According to this model, learning community should be established both inside and outside school setting. Learning community inside the school setting entails classroom and school community which can be achieved through cooperative learning approaches (Joliffe, 2007; Vargas-vargas et al., 2011). Learning community outside school setting involves the connections between what is being learnt in schools and the learning experience encountered by students when they are not in schools, such as after-school programs and home environment (Roberts & Pruitt, 2009; Watkins, 2005). Mathematical proficiency entails the expertise that an individual has in practicing the mathematical concepts in the context of mathematical community. In other words, it is characterized by the ability and skills that an individual portrays in applying the mathematical concepts and conveying the mathematical knowledge to others. In mathematics classrooms, this discourse can be provided by encouraging students to work collaboratively or involve in cooperative learning whereby students can discuss their ideas with each other. Such discussions enable them to make valuable contributions, ask questions, have their ideas evaluated, and receive immediate feedback; which are considered to be among the effective strategies for knowledge construction (Inagaki, Hatano, & Morita, 1998). This is due to the fact that peer collaboration that is established by means of cooperative learning enable students to take part in a reciprocal process whereby all of them are given the equal opportunity to share their thought and explore others' ideas. In order to provide community-centered environments, teachers should encourage students to interact among each other and discuss about mathematical ideas. Besides being the essential characteristics of effective mathematics teaching (Ross, et al., 2003), student interaction through classroom discussion and other forms of interactive participation is also important in helping students to build deep understanding which eventually lead to higher student achievement since it encourages productive argumentation and justification among students. Moreover, such activities were also found to be effective in providing a more meaningful learning to student (Kangas, 2010; Kember, Ho & Hong, 2010). Due to such reasons, students should be given the opportunity to participate in classroom discussions and to negotiate ideas and understandings with peers in order to optimize their mathematics learning. According to Bransford, Brown and Cocking (2004), incorporating all these learning environment dimensions can optimize students' learning. Thus, this study was conducted to explore the existence of these four dimensions as experienced by high achieving adolescent students in their mathematics learning environments. Role of Teachers Teachers play crucial role in ensuring students learning efficiency. In this regard, teachers should act as a facilitator who initiates and guides the students' activities (Cobb et al., 1991; McClain & Cobb, 2001). For example, in order to encourage students to take part in mathematical argumentation, teachers should provide scaffolding whereby guidance is given in accordance with students' level of development until they are expert in such activity
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or model such practice in front of the whole class along with facilitation by listening and promoting valid but diverse ways of thinking. Apart of improving mathematical learning efficiency, such teaching strategies are believed to enable student to engage in meaningful discourse (McClain, McGatha, & Hodge, 2000). Teacher-student relationship can influence students attitude towards mathematics (Hijzen, Boekaerts &Vedder, 2007). When teachers are perceived as supportive, students automatically develop the sense of courage and confidence which can help them in handling new problems, take risks in their learning, and work on and complete challenging tasks. Students are more likely seek teacher’s help if they perceived their teachers to be approachable and believed that teachers are interested in them. METHODOLOGY The participants in this study were eleven Form Four (5 males, 6 females) from two secondary schools located in one of the state in Malaysia. They were considered as mathematics high achievers based on the score that they obtained in final year examination. A semi-structured questionnaire was developed that cater the four learning environment dimensions as suggested by Bransford, Brown and Cocking (2004). Participants were interviewed individually by the researcher whereby each session lasted approximately 40 minutes. All interview sessions were recorded and transcribed. The qualitative data were analyzed using Atlas.ti software by coding the responses provided by the participants according to the learning environment dimensions. FINDINGS Analysis of data revealed that high achievers experienced all four dimensions in their mathematics learning environment. The examples of responses provided by the participants regarding each dimension are as follows: Learner-centered Environments Learner-centered environments emphasize the importance meaningful learning experiences in order to improve student learning. Responses given by students showed that mathematics learning environment provide students with such experiences through the way of starting mathematics lesson as well as the connection between what is being learnt in the classroom and students' real life experiences. "...teachers will revise the previous topics before introducing the new one..." (LCE/F/1) "...they use examples in our real life...for example they use torchlight in order to demonstrate about the concept of reflection..." (LCE/M/4) Knowledge-centered Environments Knowledge-centered environments highlights the importance on learning with understanding in order to help students in building an integrated understanding of a particular discipline. Based on the responses given by the students, mathematics understanding was emphasized by making connection between mathematics topics and encouraging students to
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engage in learning transfer through the application of mathematical concepts in multiple context. Besides, such understanding was also encouraged by helping students to see the importance of having mathematical knowledge and skills. "Teachers will ask us to recall the previous topics and they will explain to us about the link between those topics and the topics that we are going to learn..." (KCE/M/2) "...I can apply such skills when measuring cooking ingredients at home." (KCE/F/7) "Mathematics are closely related to other subjects such as physics...the formulae learnt in mathematics class can be applied in order to solve various problems related to physics..." (KCE/M/1) Assessment-centered Environments Assessment-centered environments stress the importance of feedback, formative assessments, self-assessment skills and assessments of higher order thinking skills in order to help student improve their learning. Responses given by students indicated the various types of feedback and assessments experienced by students in mathematics classroom. Besides, the responses also showed that encouragement to self-assess their own learning and assessments of higher order thinking skills were also highlighted during teaching and learning process. "...teachers will answer all questions that students ask immediately in order to avoid confusion among students..." (ACE/F/6) "Teacher will give us exercises and later he will discuss about the answers" (ACE/F/4) "Teachers encourage us to self-assess our own work so that we can know our level of understanding..." (ACE/M/4) "Teachers stress on higher order thinking skills (HOTS) questions this year..." (ACE/F/6) Community-centered Environments Community-centered environments emphasize on the importance of building positive social norms as well as the role of learning communities in helping student success. Based on the responses given by students, such environments were established the encouragement for students to work in groups, initiatives taken by the school in order to help students improve their achievement, and the role of out-of school learning communities in improving student learning. "Teacher asks us to work in groups so that we can exchange mathematical ideas among each other..." (CCE/M/3)
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"Schools conducted various workshops and now they also have mentor-mentee program to help students in learning mathematics." (CCE/M/2) "Tuition classes help me in improving my mathematics learning by giving detailed explanation regarding particular topics that I have learned in school." (CCE/M/1) Teacher's Role Apart from the learning environment dimensions, one additional theme emerged about the role of teachers in influencing students' mathematics achievement. Most of the participants agreed that teachers play crucial role in influencing their mathematics learning. The responses of all the participant regarding teacher's role are as follows: "...the teacher is very friendly who often assist students and sometimes gives motivation to not give up on any problems that we have in mathematics..." (TR/M/3) Teachers' attitude will also affect our interest in the subject and to score in examination so if a teacher can convey the subject in a more attractive way students would become more motivated to understand the subject..." (TR/M/4)
"The most important thing is teacher because teacher always motivate me to learn mathematics..." (TR/F/6) "I have good mathematics learning experience because I have a teacher who is really interested in mathematics and can teach effectively..." (TR/F/3) "...my teacher is very loving and always ready to help us..." (TR/F/6) Conclusion This study was conducted to discover high achievers' perceptions on mathematics learning environment. Analysis of data indicated that students experienced all the four learning environment dimensions as proposed by Bransford, Brown, and Cocking (2004) namely learner-centered, knowledge-centered, assessment-centered, and communitycentered. Above all, it was found that teachers play crucial role in influencing students mathematics learning, which is line with the findings from previous research. Based on this finding, it is recommended that mathematics teachers put a considerable effort to provide such learning environments as well as prepare themselves with positive dispositions since all of these factors have been proven to be significant in influencing students' mathematics learning which eventually affect their achievement.
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References Afari, E., Aldridge, J. M., & Fraser, B. J (2012). Effectiveness of using games in tertiarylevel mathematics classrooms. International Journal of Science and Mathematics Education, 10(6), 1369–1392. Afari, E., Aldridge, J. M., Fraser, B. J., & Khine, M. S (2013). Students’ perceptions of the learning environment and attitudes in game-based mathematics classrooms. Learning Environments Research, 16(1), 131–150. Allen, J. P., Kuperminc, G., Philliber, S., & Herre, K (1994). Programmatic prevention of adolescent problem behaviors: The role of autonomy, relatedness, and volunteer service in the Teen Outreach Program. American Journal of Community Psychology, 22, 617638. Boe, E. & Shin, S (2005). Is the United States really losing the international horse race in academic achievement? Phi Delta Kappan, 86(9), 688–695. Boud, D (1995). Enhancing Learning through Self-Assessment. London: Kogan Page Limited. Bowers, C.A. & Flinders, D.J (1990). Responsive Teaching: An Ecological Approach to Classroom Patterns of Language, Culture, and Thought. USA: Teachers College Press. Bransford, J. D., Brown, A. L., & Cocking, R. R (2004). How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience, and School. Washington, D.C: National Academy Press. Cobb, P., Yackel, E.,Wood, T., Nicholls, J.,Wheatley, G.& Trigatti, B (1991). Assessment of a problem-centered second-grade mathematics project. Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, 22(1), 3–29. Cree, V. E. & Macaulay, C (2000). Transfer of Learning in Professional and Vocational Education. New York: Routledge. Cross, D. I (2009). Creating Optimal Mathematics Learning Environments: Combining Argumentation and Writing to Enhance Achievement. International Journal of Science and Mathematics Education, 7, 905–931. Donovan, M.S. & Bransford, J.D (2005). How Students Learn: History, Mathematics, and Science in the Classroom. USA: The National Academies Press. Finn, J. D. & Voelkl, K. E (1993). School characteristics related to engagement. The Journal of Negro Education, 62, 249–268. Forman, E., Larreamendy-Joerns, J., Stein, M. K. & Brown, C (1998). "You’re going to want to find out which and prove it’: Collective argumentation in a mathematics classroom. Learning and Instruction, 8(6), 527–548. Hijzen, D., Boekaerts, M. & Vedder, P (2007). Exploring the links between students’ engagement in cooperative learning, their goal preferences and appraisals of instructional conditions in the classroom. Learning and Instruction, 17, 673–687. Inagaki, K., Hatano, G. & Morita, E (1998). Construction of mathematical knowledgethrough whole-class discussion. Learning and Instruction, 8(6), 503–526. Irvin, J.J & Armento, B.J (2001). Culturally Responsive Teaching: Lesson Planning for Elementary and Middle Grades. New York: McGraw Hill. Joliffe. W (2007). Cooperative Learning in the Classroom : Putting it into Practice.Wiltshire: Cromwell Press. Nitko, A.J. & Brookhart, S.M (2011). Educational Assessment of Students. 6th edition. Boston: Pearson. Kangas, M (2010). Creative and playful learning: Learning through game co-creation and games in a playful learning environment. Thinking Skills and Creativity, 5,1–15. Kember, D., Ho, A. & Hong, C (2010). Characterising a teaching and learning environment capable of motivating student learning. Learning Environments Research, 13,43–57.
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Sandi‐Urena, S., Cooper, M. M. & Stevens, R. H (2011). Enhancement of metacognition use and awareness by means of a collaborative intervention. International Journal of Science Education 33(3), 323–340. Schellenberg, S., Negishi, M., Eggen, P., Processing, I. & Merrienboer, V. (2011).The effects of metacognition and concrete encoding strategy on depth of understanding in educational psychology. Teaching Educational Psychology 7(2), 17–24. Sharifah Fauziah Hanim Syed Zain, Farah Eliza Mohd Rasidi & Ismin Izwani Zainol Abidin. (2012). Student-centred learning in mathematics: Constructivism in the classroom. Journal of International Education Research 8(4), 319–328. Shelley, M., & Yildirim, A. (2013). Transfer of learning in Mathematics , Science , and Reading among students in Turkey : A study using 2009 PISA data. International Journal of Education in Mathematics, Science and Technology 1(2), 83–95. Stein, M. (2001). Mathematical argumentation: putting umph into classroom discussions. Mathematics Teaching in the Middle School, 7(2), 110–112. Tanner, K. D (2012). Promoting student metacognition. CBE Life Sciences Education 11(2): 113–120. Taylor, P. C., Fraser, B. J. & Fisher, D. L (1997). Monitoring constructivist classroom learning environments. International Journal of Educational Research, 27, 293–302. Tomlinson, C.A. & McTighe, J (2006). Integrating Differentiated Instruction and Understanding by Design: Connecting Content and Kids. USA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD). Vargas-vargas, M., Mondéjar-Jiménez, J., Santamaría, M.-L. M., Alfaro-Navarro, J.-L. & Fernández-Avilés, G (2011). Cooperative learning in virtual environments: The jigsaw method in statistical courses. Journal of Education Research 7(5): 1–8. Walker, B.J. (2011). Diagnostic Teaching of Reading: Techniques for Instruction and Assessment.7th Edition. Boston: Pearson. Watkins, C. (2005). Classrooms as Learning Communities: What's in it for Schools? New York: Routledge. Wiggins, G. & McTighe, J.( 2005). Understanding by Design. New Jersey: Pearson Education
Problem Solving Skills and Middle School Students' Mathematics Achievement Nurulhuda Md Hassan1, Saemah Rahman1
[email protected],
[email protected] 1 Faculty of Education, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Malaysia
ABSTRACT This paper presents the findings of a quantitative study on the relationship between problem solving skills and mathematics achievement among middle school students. 333 Form Four students took part in this study in which they were required to respond to a questionnaire related to the four problem solving components suggested by Polya's Problem Solving Model, namely understanding problem, devising problem solving strategies, executing problem solving strategies, and revising the solution. The findings indicated the relationship between each problem solving component with students' mathematics achievement. Educational implications in light of these findings were discussed. Keywords: Problem solving skills, Polya's Problem Solving Model, mathematics education, mathematics achievement Introduction Problem solving is one of the standards outlined in the Principles and Standards of School Mathematics as proposed by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) (Johnson & Norris, 2006). This is due to its importance in producing a generation who possess certain skills that may help them in encountering global challenges. Such standard led to changes in educational goals, whereby most educational systems worldwide require that students develop problem solving skills and various efforts have been made in order to integrate problem solving aspects in the curriculum (Bruun, 2013; Buishaw & Ayalew, 2013; Yetik, Akyuz, & Keser, 2012; Wen, 2011; Yildirim & Ersözlü, 2013). Such skills involve, but not limited to, higher-order thinking skills, self-assessment skills, and decision-making skills. Problem solving entails one's effort to look for connections that exist in a particular problem as well as the integration and extension of ideas in order to solve that problem (Johnson & Norris, 2006). It is considered to be a complex process due to the involvement of multiple processes (Nasarudin Abdullah et al., 2014) and implies a series of processes involving mental operations towards the goals to be achieved, whereby the process requires a person to use or apply any appropriate model to solve the problems (Mohd Faizal Nizam Lee, 2006). In other words, it is a planned process that requires thinking skills to achieve the desired goals using the knowledge and experience of the individual (Noor Shah Saad & Sazelli Abdul Ghani, 2008). In educational context, mathematics is a subject that exposes students to a variety of problem situations that require students to develop problem solving skills (Buishaw & Ayalew, 2013). Mathematical problem solving skills require coherence between knowledge, thinking skills, and students' daily experience. Through problem solving, students can strengthen their conceptual understanding, procedural fluency, strategic skills, productive temperament, and adaptive reasoning abilities (Nasarudin Abdullah et al., 2014) which allows them to experience a more quality and efficient life (Yetik, Akyuz, & Keser, 2012).
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A problem is a task faced by individuals who want or need to find a solution in which the individual has no existing procedures and must work to find solutions (Troutman & Lichtenberg, 2003). Thus, the main goal of problem solving is to overcome certain obstacles. In order to achieve this goal, students need to carry out various activities such as accepting the challenges provided by the problem, explaining the meaning of the problem, interpreting the problem, devising the strategies to solve the problems, implementing the plans to solve the problems, and revising the obtained solution (Noor Shah Saad & Sazelli Abdul Ghani, 2008). In mathematics, a particular situation can be considered as problematic when an individual could not find a solution to the situation, thus requiring the application of specific knowledge and skills. In this regard, greater emphasis should be given towards the way of presenting the problems in order to ensure that such problems are relevant to students' lives (Johnson & Norris, 2006; Karaoglan, 2009). To meet those needs, teachers are recommended to provide students with interesting and challenging problems which allow students to apply their analytical skills. (Cathcart el al., 2003). Such exposures are not only believed to attract students in solving the problems, but also serve as an effective way in overcoming negative attitudes that most students have towards mathematics (Johnson & Norris, 2006) Polya's Problem Solving Model Polya (1945) has introduced a problem solving model (Bruun, 2013; Buishaw & Ayalew, 2013; Griffin & Jitendra, 2009) which often been used especially in mathematics (Mohd Faizal Nizam Lee, 2006; Noor Shah Saad & Sazelli Abdul Ghani, 2008; Posamentier & Stepelman, 2010). Polya (1945), in his book entitled How To Solve It, has outlined a fourstep problem-solving processes, namely 1) understanding the problem, 2) devising problem solving strategies, 3) executing the solution strategies, and 4) revising the solution (Cozza & Oreshkina, 2013; Faizal Mohd Nizam Lee, 2006 ). Understanding the Problem Understanding the problem involves one's attempt to read and explain the problem given to identify the known and unknown information, as well as the goals to be achieved (Kiong, 2005; Posamentier & Stepelman, 2010). During this stage, students will try to understand what is required by a given problem. They usually read the problem, draw diagrams, flow charts, or tables, identifying patterns, use analogies, or make a list in a systematic way, and make assumptions about the situation of a given problem. Student understanding of a problem is determined partly by their ability to translate the problem by using their own words. In this regard, the translation of the problem has to be done by stating the important information obtained based on the problem and explaining the purpose of a given problem. In this regard, the use of internal voice, which involve one' effort to tell the story of the problem to themselves, is highly recommended (Cathcart et al., 2003; Troutman & Lichtenberg, 2003). In addition, their success in understanding the problem is also affected by their motivation to solve the given problem (Hartfield et al., 2008). This is due to the power of motivation in encouraging student to engage in various activities that may help them in understanding the problem. Devising Problem Solving Strategies Devising problem solving strategies involves one's effort to choose a strategy or plan to solve the given problem (Karaoglan, 2009; Kiong, 2005). In addition, one should also look at the relationship between existing data and the unknown information (Posamentier &
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Stepelman, 2010). At this stage, students usually choose appropriate strategies to solve the given problem. Among the strategies that can be used when solving math problems include simulation, trial and error, logical reasoning, working backwards or using algebra. There are some aspects that need to be given attention while devising problem solving strategies. Those aspects include thorough review of all known and unknown information, comparison between other problems that are similar to the given problem, problem simplification, translation of the given problem into mathematical sentence, and recording of the planned strategy. In order to ensure student commitment to those aspects, sharing and exchanging problem solving ideas among students are highly recommended (Cathcart et al. 2003). Executing Problem Solving Strategies Executing problem solving strategies involves one's attempt to implement the planned solution to solve the given problem (Karaoglan 2009; Kiong 2005; Van de Walle et al. 2010). In other words, this stage is the continuation of the previous stage which involve the implementation of the planned strategies to solve the given problem. During this stage, students will execute the plan which has been formulated, check each taken steps, check the reasonableness of the steps taken, and prove that every step taken is accurate (Posamentier & Stepelman, 2010). High level of patience is required in order to ensure student success in this stage. This is due to the fact that a solution to the given problem may be achieved, but not limited to, one specif strategies. Apart from that, this stage also requires students to apply the appropriate mathematic formulea in carrying out the calculations based on the connections between the known and unknown information. In other words, the application of various strategies have to be done wisely until the problem is resolved (Hartfield et al. 2008). Revising the Solution Revising the solution involves an effort to check the validity of the obtained solution to a given problem (Kiong, 2005). This is the final stage problem solving which allows students to see the relationship between a given problem, the problem solving strategies that have been planned , and the results obtained through the implementation of those strategies. In other words, this stage enable students to determine the extent to which the obtained results can answer the questions posed by the question (Van de Walle et al. 2010). In order to ensure their success at this stage, students usually examine the obtained solution, check the arguments that can be used to support the solution obtained, restate the problem with the answers that have been obtained, and think about whether the solution method can be used for other problems (karaoglan 2009; Posamentier & Stepelman, 2010). Besides, they are also recommended to use other strategies to solve the same problem and compare the obtained results (Troutman & Lichtenberg, 2003). In this case, if all the applied strategies produce the same answer, students will feel more confident with the accuracy of the answers. In addition, it also allows the student to identify the most effective strategy for the given problem. Polya's problem solving model is not only interesting, but seeks to ensure that the transfer of learning principles learned in mathematics can apply as widely as possible (Posamentier & Stepelman, 2010). Reviews of the literature have confirmed the effectiveness of this method in improving students' mathematic achievement (Adeoye, 2010; Bilgin, 2005; Ersoy & Guner, 2015, Esan, 2015; Karatas & Baki, 2013; Olaniyan, Omosewo & Nwankwo, 2015; Selçuk, Çaliskan & Erol, 2008; ). Therefore, this study was conducted to extend the
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validation of the argument by examining the relationship between problem solving skills and mathematics achievement among middle school students. Methodology A sample of 333 middle schools students from ten secondary schools located in one of the state in Malaysia participated in this study. Students' problem solving skills were measured by using a questionnaire which consists of 28 items pertaining to the four problem solving processes as suggested by Polya's problem solving model, while mathematic achievement refers to the scores obtained by students in the final year examination, monthly test, and Program for International Student Assessment (PISA). Respondents were asked to indicate the processes that they encounter while solving mathematical problems by responding to the questionnaire items using a 5-level Likert scale ranging from strongly disagree to strongly agree. The obtained data were analyzed using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) techniques through Analysis of Moment Structure (AMOS) software to determine the relationship between problem solving skills adopted by students and their mathematics achievement. In this regard, Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) was employed in order to test the fitness of the proposed relationship as well as to examine the direction of the relationship between problem solving skills and mathematics achievement. Findings Confirmatory factor analysis revealed that the proposed model was adequate with chisquare (χ2) = 37.649, degree of freedom (df) = 13, significant level (p) < 0.05 and normed chi-square (χ2/df ) = 2.896, Comparative Fit Index (CFI) = 0.989, and Root Mean Square Error of Approximation (RMSEA) = 0.076. Analysis of the data indicated that three problem solving skills are positively related to middle school students' mathematic achievement. The obtained coefficient beta value, β = 0.69 at significant level p < 0.001, which indicate the significant positive relationship between problem solving skills and mathematics achievement. The results of the analysis are shown in Figure 1.
Figure 1 Relationship between Problem Solving Skills and Mathematics Achievement Conclusion This study was conducted to examine the relationship between problem solving skills and mathematics achievement among middle school students. Analysis of the data indicated that problem solving skills as recommended by Polya's Problem Solving Model are related to
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students' mathematics achievement. In other words, students' mathematics achievement can be improved if they follow the four problem solving processes systematically, namely understanding the problem, devising problem solving strategies, executing problem solving strategies, and revising the obtained solution. Based on this finding, it is recommended that teachers should make careful planning to ensure that mathematics teaching approach practiced by them are able to help students develop problem solving skills (Bruun, 2013) since lack of exposure to problem-solving skills is one of the factors that led most students having difficulties in learning mathematics (Nasarudin Abdullah et al., 2014). This can be done by exposing students to the four-step problem solving heuristic as suggested by Polya and encouraging them to apply it when trying to solve problem solving questions. providing contextualized examples that are relevant to students' real life experience (Buishaw & Ayalew, 2013). In other words, abstract concepts taught in math class should be linked to the daily lives of students to enable students to better understand mathematics concepts. This is due to the fact that students' problem solving skills is greatly influenced by the experiences encountered by them in everyday life (Dixon & Brown, 2012). References Adeoye, F. A (2010). Effects of problem-solving and cooperative learning strategies on senior secondary school students’ achievement in physics. Journal of Theory and Practice in Education, 6(1), 235–266. Bilgin, I (2005). The effect of different problem-solving strategies on university students ’ problem-solving achievements of quantitative problems in chemistry. Educational Science: Theory and Practice, 5(2), 628–635. Bruun, F (2013). Elementary teachers’ perspectives of mathematics problem solving strategies. The Mathematics Educator, 23(1), 45–59. Buishaw, A. & Ayalew, A (2013). An evaluation of grades 9 and 10 mathematics textbooks vis-à-vis fostering problem solving skills. Educational Research and Reviews, 8(15), 1314-1321. Cathcart, W.G., Pothier, Y.M., Vance, J.H. & Bezuk, N.S (2003). Learning Mathematics in Elementary and Middle Schools. 3rd Edition. New Jersey: Pearson Education. Cozza, B., & Oreshkina, M (2013). Cross-cultural study of cognitive and metacognitive processes during math problem solving. School Science and Mathematics, 113(6), 275–284. Dixon, R. A., & Brown, R. A (2012). Transfer of learning : Connecting concepts during problem solving. Journal of Technology Education, 24(1), 2–17. Ersoy, E., & Guner, P (2015). The place of problem solving and mathematical thinking. The Online Journal of New Horizons in Education, 5(1), 120–130. Esan, F (2015). Cooperative problem- solving strategy and students ’ learning outcomes in algebraic word problems : A Nigerian case. International Journal for Infonomics (IJI), 8(1/2), 986–989. Griffin, C. C., & Jitendra, A. K (2009). Word problem-solving instruction mathematics classrooms. The Journal of Educational Research, 102(3), 187–201. Hartfield, M.M., Edwards, N.C., Bitter, G.G. & Morrow, J (2008). Mathematics Methods for Elementary and Middle School Teachers. 6th Edition. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons. Johnson, A. & Norris, K (2006). Teaching Today's Mathematics in the Middle Grades. Boston: Pearson Education.
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Karaoglan, D. 2009. The Relationship Between 6th Grade Students’ Problem Solving Achievement and Mathematics Achievement Scores After Completing Instruction On Problem Solving. Thesis submitted to Department of Elementary Science and Mathematics Education, Middle East Technical University. Karatas, I., & Baki, A (2013). The effect of learning environments based on problem solving on students’ achievements of problem solving. International Electronic Journal of Elementary Education, 5(3), 249–267. Kiong, P. L.N (2005). Mathematical Problem Solving: Interdependence of Problems, Problem Solving and Metacognition. In Singh, P. & Sam, L.C (2006). Improving Teaching and Learning of Mathematics: From Research to Practice. Malaysia: Pusat Penerbitan Universiti. Mohd Faizal Nizam Lee bin Abdullah (2006). Tahap Kecekapan Trait Penyelesaian Masalah Matematik Pelajar-Pelajar Pendidikan Matematik Semester 7 UPSI Dalam Topik Kebarangkalian. Nasaruddin Abdullah, Lilia Halim, & Effandi Zakaria (2014). VStops: A thinking strategy and visual representation approach in mathematical word problem solving toward enhancing STEM literacy. EURASIA Journal of Mathematics, Science & Technology Education, 10(3), 165–174. Noor Shah Saad & Sazelli Abdul Ghani (2008). Teaching Mathematics in Secondary Schools: Theories and Practices. Malaysia: Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris. Olaniyan, A. O., Omosewo, E. O., & Nwankwo, L. I (2015). Effect of polya problem-solving model on senior secondary school students ’ performance in current electricity. European Journal of Science and Mathematics Education, 3(1), 97–104. Posamentier, A.S., Smith, B.S., & Stepelman, J (2010). Teaching Secondary Mathematics: Teaching and Enrichment Units. 8th Edition.USA: Pearson. Selçuk, G. S., Çaliskan, S., & Erol, M (2008). The effects of problem solving instruction on physics achievement, problem solving performance and strategy use. Latest American Journal of Physics Education, 2(3), 151–166. Troutman, A.P. & Lichtenberg, B.K (2003). Mathematics: A Good Beginning. 6th Edition. Belmont, California: Wadsworth/ Thomson Learning. Van De Walle, J. A., Karp, K.S. & Bay-Williams, J.M (2010). Elementary and Middle School Mathematics: Teaching Developmentally. 7th Edition. USA: Pearson. Wen, C.K (2011). When creative problem solving strategy meets web-based cooperative learning environment in accounting education. New Horizons in Education, 59(1), 106-118. Yetik, S. S., Akyuz, H. I., & Keser, H (2012). Preservice teachers’ perceptions about their problem solving skills in the scenario based blended learning environment. Turkish Online Journal of Distance Education, 13(2), 158–168. Yildirim, S., & Ersözlü, Z. N (2013). The relationship between students ’ metacognitive awareness and their solutions to similar types of mathematical problems. Eurosia Journal of Mathematics, Science & Technology Education, 9(4), 411–415
Development of Interactive Multimedia on General Physics I for Physics Prospective Teachers Sondang R Manurung1 1
[email protected], Usler Simarmata 1 Physics Education Program, State University of Medan
Abstract The purpose of this research was to develop interactive multimedia based visual learning style on General Physics I course. The characteristics of interactive multimedia consists of presentation, text, video, simulation, animation by adapting the visual learning style of students..This research used research development model 3-D, namely, Define, Design, and Develop. The details of the stages were: (1) the literature review and need assessment, (2) formulation of competences indicators, (3) formulation of learning model, (4) formulation of the IM design, (4) the development of story boards, (5)obtaining relevant files, video, graphics/animation, and audio production, (6) authoring and debugging, (7) validating by 3 experts and giving questionnaire to student. Preliminary study results indicated that learning process in general physics I course tend to emphasize mastery of physics concepts mathematically and do not adapt student learning style difference. Validation results revealed that the developed interactive multimedia design was valid and results of student questionnaire showed a good responses. It should be concluded that the interactive multimedia was feasible and suitable to be implemented in General Physics I course. Keywords: Interactive multimedia, visual learning style, general physics I, prospective teacher. Introduction Physics is one part that can not be separated from science and also contribute to the development of technology. Results of preliminary research, shows that the fact of physics is still unpopular even considered difficult and tiresome. There are several reasons students have difficulties in understanding and studying the physics of them, concepts that are abstract and difficult to observe commonly found in teaching physics, example, the cargo molecules move in tubes containing gas (gas Kinetic Theory concept). Basically, children learn through concrete things. To understand an abstract concept that children require concrete objects (real) as an intermediary, or visualizations. Also preliminary study results indicate that in the study of General Physics I, students have difficulties in understanding the concepts that are abstract and microscopic because unavailability of adequate media to visualize these concepts. Available media only in the form of a power point text and images that not adapting student learning style differences. In order to make concepts of General Physics I easily to understand by students its necessary to innovate in advanced physics course. One of this innovation in the lecture that integrate information and communication technology in the interactive multimedia, according to: (a) Interactive multimedia could increase the based physics concept understanding; (b) Increase the understanding concept of prospective physic’s teacher, solve the student’s based physics misconception; (c) Increase the critical thinking skills and generic science skills; (d) Succes of interactive multimedia in based physics lectures because of students be more active and autonomous. A lecture needs to realize that the communication process does not always run smoothly, even the communication process can
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lead to confusion, misunderstanding and even lead to wrong concepts. To overcome these difficulties, the need for learning media as a form of simplification or modeling of abstract concepts, so that the concepts presented more real and can be observed. Computer media is a medium that can be used to evaluate the material or abstract concepts. Using multimedia (audio-visual) can display not only the graphics, but also display images, sound animations, video and text of the subject matter, which can represent abstract physics problems. Use of Multimedia computers can stimulate student interest in a subject matter, but it is the nature of interaction allows students play an active role. Multimedia is a term frequently heard and discussed among educational technologists today. Unless clearly defined, the term can alternately mean “a judicious mix of multimedia such as print, audio and video” or it may mean the development of computer-based hardware and software packages produced on a mass scale and yet allow individualized use and learning. In essence, multimedia merges multiple levels of learning into an educational tool that allows for diversity in curricula presentation. Every display on the program, there are a combination of several components. The components can be text, image (image), tables, graphs, animations, or sounds. (a) The text is the basis of word processing and multimedia-based information; (b) Image, is used to make the information more attractive, helping recall information learned, help understanding of matter and as visualization; (c) Animation / Video, are used in this program, made using Macromedia Flash, so the smaller size of the animation, because the picture is vector image format. In this program, the animation is a visualization of the events described in the material (textual). There are two kinds of animation is used, ie linear animation running (e.g flight animation landing), which run without any user input and run repeatedly. The second animation is animation that requires input users, the animation speed and average speed. Animation in this program is useful for visualizing events rarely encountered in daily life and events that difficult illustrated by the simulation in the laboratory; (d) Voice, which aims to increase understanding of the concept, but it sounds should be regulated (turned on or off), and sound to be heard clearly and effectively used; (e) Menu button and icon. In this program Many diagnostic program is available in a wide selection and menu button icons, navigation buttons (such as the back button, go, get out and others). The function buttons for navigation, to move from one display to other display; (f) Interface Design of interface design is based on flow charts that have been planned, it can be argued that, for transitions between screens will makes switching among screens become more attractive. It can be seen on the main menu and appetizer. Methodology The research utilized the three stages of 3-D model according to Thiagarajan et al which consists of; define, design, and develop. The stages were detailed in accordance to the development of multimedia projects by Ivers and Baron shown in Figure 1.
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Figure 1 Research steps At stage of the needs analysis to be carried out searches of information related to the condition of students, faculty and university will be a sample. In order to obtain such information will be performed observations and interviews. Which is desirable in needs assessment needs analysis is the need to program interactive multimedia in CAI form. Multimedia is a combination of text, photo, graphic art, sound, animation, and video elements are digitally manipulated. The needs of students of the program developed, learning environment, obstacles courses, general and specific objectives, assessment items. They will also be carried out analysis of learning materials subject in General Physics I to be presented via a web-based electronic module, a literature review conducted for the temporary introduction of the product to be developed. The study of literature on this research with theoretical studies that examine relevant theories so that it can be used as the basis for development. The study of literature is also necessary to know the measures most appropriate in the development of a product. An educational products possibility is not entirely new. Similar products or similar products have been developed by other developers in other places. Those things are studied through the study of literature in the form of documents of physics learning research results or results-based interactive multimedia. At the planning stage, by planning some aspects of learning. Ranging from determining the competency standards, basic competence, compiling indicators and learning objectives, learning rearrange according to the media that will development, prepare a storyboard to compose web-based electronic module. Next will be validated by experts and expert media material in a single instrument, and validated by the students of a number of 40 people. Result and Discussion After the designing of the IM display, the IM scenario in the form of story boards was created. The creating of the IM’s story board considered constructivist learning. In general, the story board is designed to follow: introduction of the concept, quantitative or qualitative activities by user to discover the attributes of concept, mathematical formulation of the concept, examples of solving problems involving the concept, and problem-solving exercises.
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Based on the scenarios, the development phase conducted which includes searching and selection IM files and java applets that have developed other researcher, video production, graphics production and animation, and audio production. After that, files, text, video, animation, graphics, and audio were integrated into IM, by means of an authoring program and ensure IM produced was running well. Macromedia Director MX 2004 program was used to authoring the IM, with the consideration of the program can display extension-JAR files, as well as has flexibility like Macromedia Flash MX 2004. Validation of Program Description of learning, story board and theoretical design of e-learning consulted with experts (judges) to be validated. Results of the validation data analysis expert summarized in Table 1, and interactive multimedia display quality and completeness of its features include both categories. The assessment of interactive multimedia program is valid and feasible to use in research. Table 1 Results of Validation of Interactive Multimedia Program No
Aspect
1.
Subject matter in Interactive Multimedia 1. The rate of material conformity with the syllabus 2. The scope and depth of the material in interactive multimedia program 3. The order and systematics material the theory kinetic of gases theory of gases 4. Practising ways of solving the problem 5. The material is easy to understand 6. Linguistic posts Technique 1. Ease of navigation links 2. Regularity of the relationship between the nodes (nodes) with a link (link) 3. Readability of text 4. The quality of the image display 5. Animations displayed can be accessible 6. Accessible simulation Presentation 1. Ease of students accessing tasks and solve problems 2. Attractiveness of the program based on the display image and corresponding color 3. Satisfaction students enjoy the interactive multimedia program
2.
3.
Validator V1 V2 V3
% of ideal
Value rpearson
Conclus ion
4
3
4
91,67
0,98
Valid
3
3
4
83,33
0,64
Valid
4
2
4
83,33
0,98
Valid
3 3 4
3 3 2
4 4 3
83,33 83,33 75
0,64 0,64 0,76
Valid Valid Valid
4
2
3
75
0,76
Valid
4
2
3
75
0,76
Valid
3 4 4 3
3 3 3 3
4 4 4 4
83,33 91, 67 91,67 83,33
0,64 0,98 0,98 0,64
Valid Valid Valid Valid
4
2
3
75
0.76
Valid
3
3
4
83,3
0.64
Valid
3
3
4
83,3
0.64
Valid
Based on the results of expert validation for interactive multimedia display quality and completeness of its features include of categories. The validity assessment of interactive multimedia program is valid and feasible to use in research. Scores tabulation of the matter, technique, and presentation of interactive multimedia program is shown in Table 2. And anova test results for validity result is shown in Table 3.
111 Table 2 Scores Tabulation of Interactive Multimedia Program Element
Technique Presentation
1 0 0 0
Score 2 3 1 9 2 9 1 5
4 8 7 3
Table 3 Anova Test Result for Validty Result
Inter group in Group Total
Number of square
Matter
Average of square
13.500 116.750 130.250
2 9 11
6.750 12.972
F
Sig.
.520 .611
From the above table can be seen the value of comparisons between groups with variance in the groups (F) by 0:52. This value is then compared with the value of F table with 2 numerator and 9 denominator. Based on these it can be seen that the value of F table for α = 5% was 4.26. Since F count is smaller than the value of F table, so hypothesis H0 should be received. Thus, there is no difference between the average material, technical and presentation of the interactive multimedia program. Finkelstein et al identified interactive multimedia simulation characteristics that supports the learning of physics students; (1) an engaging and interactive approach; (2) dynamic feedback; (3) a constructivist approach; (4) a workspace for play and tinkering; (5) visual models / access to conceptual physical models; and (6) productive constraints for students. Based on utilization of IM researches, it can be identified that IM in General Physics courses could improve the understanding of basic physics concepts, increase the mastery of concepts of physics teacher candidates. tackle basic physics student’s misconceptions, improve critical thinking skills of prospective teachers of physics and physics teacher, as well as generic skills in science teaching physics. IM worked in Introductory Physics courses because students are more active and independent, the IM computer animation can visualize abstract processes that are impossible to see or imagine, capable to repeat serving required information, given students the freedom to choose and track materials, and student was guided to learn, think, discover and construct knowledge independently through interactive questions presented by the rapid response. Based on the above descriptions, the research focused to know how the development of IM on General Physics I course for prospective VHS teachers, how feasibility of the IM developed, and how student responses to the IM developed. After the designing of the IM display, the IM scenario in the form of story boards was created. The creating of the IM’s story board considered constructivist learning. In general, the story board is designed to follow: introduction of the concept, quantitative or qualitative activities by user to discover the attributes of concept, mathematical formulation of the concept, examples of solving problems involving the concept, and problem-solving exercises. Based on the scenarios, the development phase conducted which includes searching and selection IM files and java applets that have developed other researcher, video production, graphics production and animation, and audio production. After that, files, text, video, animation, graphics, and audio were integrated into IM, by means of an authoring program and ensure IM produced was running well. Macromedia Director MX 2004 program was used to authoring the IM, with the consideration of the program can display extension-JAR files, as well as has flexibility like Macromedia
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Flash MX 2004 has. For the IM testing purposes, the population was all prospective of VHS teachers in physics education, at a state university of Medan. The sample selected by cluster random sampling technique. The tryout is try out I was used to determine how students respond to the IM that have been produced and to determine the feasibility of the IM from the users (students), by means of questionnaire. Expert judgments carried out by physics education expert, IM expert, IM learning specialist, and learning technologist. Expert judgments conducted by rubrics that developed by adapting the multimedia project evaluation rubric by Ivers and Baron. To devices that have been developed, captured response experts, professors, and students, the results are as follows: (i) based on a questionnaire completed lecturer: learning device developed very helpful lecturers and provide convenience to the lecturers in creating interactive multimedia-based learning and student-centered ; (ii) obtained a response that the device developed meets the indicators of contextual learning. According to the assessors, the prominent characteristics of the devices that have been developed: emphasis on application to the real world, pay attention to the diversity of abilities and learning styles of students, develop high-level thinking, pay attention to students' prior knowledge, and support the realization of a democratic atmosphere and interactive learning; (iii) based on the questionnaire responses of students: learning to use a device that has been developed on average make 75% of students enjoy learning physics, 21% mediocre, and 4% (around 1-2 students) do not happy. Prominent reasons written by students who are happy studied physics: many visual lab, many get a chance discussions, opinions, and ask a friend or lecturer, increase knowledge, understanding linkages physics with everyday life, and many find things. The new who have never or rarely experienced. Furthermore multimedia can help learning. When students were taught through, both direct conventional method & interactive multimedia method than it was found that the acquired retention was better in case of interactive multimedia method. Using multimedia modules to better prepare students for introductory physics lecture. In addition, Yahya et al found that interactive multimedia based learning developed conceptual understanding, generic science skill, and critical thinking skill. The study result by Viajayani et al showed that using learning media macromedia flash pro 8 in physics learning about heat and temperature can increase the students’ achievement. Hadi’s study result showed that learning process using computer can increase student outcomes. Meanwhile Bennet & Brennan found that interactive multimedia shows a high degree of acceptability with our study group, any practical application must have a meaningful accessible component and be fully integrated into the lecture series, as opposed to being offered as a study resource alone. Study result by Dow Su & Chuan Yeh found that animation units were well-organized and helpful for most college students’ effective physics learning. It would significantly make a positive contribution to students’ physics learning attitudes. Conclusion The research utilized the three stages of 3-D model according to Thiagarajan et al namely, define, design, and develop. The stages were detailed in accordance to the development of multimedia projects by Ivers and Baron, namely: 1) Preliminary study, 2) Planning, 3) Develop preliminary form of product), 4) Preliminary field test. In this study, carried out steps 1-4 because of the limited number of researchers. The assessment of interactive multimedia program is valid and feasible to use in research, based on assessment of expert that aspects of interactive multimedia programs are valid. Furtheremore there is no difference between aspects of interactive multimedia programs as though that the average material, technical and presentation of the interactive multimedia program is equal. The characteristic of learning model through interactive multimedia programs are designed for the
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purpose of learning improve problem solving skills, logical thinking skills, and understanding of the concept. Acknowledgement The research is funded by the Competitive Grants DP2M Director General of Higher Education Ministry of Education and Culture. Therefore, researchers who receive grants DP2M to thank the Director General of Higher Education which has provided funds, and the opportunity for researchers to conduct research in Physics Education Program of State University of Medan. On this occasion, the authors would like to thank the Rector and Chairman of the Research Institute of the State University of Medan which has given opportunity to the team of researchers to conduct research. This has helped the research. References Barrett,
J (1995). How can Multimedia help my teaching? available on: celt.ust.hk/files/public/pdf/12-95.pdf Bennett, S.J, & Brennan, M.J (1996). Interactive multimedia learning in physics. Australian Journal of Educational Technology, 12(1), 8–17. Budiman, I., Suhandi, A., & Setiawan, A (2008). Model pembelajaran multimedia interaktif dualisme gelombang partikel untuk meningkatkan pemahaman konsep dan keterampilan berpikir kritis pebelajar. Jurnal Penelitian Pendidikan IPA, (2)1, 23-33. Chen, Z., Stelzer, T., & Gladdi, G., “Using multimedia modules to better prepare students for introductory physics lecture”. Available on; http://journals.aps.org/prstper/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevSTPER.6.010108
Darmadi, I.W (2007). Pembelajaran berbasis teknologi informasi untuk meningkatkan penguasaan konsep fisika mahasiswa calon pengajar. Jurnal Penelitian Pendidikan IPA, 2 (1), 11-22. Dori, Y.J., & Belcher, J (2005) , How does technology-enabled active learning affect undergraduate students’ understanding of electromagnetism concepts?. The Journal of Learning Science, 14(2), 243-279: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. Dow Su, K, & Yeh, C. Shih (2014). Effective assessments of integrated animations-exploring dynamic physics instruction for college students’ learning and attitudes. TOJET: The Turkish Online Journal of Educational Technology, 13 (1), 88-99. Finkelstein, N., Adams, W., Keller,C., Perkins, K., & Wieman, C (2006). “High-tech tools for teaching physics: the physics education technology project”, Journal of Online Teaching and Learning; Department of Physics University of Colorado, September 15th. Gunawan (2008). Penggunaan Model Pembelajaran Multimedia Interaktif untuk Meningkatkan Keterampilan Generik Sains dan Berpikir Kritis Calon Guru pada Materi Elastisitas. TesisSPs UPI Bandung: Tidak diterbitkan Hadi, P (2008). Efektivitas pembelajaran fisika dengan strategi inkuiri dikemas dalam cd interaktif. Thesis for magister of education, state university of semarang, Indonesia. Ivers, K. S.. & Baron, A (2002). Multimedia projects in education:: Designing, producing. Manurung, S.R (2013) Pengembangan pembelajaran kinematika melalui hiperteks berdasarkan pedagogi pemecahan masalah bermuatan argumentasi toulmin. Dr. Dissertation, Indonesia University of Education, Bandung, Indonesia. Muller, D.A (2008) Designing Effective Multimedia for Physics Education. Thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, School of Physics University of Sydney Australia.
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Sharma, P (2013). Role of interactive multimedia for enhancing students' achievement and retention. International Women Online Journal of Distance Education, 2(3), 12-22. Srinivasan Multimedia, S. & Crooks, S. (2005). Multimedia in Science Learning Environment. Journal of Educational and Hypermedia, 14 (2), 151-167. Soenarto, S (2004). Pengembangan Multimedia Interaktif dalam Pembelajaran Fisika Listrik. Edukasi @ Elektro, 1(1), 69-75. Soenarto, S., & Nurohman (2014). Pengembangan Modul Elektronik Berbasis Web sebagai Media Pembelajaran Fisika. Jurnal Kependidikan. 44(1), 3–82. Thiagarajan, S., Semmel, D. S., & Semmel, M. I. (1974). Instructional development for training teachers of exceptional children: A sourcebook. Minneapolis: Leadership Training Institute/Special Education, University of Minnesota. Viajayani, E.R., Radiyono, Y., & Rahardjo, D.T (2013). Pengembangan media pembelajaran fisika menggunakan macromedia flash pro 8 pada pokok bahasan suhu dan kalor. Jurnal Pendidikan Fisika, 1(1), 144-155. Widodo, W (2010). Pengembagan Model Pembelajaran Mikir pada Perkuliahan Fisika Dasar untuk Meningkatkan Keterampilan Generik dan Pemecahan Masalah Calon Guru SMK Program Keahlian Tata Boga”. Dr. dissertation,Indonesia University of Education, Bandung. Yahya, S., Setiawan, A., & Suhandi, A (2008). Model pembelajaran multimedia interaktif optik fisis untuk meningkatkan penguasaan konsep, keterampilan generik sains, dan keterampilan berpikir kritis pengajar fisika. Jurnal Penelitian Pendidikan IPA, 2(1).
Teknik N.C.T Meningkatkan Kemahiran Matematik Dalam Kalangan Murid Prasekolah Mohamed Ayob Sukani1, Sarima Niza Kendot @ Ibrahim2 1 Jabatan Pendidikan Awal Kanak-Kanak, IPGKBM KL 2 SK Kapar Klang Selangor
Abstrak Kajian tindakan ini dijalankan untuk membantu murid prasekolah dalam meningkatkan kemahiran matematik, khususnya dalam memadankan nombor dengan objek secara urutan dan rawak menggunakan teknik “Numbers Counting Train” (NCT). Teknik yang diinovasikan ini turut disesuaikan dengan Kurikulum Standard Prasekolah Kebangsaan (KSPK) dan pendekatan Belajar Melalui Bermain, yang merupakan salah satu pendekatan yang sangat signifiken dengan fitran dan semula jadi pembalajaran kanak-kanak. Responden kajian terdiri daripada murid prasekolah yang berumur lima tahun, dari daerah Klang di negeri Selangor. Responden kajian adalah lemah dalam kemahiran mengenal nombor, menyebut nombor, membilang nombor dan memadankan nombor dengan objek secara urutan dan rawak. Dalam melaksanakan tinjauan awal kajian, pengkaji telah menggunakan pemerhatian turut serta dan berstruktur, membuat analisis dokumen, dan melakukan temubual sebagai medium untuk mendapatkan maklumat kajian. Dapatan data diperoleh melalui siri intervensi yang dilaksanakan dengan menggunakan teknik NCT, di samping untuk membantu responden mengenal dan memadankan nombor 1 hingga 10 dengan objek secara urutan dan rawak. Semasa bermain Numbers Counting Train, responden akan membilang, mengenal dan memadankan nombor berdasarkan kad nombor yang diberikan oleh pengkaji. Dapatan kajian dianalisis secara stastistik deskriptif, dan dapatan kajian menunjukkan bahawa teknik NCT dapat membantu meningkatkan penguasaan responden dalam kemahiran mengenal, kemahiran membilang, dan kemahiran memadankan nombor dengan objek secara urutan dan rawak. Nilai tambah kajian adalah inovasi NCT mampu meningkatkan penguasaan nombor matematik dalam kalangan murid prasekolah, di samping NCT mampu membantu murid prasekolah dalam operasi matematik, serta turut dicadangkan untuk diaplikasikan kepada murid-murid pemulihan dan murid-murid bermasalah pembelajaran. Kata kunci : pendekatan, teknik, nombor, matematik, kemahiran, prasekolah Pengenalan Pendidikan prasekolah adalah pendidikan asas yang penting. Matematik pula adalah salah satu subjek yang diajar dalam Tunjang Sains dan Teknologi. Matlamat pendidikan Matematik adalah memperkembangkan pemikiran mantik, analitis, bersistem dan kritis, kemahiran penyelesaian masalah serta kebolehan menggunakan ilmu pengetahuan matematik supaya individu dapat berfungsi dalam kehidupan seharian dengan berkesan (Kementerian Pendidikan Malaysia, 1988). Untuk mencapai matlamat pendidikan ini, maka proses pengajaran dan pembelajaran Matematik di sekolah perlu ditingkatkan. Kajian tindakan ini juga adalah selaras dengan kehendak kerajaan di dalam Bidang Keberhasilan Utama Nasional (NKRA) yang akan memberi tumpuan kepada masalah Literasi dan Numerasi (LINUS)
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supaya setiap kanak-kanak itu berjaya menguasai kemahiran tersebut selepas mengikuti 3 tahun pendidikan rendah pada akhir tahun 2012. (Kementerian Pelajaran Malaysia, 2008). Masalah Kajian Kebolehan matematik adalah asas kemahiran yang diperlukan bagi menjalani kehidupan seharian. Asas perkembangan matematik kanak-kanak bermula daripada pengalaman kanak-kanak berkaitan benda-benda konkrit atau objek yang mengandungi kuantiti dan kualiti objek seperti warna, saiz dan bentuk yang berbeza-beza serta memanipulasi nombor-nombor yang ada di sekeliling mereka. Ia berlaku secara spontan dan semulajadi kerana kanak-kanak secara semulajadinya mempunyai kebolehan ingin tahu yang tinggi. Jean Peaget menyatakan setiap kanak-kanak normal berupaya memahami matematik dengan baik apabila aktiviti dan kaedah yang diberikan menarik minat mereka (Smith, S.S. 2006; Copley, J.V. 2000; Charlesworth, R. 2012). Mengikut, Freidrich Wilhem Froebel, bermain adalah sesuatu keadaan semulajadi yang membantu kanak-kanak belajar dan berkembang (Smith, S.S. 2006; Copley, J.V. 2000). Menurut Witzel, Mercer dan Miller, dalam kajiannya menyokong keberkesanan pendekatan bahan manipulatif untuk mengembangkan kemahiran asas matematik muridmurid. Murid akan memahami dan mengingati sesuatu konsep dengan mudah serta kekal melalui pembelajaran yang bermakna (Abu Hassan Kassim, 2003). Berdasarkan refleksi pengajaran dan pembelajaran, pengkaji mendapati pendekatan yang digunakan guru kurang sesuai kerana lebih banyak berpusatkan guru. Guru sepatutnya memilih pendekatan yang berpusatkan kepada murid. Mengikut kajian yang dilaksanakan oleh Montessori, kita dapat melihat semua kanak-kanak yang berusia 3 hingga 6 tahun mempunyai ciri-ciri yang universal dalam kehidupan mereka (Nor Nurulhayati Aris et al., 2009). Kaedah Montessori dan bahan pengajarannya menekankan “Sensory Teaching And Learning”. Sebagai seorang guru yang berpengalaman, guru sepatutnya memberikan banyak aktiviti yang melibatkan hands-on. Malah usaha dan amalan pendekatan yang berpusatkan murid-bahan-hands on turut disokong oleh kenyataan Swan dan Marshall (2007) yang menyatakan, bahawa penggunaan bahan konkrit (hands on) dapat meningkatkan pencapaian murid dalam kemahiran asas matematik. Di samping itu, guru yang kurang menggunakan bahan konkrit dan kaedah ansur maju menyebabkan kanak-kanak sukar memahami konsep dalam proses pengajaran dan pembelajaran yang sampaikan. Menurut Piaget (1952) kanakkanak memerlukan pengalaman konkrit untuk memahami istilah matematik dan simbol matematik (Smith, S.S. 2006; Copley, J.V. 2000; Charlesworth, R. 2012). Menurut Nani Menon et, al. (2007), pada peringkat awal memang kanak-kanak akan menghafal turutan nombor tanpa mengetahui makna disebalik nombor-nombor yang disebut. Oleh itu, pengalaman menggunakan bahan konkrit penting bagi meningkatkan kefahaman konsep dan perkaitan dengan bilangannya. Kanak-kanak menghafal turutan nombor dan seterusnya dengan pemahaman objek dengan nombor dan akhirnya akan mengenal nombor tersebut. Mendidik kanak-kanak perlu menggunakan objek supaya dapat menimbulkan minat untuk belajar. Guru-guru prasekolah seharusnya menunjukkan kecenderungan untuk mengintegrasikan matematik dengan bidang kurikulum yang lain, bagi membantu kanakkanak memahami bahawa matematik itu sebenarnya mudah, seronok, berguna dan mencabar. Kanak-kanak seharusnya diberi peluang untuk mempraktikkan konsep-konsep yang berunsur matematik, penemuan sesutu yang baru melalui cara yang konkrit, sensori, biasa, berguna, dan berunsur kecenderungan terhadap matematik akan berkembang. Kajian tindakan ini dihasilkan bagi memfokuskan kepada masalah yang dihadapi oleh kanak-kanak prasekolah dalam tunjang Sains dan Teknologi (Matematik) yang melibatkan
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aktiviti kemahiran menyebut, membilang dan memadankan nombor 1 hingga 10 dengan objek yang betul. Tujuan kajian tindakan ini dijalankan adalah untuk melihat sejauh mana penggunaan teknik ”Numbers Counting Train” dapat membantu murid-murid prasekolah menguasai konsep nombor dan seterusnya dapat memadankan nombor 1 hingga 10 dengan objek yang betul secara urutan dan rawak. Pengkaji telah menggunakan ”Numbers Counting Train” sebagai bahan intervensi dalam kajian tindakan ini. Proses kajian tindakan ini melalui semua fasa iaitu merancang, melaksana, memerhati dan mereflek selaras dengan model Penyelididkan Tindakan Lewin dan Laidlaw (Johnson, A.P. 2005; Stringer, E. 2004; Mills, G.E. 2003). Objektif Kajian Tujuan kajian tindakan ini dijalankan adalah untuk menemukan peningkatan kemahiran memadankan nombor 1 hingga 10 dengan objek menggunakan teknik ”Numbers Counting Train” dalam kalangan murid prasekolah. Objektif tersebut adalah : i) Meningkatkan kemahiran memadankan nombor 1 hingga 10 dengan objek menggunakan teknik ” Numbers Counting Train” secara urutan. ii) Meningkatkan kemahiran memadankan nombor 1 hingga 10 dengan objek menggunakan teknik ”Numbers Counting Train” secara rawak. Soalan Kajian Adakah teknik ”Numbers Counting Train” dapat meningkatkan kemahiran memadankan nombor 1 hingga 10 dengan objek secara urutan bagi murid prasekolah ? ii) Adakah teknik ”Numbers Counting Train” dapat meningkatkan kemahiran memadankan nombor 1 hingga 10 dengan objek secara rawak bagi murid prasekolah ? i)
Tinjauan Literatur Menurut Mok Soon Sang (2005), “The main aim of Primary School Mathematics Education was to improve and develop the understanding of number concept and acquiring basic calculation skill”. Ini menunjukkan kepentingan penguasaan kefahaman terhadap konsep nombor dari aspek kemahiran mengira dan membilang adalah sangat penting bagi murid terutamanya murid sekolah rendah, kerana kemahiran membilang merupakan kemahiran yang asas di dalam matematik, tanpa penguasaan kemahiran membilang, seseorang murid itu tidak dapat mempelajari dan menguasai kemahiran atau topik yang lebih susah dan abstrak. Swan dan Marshall (2007), menyatakan bahan manipulatif matematik merupakan objek yang dikendalikan individu melalui deria iaitu pemikiran Matematik akan dipupuk dalam keadaan individu itu sedar atau tidak. Kesan dari itu, penggunaan bahan-bahan konkrit dapat membantu pencapaian murid-murid dalam matematik dan meningkatkan rasa gemar murid-murid kepada matematik. Mengikut Frobel (Smith, S.S. 2006; Copley, J.V. 2000), bermain adalah sesuatu keadaan semula jadi yang membantu kanak-kanak belajar dan berkembang. Selain itu bermain memberikan kanak-kanak peluang meneroka dan memahami persekitaran serta mencuba-cuba sesuatu aktiviti. Dalam proses mencuba, mereka menemui pengetahuan yang baru. Menurut Smith. A.M. (2002), telah mendifinisikan kemahiran hubungan satu dengan satu ialah satu kemahiran yang memerlukan kanak-kanak untuk memahami bahawa setiap nombor hanya boleh digunakan sekali apabila membilang dan setiap objek dalam satu set
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mesti ditugaskan satu perkataan nombor atau ditandakan dengan satu nombor. Kanak-kanak akan mendapati kemahiran hubungan satu dengan satu ini berguna untuk mereka membahagikan objek yang telah mereka kira, iaitu dengan menyentuh dan menggerakkan satu demi satu objek ke dalam longgokan barangan yang telah dikira. Metodologi Kajian Kajian ini berbentuk kualitatif di mana penghuraian tindakan yang dilakukan secara terperinci dengan menggunakan kaedah deskriptif. Reka bentuk kajian yang pengkaji gunakan ialah berdasarkan Model Kurt Lewin (1946) dan Laidlaw (1992) sebagai asas dalam menjalankan kajian tindakan ( Mills,G.E.,2003; Jhonson, A.P., 2005). MENGENALPASTI ASPEK AMALAN BAGI PENAMBAHBAIKAN - mengumpul data untuk mengenal masalah mengecam, membilang dan memadan nombor.
REFLEKSI DANPENILAIAN - menganalisis, menilai membuat refleksi terhadap tahap kemahiran murid mengecam, membilang dan memadan nombor.
MEMERHATI KESAN TINDAKAN - membuat pemerhatian, mengumpul data tentang kesan tindakan semasa mengadakan intervensi numbers counting train.
MERANCANG - merancang pelan tindakan iaitu merancang aktiviti yang melibatkan aktiviti numbers counting train.
TINDAKAN/IMPLEMENTASI - melaksanakan pelan tindakan iaitu melaksanakan intervensi numbers counting train.
Rajah 1 Jadual Pelaksanaan Kajian Tindakan Kajian ini melibatkan murid Prasekolah, di salah sebuah sekolah di Kapar dalam Daerah Klang, Selangor. Pengkaji telah mengenalpasti dua orang subjek kajian yang dipilih berdasarkan kepada dapatan yang diperoleh semasa membuat tinjauan masalah sebelum ini. Pengkaji telah memilih dua orang subjek terlibat dalam kajian tindakan ini. Seorang murid perempuan dan seorang murid lelaki. Kedua-dua subjek berumur 5 tahun. Pengkaji mengajar kedua-dua subjek bagi mata pelajaran Matematik di kelas prasekolah. Kajian ini melabelkan subjek kajian sebagai Subjek A dan Subjek B. Pemilihan subjek dijalankan berdasarkan hasil pemerhatian berstruktur berdasarkan konstruk-konstruk tertentu yang telah ditetapkan, analisis dokumen yang dilakukan terhadap hasil kerja subjek dan rekod prestasi subjek dan temubual bersama pembantu pengurusan murid subjek kajian, dengan tujuan untuk mengetahui masalah subjek dengan lebih terperinci. Pengkaji mengukuhkan pemilihan kedua-dua subjek kajian berdasarkan lembaran kerja dan ujian lisan yang telah diberikan kepada mereka. Pengkaji juga telah menjalankan beberapa aktiviti pranombor seperti pengelasan, perbandingan, seriasi, dan padanan satu dengan satu kepada kedua-dua subjek kajian. Selanjutnya pengkaji melakukan pengumpulan data serta menerangkan perkara berkaitan instrumen kajian yang digunakan bagi mendapatkan data kajian. Bagi
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menyelesaikan masalah yang telah dikenalpasti, tiga cara pengumpulan data atau triangulasi data telah ditentukan oleh pengkaji untuk memastikan kesahan dan kebolehpercayaan setiap data yang dikumpul. Kaedah yang pengkaji pilih untuk memperoleh triangulasi data ialah melalui kaedah pemerhatian, analisis dokumen dan temubual. Hasil dapatan yang diperoleh daripada ketiga-tiga instrumen ini dianalisis bagi menjawab soalan kajian. Pemerhatian Pengkaji telah menyediakan 10 item secara urutan dan 10 item secara rawak dalam borang senarai semak yang digunakan. Masa pemerhatian ini ialah selama 15 minit. Pemerhatian ini dijalankan untuk melihat kemahiran mengecam dan mengenal nombor 1 hingga 10 subjek secara rawak atau urutan. Analisis Dokumen Melalui analisis dokumen sebelum dan selepas intervensi. Setelah pengkaji mengenalpasti masalah kanak-kanak melalui pemerhatian semasa proses pengajaran dan pembelajaran dan di luar waktu pembelajaran, pengkaji menganalisis 2 lembaran kerja yang berbeza yang diberikan oleh pengkaji kepada subjek iaitu lembaran kerja menguji kemahiran memadankan bilangan simbol dengan nombor, dan bilangan objek dengan nombor yang betul. Temubual Temubual ialah proses yang dilakukan untuk mendapat, mengumpul dan menganalisis maklumat melalui komunikasi atau berhubung secara lisan dengan mengajukan soalan-soalan berkaitan, bersama orang yang ditemubual. Temubual dilaksanakan bersama pembantu pengurusan murid subjek sebelum dan selepas intervensi. Kaedah ini digunakan untuk mengumpulkan data-data berkenaan latar belakang kanak-kanak, pembelajaran di dalam kelas dan mengesan keecenderungan dan kelemahan subjek kajian. Transkrip temubual digunakan bagi mengkaji subjek kajian yang dipilih untuk melihat kemajuan, kebolehan dan kemahiran yang telah dikuasai dan yang belum dikuasai oleh subjek kajian. Pelaksanaan Tindakan yang dijalankan adalah seperti langkah-langkah di bawah: Langkah 1 : Mengenal pasti aspek amalan bagi penambahbaikan - Langkah pertama prosedur kajian ini ialah mengumpul data untuk mengenalpasti aspek amalan dan mencari masalah yang memerlukan penambahbaikan. Kaedah yang pengkaji gunakan untuk mengesan masalah ini semasa tinjauan awal ialah dengan cara pemerhatian, analisis dokumen seperti lembaran kerja, buku latihan, senarai semak, rekod prestasi dan melalui temu bual dengan pembantu pengurusan murid. Langkah 2 : Merancang Tindakan - Daripada data yang telah dikumpul, isu ataupun masalah yang dihadapi kanak-kanak telah dikenalpasti, pengkaji telah merancang tindakan yang sesuai dan relevan untuk mengatasi masalah tersebut. Pengkaji telah menghasilkan bahan bantu mengajar untuk tujuan intervensi. Menyediakan soalan kajian untuk intervensi. Bagi mengatasi masalah murid-murid prasekolah pengkaji yang tidak dapat memadankan nombor 1 hingga 10 dengan objek yang betul,
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pengkaji telah merancang untuk melaksanakan teknik ”Numbers Counting Train” iaitu memadankan simbol dan nombor dengan pembilang. Pengkaji telah merancang empat aktiviti yang bersesuaian dengan kanak-kanak menggunakan alat permainan ”Numbers Counting Train”. Langkah 3: Melaksanakan Tindakan - Setelah merancang dan menghasilkan bahan bantu mengajar sebagai intervensi untuk membantu kanak-kanak, pengkaji perlu melaksanakannya kepada kanak-kanak untuk melihat keberkesanan intervensi yang telah dirancang. Melaksanakan intervensi secara berulang menggunakan bahan bantu mengajar yang dihasilkan. Semasa intervensi dilaksanakan pengkaji perlu membuat pemerhatian, analisis dan temubual bagi mencatat segala pencapaian murid. Langkah 4: Mengumpul Data - Pada langkah ini, pengkaji atau guru perlu mengumpul data untuk soalan kajian menggunakan alat kajian. Alat kajian yang saya pilih ialah pemerhatian, analisis dokumen dan temubual. Mengumpul dan menganalisis data amat penting untuk menentukan keberkesanan hasil dan kesan tindakan intervensi yang dijalankan. Setiap jawapan kanak-kanak perlu direkod pada senarai semak yang telah disediakan. Langkah 5: Membuat Refleksi Terhadap Tindakan - Langkah yang terakhir ialah membuat refleksi terhadap tindakan yang telah dilaksanakan. Guru perlu membuat dua refleksi iaitu refleksi semasa dan selepas intervensi dijalankan. Pengkaji perlu menganalisis dan menilai data yang dikumpul. Membuat refleksi mengenai keberkesanan tindakan berdasarkan data yang dikumpul. Pengkaji perlu membuat refleksi bagi setiap aktiviti yang dijalankan. Refleksi selepas intervensi adalah refleksi yang terhasil setelah intervensi dijalankan. Ini bertujuan untuk penambahbaikan perancangan tindakan yang pertama jika perlu. Pengkaji perlu melaksanakan lingkaran kedua dalam kitaran penyelidikan sekiranya memerlukan penambahbaikan. Dapatan Kajian Soalan Kajian 1 Bagi menjawab soalan kajian yang pertama, Adakah teknik “Numbers Counting Train” dapat meningkatkan kemahiran memadankan nombor 1 hingga 10 dengan objek secara urutan bagi murid prasekolah? Secara umumnya, subjek kajian menunjukkan peningkatan dalam memadankan nombor 1 hingga 10 dengan objek secara urutan berdasarkan hasil analisis pemerhatian berstruktur dengan menggunakan senarai semak sebelum dan selepas intervensi. Berdasarkan analisis pemerhatian berstruktur mendapati bahawa subjek dapat menjawab soalan memadankan objek dengan kad nombor 1 hingga 10 dengan objek secara urutan dengan baik, malah subjek tidak lagi sukar untuk membilang dan memadankan nombor. Mereka menjawab soalan yang diberikan oleh pengkaji dengan baik tanpa bimbingan.
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a) Dapatan daripada keputusan pemerhatian senarai semak. Jadual 1 Analisis perbandingan keputusan pemerhatian menggunakan senarai semak Subjek Pencapaian Subjek Pencapaian Subjek Peningkatan Sebelum intervensi Selepas Intervensi Pencapaian Subjek
A
4/10
8/10
Meningkat
B
5/10
10/10
Meningkat
b) Dapatan daripada keputusan analisis dokumen.
Rajah 1 Graf Peratus Perbandingan Kemahiran Memadan Nombor 1 -10 dengan objek Secara Urutan Sebelum & Selepas Intervensi Rajah 1 menunjukkan perbandingan peratus pencapaian analisis dokumen sebelum dan selepas intervensi. Hasil analisis di atas menunjukkan berlakunya peningkatan kemahiran memadankan nombor 1 hingga 10 dengan objek secara urutan bagi setiap subjek selepas menerima intervensi menggunakan “Numbers Counting Train”. Bagi aktiviti ini subjek dikehendaki melukis objek berdasarkan nombor secara urutan. Peratus peningkatan yang paling tinggi ialah pada subjek B iaitu sebanyak 50% manakala subjek A menunjukkan peratus peningkatan sebanyak 40%. Soalan Kajian 2 Adakah teknik “Numbers Counting Train” dapat meningkatkan kemahiran memadankan nombor 1 hingga 10 dengan objek secara rawak bagi murid prasekolah? Menjawab persoalan kajian kedua, pengkaji menggunakan analisis dokumen berdasarkan hasil kerja atau lembaran kerja subjek kajian. Dengan menggunakan teknik “Numbers Counting Train” subjek akan membilang dan memadankan nombor 1 hingga 10 dengan objek secara rawak dengan betul. Setelah pengkaji memperkenalkan permainan “Numbers Counting Train”, pengkaji telah memberikan latihan bertulis kepada kedua-dua subjek.
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Rajah 2: Graf Peratus Perbandingan Kemahiran Memadan Nombor 1 -10 dengan objek Secara Rawak - Sebelum & Selepas Intervensi Daripada Rajah 2 tersebut, pengkaji mendapati kedua-dua subjek dapat meningkatkan pencapaian mereka selepas intervensi. Selepas intervensi dijalankan Subjek B mendapat keputusan yang cemerlang bagi hasil kerja yang telah dijalankan iaitu peningkatan kepada 100%. Manakala subjek A juga mampu meningkatkan tahap penguasaan kepada 90% berbanding 40% sebelum intervensi. Subjek kajian dapat menunjukkan peningkatan yang cemerlang dalam hasil kerja bertulis yang yang telah dijalankan. Cadangan Dan Rumusan Pengkaji mencadangankan, agar penggunaan dan memperluas serta mempebagaikan penggunaan teknik ”Numbers Counting Train” ini, untuk nombor seterusnya iaitu seperti dalam proses pembelajaran nombor 11 hingga 50. Cadangan ini adalah sebagai penguasaan lanjutan dan penambahbaikan bagi nombor yang telah dikuasai oleh murid di prasekolah. Inovasi ini boleh juga diaplikasikan atau digunakan dalam proses pengajaran dan pembelajaran operasi tambah dan tolak. Selain di prasekolah, ”Numbers Counting Train” boleh diaplikasikan kepada murid aliran perdana tahap 1, yang mungkin menghadapi masalah yang sama. Pengkaji akan datang juga boleh mengintegrasikan nyanyian dengan inovasi NCT ini, untuk lebih menginteraktifkan penguasaan konsep nombor yang ingin diterapkan dalam kalangan murid prasekolah. Kajian seumpama ini adalah lebih baik, kerana di samping belajar menggunakan bahan manipulatif yang disediakan, kanak-kanak boleh berhibur dengan nyanyian berkenaan. Penggunaan multimedia seperti komputer sebagai penambahbaikan terhadap alat atau inovasi NCT yang digunakan untuk kajian seperti ini turut mampu mewujudkan pembelajaran yang menyeronokan dan bermakna. Rujukan Abu Hassan Kassim. (2003). Bengkel maklum balas latihan mengajar. Fakulti Pendidikan : Universiti Teknologi Malaysia. Charlesworth, R.(2012). Experinces in math for young children. Boston : Wadsworth, Cengage Learning. Copley, J.V. (2000). The young child and mathematics. Washington D.C. : NAEYC. Johnson, A.P. (2005). A short guide to action research. New York : Pearson Allyn and Bacon. Kementerian Pelajaran Malaysia. (2008). Bidang keberhasilan utama nasional (NKRA). Putrajaya: Bahagian Pengurusan Sekolah Harian.
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Mills, G.E. (2003). Action research : a guide for the teacher researcher. New Jersey : Merrill Prentice Hall. Mok Soon Sang. (2005). A primary education course in mathematics for post graduate Diploma (K.P.L.I). Kuala Lumpur: Kumpulan Budiman Sdn. Bhd. Nani Menon & Rohani Abdullah. (2007). Panduan kognitif kanak-kanak prasekolah. Kuala Lumpur: PTS Profesional. Nor Nurulhayati Aris, Zalila Ismail, Lee Nien Zee, Asitah Puniran, Sugunavathy, Kalponah & Noorbaya Othman. (2009). Model pendidikan montessori. Diperoleh pada 2 Julai 2014, dipetik dari http://www.scribd.com/doc/24902467/Model-Montessori. Nurul Amirah Mohd Razali dan Dr Zaidatun Tasir. Rekabentuk sistem pembelajaran konsep nombor berasaskan pendekatan permainan yang menerapkan teori perkembangan kognitif kanak-kanak. Diperoleh 4 Ogos 2014 daripada http://eprints.utm.my/7988/1/EDUPRES_%28F3%29_8.pdf. Smith. A.M. (2002). Mathematics in nursery education. Great Britain: David Fullon Publishers Ltd. Smith, S.S. (2006). Early childhood mathematics. New York : Pearson Allyn and Bacon. Stringer, E. (2004). Action reserch in education. New Jersey : Merrill Prentice Hall. Swan, P., Marshall, L., & White, G. (2007). Mathematics manipulatives: A panacea or a pandora„s box. proceedings of the international conference on science and mathematics education. Penang: CoSM
Instructional Supervision and its Relationship with Professional Competence Development Dayana Farzeeha Ali1, Mohd Anizam Mohd Daud1, Mahani Mokhtar1, Nornazira Suhairom1 , Sarimah Ismail1
[email protected],
[email protected],
[email protected],
[email protected],
[email protected] 1 Faculty of Education, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia
Abstract Instructional supervision process is based on five main styles of supervisory practices such as Clinical, Conceptual, Contextual, Differentiated and Developmental. Supervisory activities can assist teachers in their teaching processes and at the same time develop professional competence as educators. The main objective of this study is to identify supervisors’ supervision styles as compared to the teachers’ expectation on their supervisors’ supervision styles. Analysis was also conducted to examine the relationship between styles of supervision received by teachers and the development of their professional competence. A total of 140 teachers from three Vocational Colleges in Johor Bahru were selected as respondents. Mean analysis using Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 19.0 found that supervisors adopted Contextual Supervision style while the teachers considered Clinical supervision style as important. In addition, professional dialogue was adopted to ensure the development of professional competence. Meanwhile, Pearson correlation analysis showed a significant correlation between development of professional competence and supervision particularly in Contextual Supervision (r = .478) and it was at a moderate level. This practice has been identified as a major style of supervisor practices in instructional supervision. In conclusion, development of professional competence of teachers can be achieved if supervisory practices among supervisors match with the teachers’ expectations. Keyword: Instructional supervision, professional competence development, supervisory practices Introduction Supervision can be seen as similar to teaching since while teachers need to improve students’ achievement and attitude, supervisors need to improve behavior, achievement and attitudes of teachers (Glickman, 1992). Many researchers agree and recognize that good practices of supervision depend on the credibility of supervisors who handle the supervisory process. Previous studies highlight that supervision is effective in improving professionalism of teachers since it promotes the process of gaining experiences and knowledge sharing and helps teachers in their teaching and learning process (Benjamin Kutsyuruba, 2003; Hamdan & Nurlia, 2011). Similarly, a study conducted by Fish and Mohd Azhar (2010) states that supervision sessions should be conducted before each lesson (pre-observation)and after each teaching session (post- observations). Furthermore, supervision should cover aspects of teaching, assessment, class control and management. Quality supervision also will result in higher level of commitment and efficacy among teachers (Rafisah Osman, 2009). Thus concepts used in instructional supervision specify that supervision does not solely aim at examining and assessing teachers only. However supervision should be able to promote
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collaboration among teachers. There are various models of supervision which can be used and adapted in the teaching profession. Among the models are notable clinical supervision (Goldhammer, 1969; Cogan, 1973), differentiated supervision (Glatthorn, 1984), conceptual supervision (Beach & Reinhartz, 1989), developmental supervision (Glickman, 1990) and contextual supervision (Ralph, 1998). All models of supervision emphasize the concept of collaboration to ensure positive development of supervisees. In addition, supervisors should ensure that techniques, methods and concepts used in the supervisory practices are being utilised by the teachers. Thus effective supervision means providing valuable feedback which can provide positive perceptions of teacher supervision. Background of Problem Transformation of Technical and Vocational Education (PTV) at national level has resulted in the promotion of vocational schools to become Vocational College (KV). This move is aimed at producing skilled workers in order to meet the demand of industries in Malaysia. In order to achieve this goal, KV teachers should be equipped with theoretical and practical skills and knowledge as required by the curricula and programs specified by Ministry of Education (Idialu, 2013). This mission poses lots of challenges as there are many weaknesses that need to be addressed. Referring to a report by Malaysian Education Development 2013-2025 (Ministry of Education Malaysia, 2013), among the existing challenges are shortage of PTV teachers, PTV curriculum is not recognized by industry and weak cooperation with industry. Furthermore, training in the workplace (OJT) is restricted and resulted in lack of sufficient skills among the trainees. Moreover, studies carried out by High Education Leadership Academy (AKEPT) in 2011, found that nearly 50 cent of teachers did not deliver memorable and good teaching (Ministry of Education Malaysia, 2013). Therefore to ensure continuous success and credibility of teachers, implementation of supervision system of teaching is seen as an effective method in supervising teachers’ professional development. However, there should be transparency and accountability among supervisors and teachers in order to ensure the effectiveness of its implementation,. In addition, teaching supervision is a form of assistance to teachers (UNESCO, 2007). Continuous assistance is a prerequisite in determining fair implementation of teaching supervision since it is a system to monitor the quality of teachers and schools (Grauwe & Carron, 2007, UNESCO, 2007; Idialu, 2013; Clark & Olumese, 2013). Implementation of teaching supervision process which is conducted at every school can be a guidance or indicator in dealing with the issue of teaching and learning process. This is because teaching supervision is a conceptual guidance to teachers and it can promote continuous professional development of teachers (UNESCO, 2007; Rashid, 2014). Thus the process of supervision monitors teachers’ performance (Wang, 2014) by evaluating their Daily Lesson Plans (RPH) which cover set induction, delivery of teaching, questioning techniques, students’ engagement, enrichment activities, assignments, checking of students work, lesson closure and classroom management (Arsaythamby & Mary Macdalena, 2013). However, if the supervision of teaching process is not effectively conducted, it will affect the system which then jeopardizes the quality of teachers. Thus, failure in the implementation of supervision needs to be assessed holistically. Consequently, blame should not be put on supervisors or teachers only since the success is determined by the commitment of both parties (Mohd Zolkifli, 2009). There should be the concept of collaboration during the process of teaching and supervision as it can create positive impression among the teachers (Goldhammer, 1969). Therefore, supervisors need to play their part effectively in order to create positive perception among teachers towards teaching supervision.
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Objectives of the Study This study was carried out to determine the perception of teachers in a Vocational College (KV) in Malaysia towards the practices and approaches of supervision which they were involved in. Thus, the objectives of this study are to: 1. Determine the importance of supervision, satisfaction in terms of quantity and quality of supervision and its importance towards teachers’ professionalism. 2. Identify supervisory approach practised by supervisors in ensuring quality teaching and professional competence of teachers. 3. Identify relationship between teaching supervision and teachers' professional competence development. Methodology of the Study This study was a descriptive research and therefore a set of questionnaire was used as a tool data collection. The questionnaire was designed through adaptation of several studies conducted overseas namely Thobega and Miller (2008), Glatthorn (1987) and Glickman, Gordon and Ross-Gordon (2009). The population in this study was teachers at Vocational College (KV) in Johor Bahru, Johor. Samples were selected through the method of random sampling. Determination of sample size was referred to Krejcie and Morgan (1970) to ascertain the amount of data that must be taken to represent the entire population. Thus, the sample in this study was 140 teachers. A pilot study was conducted at College Vocational Jasin, Melaka in order to test the reliability and validity of the instrument.. The pilot study involved 25 teachers. The result showed that the questionnaire has high level of reliability with 0.972 Cronbach Alpha value.The data were analysed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 19.0. There are several alternatives to analyse the data that is, descriptive analysis for frequency and percentage, a descriptive analysis of the size of the converging trend (frequency, min, and standard deviation) and Pearson Correlation in order to determine the distinction between min inference analyses. Findings and Discussion Table 1 Importance of Supervision, and Satisfaction with number and quality of Supervision and Needs toward Professionalism. Item Importance of supervision Satisfaction on number of supervision Satisfaction on quality of supervision Needs of professionalism
M 3.91 3.90 3.84 3.99
SD 0.725 0.591 0.722 0.623
Table 1 shows the level of respondents' perceptions on the importance of supervision was between 2.9% to 55.7% (M = 3.91; SD = .725). This finding was slightly different than the satisfaction of respondents to the number and quality of supervision carried out. The range was between 2.9% to 72.9% (M = 3.90; SD = .591) and 5.7% - 62.9% (M = 3.84; SD = .722). Next, supervisory priority to the needs of professionalism was between 2.9% to 70.0% (M = 3.99; SD = .623). Supervision is one of the important aspects in management and administration of an educational institution including vocational colleges. Supervision needs and interests have
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been agreed upon by experts in this field with different theories and views. However, there is no specific theory which can ensure its best implementation. Consequently, credibility and expertise of supervisors in the supervisory process becomes the main indicators of its effectiveness (Glickman, Gordon and Ross-Gordon, 2009). Therefore, supervisors have the liberty to choose and adopt any type of supervision styles. Contextual Supervision (Ralph, 1998) is a supervisory style that is similar to Situational Supervision (Levy & Johnson, 2012) because both are based on situational leadership model developed by Hersey and Blanchard (1988). Therefore, it is not surprising if any supervisor as a leader of institution chooses this practice as it is driven by his leadership expertise depending on his leadership style with teachers competency level and their confidence in teaching. Through this leadership style, supervisors will determine the kind of support that should be given to teachers and provide guidance on how teachers can carry out tasks and responsibilities assigned to them (Wiles and Bondi, 1991). The guiding process certainly requires supervisors to possess more teaching experiences than the teachers. Although Clinical Supervision in Malaysia is certified by Federal School Inspectorate Body (1993), which is suitable to be used in the context of classroom supervision in Malaysia, there exist supervisors who practice different supervision styles. Wilson and Saleh (2000) in Thobega and Miller (2008) state that time constraints become a major factor on why Clinical Supervision is not practised and even if it is being used some steps are left out mainly the post-trial analysis. The finding is also supported by Mohd Zolkifli and Lokman (2007) who found that the weakness of Clinical Supervision was time. Therefore, Mohd Zolkifli and Lokman (2007) and Bedford and Gehlert (2013) reiterate that Contextual Supervision can be implemented into Clinical Supervision by injecting elements of the nature of leadership in the context of human relationships. Intervention and similar styles of supervision will foster growth and readiness to act which can result in the effectiveness of teachers. Table 2 Types of Supervision practised by supervisors
Types of Supervision Clinical supervision Conceptual supervision Contextual supervision Differentiated supervision N=40
(SD)
Practice (M)
Level
1.83 2.75
3.86 3.18
High Moderate
3.32
3.92
High
3.40
2.97
Moderate
Table 2 shows the perception levels of teachers on the types of supervision practised by supervisors. Majority of the teachers perceived that the supervisory practice of their supervisors was Contextual Supervision (M = 3.92; SD = 3.32). It was followed by Clinical Supervision (M = 3.86; SD = 1.83), Conceptual Supervision (M = 3.18; SD = 2.75) and Differentiated Supervision had the lowest mean (M = 2.97; SD = 3.40). Clinical Supervision provides a form of supervision which is based on five main phases, namely pre-conference, in-class observation, analysis and interpretation, postconference and post-conference analysis (Goldhammer, 1969; Glickman, Gordon and RossGordon, 2004). The flow of this supervisory style is clearly visible. Therefore, it is not impossible if Clinical Supervision is important for the teachers, because they can thoroughly
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prepare prior to supervision. Supervisors will sit down with the teachers to discuss several matters, including the reason and purpose of supervision, the focus of observation, observation methods and forms to be used, the duration of observation and the time taken for post-discussion. Therefore, Husbands (2011) states that Clinical Supervision is a method of working with teachers to help improving classroom teaching. Table 3 Supervisory Approaches in Building Teachers' Professional Competence Approach
(M)
(SD)
Profesional Dialogue Peer Coaching Peer Supervision Curriculum Development Action Reseach
3.85 3.59 3.65 3.44 3.49
.562 .767 .667 .712 .773
Table 3 shows the approaches used in the supervision of professional dialogue, development group, professional development, and curriculum development and action research. Data show that all approaches have mean value range from 3 (medium disagree) to 4 (agree). However, comparing the mean values for each approach indicates the approach which was often prioritised by the teachers. Therefore the data clearly showed that professional dialogue (professional dialogue) was the favourite approach (M = 3.85; SD = .562). This followed by professional development (peer supervision) (M = 3.65; SD = .667), group development (peer coaching) (M = 3.59: SP = .767), action research (M = 3.49; SD = .773), and curriculum development (M = 3.44; SD = .712). Since the results of the analysis showed that the highest mean was "professional dialogue", therefore it was the favourite approach being practised. Professional dialogue expressed by Glickman, Gordon and Ross-Gordon (2009) as a form of direct assistance to teachers in an effort to develop their competence. Kazepides (2012) also stated that a true dialogue (genuine dialogue) will improve the performance and form a basis for evaluation. This method can be considered as a strategy, where the ultimate goal is to help supervisors in making good decisions (Misu, et al., 2010). Blasé and Blase (1999) explain that in a professional dialogue, teachers get feedback through the discussion with supervisors. The study found that the effective dialogue should be able to encourage teachers to provide critical feedback on their teaching practices and professionalism. A dialog should contain five key strategies, namely: i) making recommendations ii) providing feedback, iii) modelling iv) investigating, getting advice and insights, and v) giving compliment. Meanwhile, the lowest mean was "curriculum development" and was at a moderate level of practice. According Glatthorn (1987), curriculum development is a joint effort among teachers which can be seen in three forms, namely; i) Curriculum Operation ii) Adaptation to setting and iii) Enrichment of developmental options. Participation in this session will be able to improve the ability of teachers in developing curricula and providing space for sharing ideas in teaching. This effort can be seen as a process of expanding the capacity of a teacher and not just limited only to the process of teaching and learning in the classroom. Teachers need to be given more exposure to the overall process of school management and possess the ability to establish credibility in administration and management in general.
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Table 4 Correlation between each type of Supervision Practices and Competence Development
Profesional Competency
Clinical Supervision .379**
Conceptual Supervision -.476**
Pearson Correlation Sig. .000 .000 (2-tailed) N 140 140 ** . Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).
Contextual Supervision .478**
Differentiated Supervision -.101
.000
.234
140
140
Table 4 shows the relationships of every type of supervisory practices with the development of professional competence. Contextual Supervision and Clinical Supervision recorded a positive relationship with coefficient (r = .478; 0.01). This means that the null hypothesis is accepted that there was no significant interaction effect between gender and race on metacognitive awareness (F = 0,483; df; 2; 146; p = 0.618). If you look at the size of the effect is very low ( = 0.007). Figure 1 below shows the effect of the interaction of gender with race and from a mean score of metacognitive awareness. Table 8: Two-way ANOVA analysis between gender and race against the mean score of metacognitive awareness The sum of Main Impact Squares Gender Race Gender*Race Error Total
Mean
F
Significant Eta
Square
Value
Level
Squared
0.579 0.979 0.125 0.129
4.472 3.781 0.483
0.030 0.025 0.618
0.030 0.049 0.007
Df
0.579 0.979 0.125 18.903 1657.656
** Significant at the level 0:01
1 2 2 146 152
709
Figure 1 graph interaction effects between gender and race against Metacognition Awareness Discussion Metacognitive awareness accounted dimensional planning, self-review and cognitive strategies. Overall, the study found students' metacognitive awareness is at a moderate level. When viewed in detail, as well students are metacognitive awareness at a moderate level for all three dimensions. This can be interpreted that the students are aware of why they do it and they are also aware of the mistakes made and try to fix it if necessary. They always make detection and reflection in everything they do. In fact, they can operate and monitor the work of the best. These findings are consistent with studies Effandi and Norliza (2009) who found metacognitive awareness dimensions of regulatory planning, information management, monitoring, debugging and evaluation strategy is at a moderate level. A little different from the study Effandi, Zainah and Sabri (2009), found that the level of students' metacognitive awareness is at a high level. Students also seen quite weak in figuring step solution. This can be seen from all three dimensions to the dimensions of metacognitive awareness of cognitive strategies showed the lowest mean score. While only a small difference, but it can show the real situation. This finding is also consistent with studies Saemah and Philips (2006), which found that there are still weaknesses among students in terms of their metacognitive abilities. His study found that the practice of regulation of cognition such as planning, monitoring and evaluating the least used by students. This failure also causes little or no need to fix the strategy used. These conditions will cause them to not realize what the strategy used is exactly happen and the metacognitive awareness also cannot be upgraded. Overall, student conceptual understanding of the topic is for simple fractions. This shows that students do not fully capture the concept of fractions that have been studied. The mean score of the basic concept of a mixed number is the lowest compared with other basic concept and the basic concept of the number is dominated by students even they are in modest levels. It can be concluded that students have a strong understanding of what is the basic concept of fractions. For fractional operations, the students remain at a moderate level at which the student is at and increased operational excellence at very low levels for multiplydivide operation. This indicates that students have not fully mastered the operations involving fractions. Researchers studied several papers diagnostic test subjects and found the respondents tried to use several diagrams to solve a given problem. However, such diagrams are still not able to help them find the right answers. It gives the impression that these questions are difficult to answer. Actually, this difficulty stems from their lack of understanding of the concept of fractions. While students have a good understanding when taught by involving
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concrete materials, but they still use the wrong steps when solving problems involving fractions. These findings support the study by Napiah and Salleh (2010) who noted the difficulty faced by students in mastering the basic concepts of fractions. Howard (1991) in his study also support and stated that students are generally very difficult to understand the concept of fractions and particularly difficult to do division and multiplication of fractions. Pothen (2011) showed no significant improvement in understanding the concept of fractions shown by eighth-grade students as compared to students in grade six. The basic concept is part of the overall chip is an idea that failed basic math by students. Results of the study Newstead and Murray (1998) are the same as other related studies. Based on the results of data analysis showed that Ho, the null hypothesis is accepted. This means, there is no significant relationship between metacognitive awareness and understanding of the concept of understanding in solving math problems for fractional topic. The relationship between students’ metacognitive awareness and understanding of concepts in solving math problems for fractions topics were analyzed using Pearson linear correlation. Analysis carried out on 152 samples of the relationship between metacognitive awareness and understanding of the concept and give a fraction of r equals 0.123, which is the low correlation (Pallant, 2013). Hence, there is a weak correlation between metacognitive awareness and students’ understanding of the concept in solving math problems for fractional topic. The weak link is happening because metacognition awareness owned by students are not able to help students understand the concept of fractions so that they are less successful in solving mathematical problems for the topic. The same also applies vice versa, where the students have a strong awareness of metacognition then students will be able to understand the concepts in solving math problems for fractional topic. This is because when the activities take place, the level of understanding has to do with the power of thought. High understanding related to the ability of superior thinking and encouraging (Azizah, Zarina and Rahman, 1995). To ensure the success of the concept effectively, students must understand the processes of solving the problem, which is the process of planning and metacognitive processes. This finding is consistent with Saemah and Phillips (2006), which states that a weak relationship between metacognitive awareness and understanding of the concept of a student solving a math problem. The hypothesis of the study indicated that there were significant differences between gender and race against metacognitive awareness. The findings of this study were collected using two-ways ANOVA. Based on the data analysis, this study showed that Ho accepted. This means, there are no significant differences between gender and race against metacognitive awareness. The results were obtained in studies Effandi et al. (2009), in which there was no significant difference in overall metacognitive awareness by gender. These findings also support the findings Suzana (2003) which stated that there were no significant differences in terms of metacognitive awareness in terms of gender. Tasir and Zakaria (2008) reported no significant differences in metacognitive awareness among boys and girls. While in terms of race, Ho also accepted that there were no significant differences in metacognitive awareness of the nation. The findings revealed that the Malays have higher metacognitive awareness, followed by the Chinese and Indians. The results also found that no significant interaction effect between gender and race against metacognitive awareness. Conclusion Overall, the students’ metacognitive awareness is at a moderate level. All three dimensions of metacognitive awareness at the intermediate level with the mean dimension of
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the design has a mean maximum, followed by self-check dimensions and dimensions of cognitive strategies. This shows the weak students to use their cognitive and problem solving. Teachers should play an important role in guiding students to use their cognitive while solving math problems. Moreover the concept understanding in solving mathematical problems also the topic fraction at a moderate level. The findings also showed that the students did not master the basic concepts of fractions and fractional operations. This is because the basic concepts and operations involving fractions is at average. Most notably basic concepts that cannot be controlled is the basic concept of equivalents. The basic concept is equivalent to require students to use tables when searching for answers. Because todays’ students are encouraged to use a calculator during the process of teaching and learning, the use of tables is too low. This results in students not able to apply the basic concepts of multiplication tables in equivalent. For fractional operations as well, the weakest students in mastering multiplication, division operations. Once again students will need tables to solve problems that involve the operation. Compared to additional operation, students are achieved the highest level. If you look at the way they work in these operations, almost all the students showed the same way that they equalize the denominators by multiplying the denominator with the denominator pairs. Perhaps this concept has been used from primary school. In addition, the findings also indicate that there is a low, positive and not significant between metacognitive awareness and understanding of concepts in solving math problems for fractional topic. This means that the lower the metacognitive awareness, the lower the student understanding of concepts in solving mathematical problems and the breakdown of topics applicable to the contrary. The results also showed that there was no significant difference between gender and race based on metacognitive awareness. Students are Malay and Chinese women have a higher metacognitive awareness of male students are Malays and Chinese. But it is different with Indian students. India male students slightly higher than their metacognitive awareness of Indian women. Teachers should guide students as more female students more often use their cognitive while solving math problems (Pintrich, 2000). The study also found that there is no significant interaction effect between gender and race against metacognitive awareness. This can be seen when there is no interaction between male and female students are Malays and Chinese but little interaction occurs between boys and girls are Indians. In conclusion, the role of teachers in mathematics teaching material presented must be more creative so that students are more robust in use metacognition they can also understand the concept of fractions in solving mathematical problems students. The information gained from this study will hopefully enlighten students with an understanding of the importance of learning math concepts. They should strive harder to understand the concept and instead of seeing mathematics as a subject who uses sheer numbers. But, mathematics is a subject that needs to use metacognition and strong understanding of the concept in the form of problem solving. Students should understand that teachers can play a role in developing their metacognitive explanations from teachers about what they think of what they have done. Students should realize the importance of metacognitive awareness in improving their mathematics performance. This is seen as metacognitive awareness is closely connected with the concept of a topic. In addition, students need to improve the interaction between them. Indirectly, communication skills can be improved. Students should have the courage to change to a more active learning environment, have the desire to work together between friends and compromise in the learning process. In fact, the need for students to work hard to master certain concepts in a subject taught by the teacher and keen to explore the topic with the courage to try different forms of questions to further enhance their metacognitive awareness.
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The Effect of Participation Instruction on ESL Students’ Speaking Skills and Language Anxiety Mohd Hilmi Hamzah 1, Thivya Asokan 2
[email protected],
[email protected] School of Education and Modern Languages 1 Universiti Utara Malaysia 2 Universiti Teknologi Malaysia
Abstract This study aims to investigate the extent to which Participation Instruction could help increase students’ classroom participation in speaking activities. It also seeks to examine the degree to which such an instruction could overcome students’ language anxiety in the context of learning English as a second language (ESL). Using an experimental design, two groups of secondary school students (experimental and control groups) were involved in the study. There were 15 students in each group. Participation Instruction served as a treatment for the experimental group in which three activities were designed to encourage oral participation from the students. The students’ participation was observed and assessed using a likert-scale classroom participation checklist. In order to examine the effect of language anxiety on classroom participation, the students in each group answered the questionnaires before and after the treatment. The findings from the classroom observations show that, for the experimental group, Participation Instruction had some effects on the students’ classroom participation. In terms of language anxiety, the results from the questionnaires indicate that this factor influenced the students’ participation in the classroom and Participation Instruction helped them overcome their anxieties. This study highlights the importance of Participation Instruction in language teaching in which English teachers are recommended to incorporate this teaching methodology in their English language lessons. Keywords: Participation Instruction, Language Anxiety, Speaking Skills, English Language Teaching, English as a Second Language Introduction Speaking reluctance is one of the common problems experienced by English language learners. Gan (2012) claims that students who learn English as a second language (L2) are usually passive and reluctant to speak in a classroom; they have difficulties in communicating and getting themselves involved in any speaking activities conducted during the speaking lessons. Le Thi Mai (2011) asserts that students lack the confidence and are shy to speak in English as they are afraid of losing face in front of their classmates who are more proficient. The students‟ speaking reluctance influences their participation in language learning and this situation can be considered as a major problem faced by many L2 learners (see, e.g., Mustafa et al., 2010). Therefore, participation instruction (PI) is one of the strategies that can potentially change students‟ participation behaviours and help them become more participative in the classroom (details of PI will be provided in the methodology section). It has been established that classroom participation promotes an active involvement in discussion, raising questions and answering questions (e.g., Jalongo et al., 1998). According to Fassinger (1995), participation is regarded as giving comments or offering questions
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during lessons. Thus, participation helps students become better learners of the language. Although classroom participation is seen as an important aspect of language learning, it is still proven by some researchers (e.g., Cortazzi & Jin, 1996) that students are poor participants in the language classroom. Poor classroom participation affects students‟ language learning process. According to Jalongo et al. (1998), participation in the classroom helps students perform better and they are able to master the course materials. Moreover, active students can perform better in classroom assessments such as tests, homework and examinations. Mustafa et al. (2010) claim that students who actively participate in the classroom are expected to get better results. Thus, poor participation may affect students‟ academic achievement. One of the factors causing poor participation is Language Anxiety (LA). It can be defined as a bad experience in which learners have to use an L2 or foreign language that they not fully proficient (Gardner & MacIntgre, 1993). Many researchers (Chastain, 1975; Liu, 2006; Oxford, 1999) have given both positive and negative remarks on the effect of LA. Furthermore, some researchers (Gardner, 1985; Gardner et al., 1997) have claimed that there is a connection between LA and academic achievement. Some argue that LA brings harm to speaking ability. For instance, it is believed that the more anxiety a learner has, the lower his or her performance will be. Despite all the negative remarks, there are also positive elements of LA. Liu (2006) and Oxford (1999) argue that anxiety can facilitate language learning and it brings positive thoughts to learners. Tsui (1996) asserts that learners are potentially motivated through anxiety, which is supported by Dornyei (2005) who claims LA possibly influences learners‟ determination to speak in English. Either way, LA is one of the potential factors that affect students‟ classroom participation. Thus, this study aims to investigate the extent to which PI can help increase students‟ classroom participation and overcome their LA. The specific objectives of this study are: 1. To investigate the degree to which Participation Instruction (PI) affects students‟ classroom participation; 2. To examine the extent to which Language Anxiety (LA) affects students‟ classroom participation. This study will focus on speaking reluctance and poor participation that occur among L2 students in the Malaysian context. According to several researchers (e.g., Cortazzi & Jin, 1996; Flowerdew & Miller, 1995; Jones, 1999; Tsui, 1996), Asian students are passive learners and seem to be reluctant to participate in classroom discourse. As a result, poor participation is projected within the language classroom. Through PI, solution will be recommended in terms of increasing the volume of students‟ participations and decreasing language anxiety. Tsou (2005) supports the use of PI because this instruction emphasizes explicit classroom expectations from both teachers and students. This is practised in order to inculcate active classroom participation among L2 learners. Thus, issues of classroom participation can be addressed if students are aware of the importance of improving their speaking skills. Thus, the present study will provide educators with methodologies or strategies to overcome students‟ poor classroom participation. To date, there are only a few studies investigating classroom participation from the students‟ perspective (e.g., Tatar, 2005). Therefore, it is important to explore classroom participation from students‟ perspective because it provides insight into their language learning. In the end, it is hoped that the current study will provide practical ways to help increase students‟ classroom participation and also overcome their anxiety when learning an L2 such as English language.
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Methodology Participants The respondents of this study were Form One students from an international school in Johor Bahru. They were selected using purposive sampling as this research targeted on secondary one students learning English in the school. All respondents were from various backgrounds, ethics and races. There were thirty form one students in two classes (15 per class). These students were non-native speakers of English with a low-intermediate proficiency level. They were all Malaysians and taught by the same teacher on different days. The teacher was a nonnative speaker of English and she had a background in Teaching English as a Second Language (TESL). Materials A classroom observation checklist was used to observe and assess students‟ participation in the classroom during the treatment. The checklist was adapted from Tatar‟s (2005) Learner Observation Checklist for Listening & Speaking Skills. It was used for each student from the control and experimental groups. Two classroom observations were conducted to assess students‟ participation before and after the implementation of PI with both groups. The checklist focused on the participation criteria of the classroom, particularly the level of engagement in the classroom. In order to explore the differences between control and experimental groups during pre- and post-treatments, a set of questionnaires were distributed. The questionnaires consisted of twenty items in which the respondents were asked about their thoughts and feelings when they learnt English in the classroom. The questionnaires were adapted from Horwitz et al.‟s (1986) Foreign Language Anxiety Classroom Scale (FLACS). Although the FLACS items were made of twelve domains, the present study only adapted one scale (i.e., Language Anxiety), which suited the purpose of this study. There were eight items for language anxiety. All the items were randomly arranged in the questionnaires. The researcher used the same questionnaires for both pre- and post-treatments in order to investigate the effects of LA on classroom participation. Data Collection PI was the independent variable in the language classroom. The PI approach used in this study was based on Kraemer‟s (1973) cultural self-awareness model. The activities conducted were from the teacher‟s initiative to encourage oral participation. The research procedure of this study is shown in Figure 1 below.
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Administrations of questionnaires
Classroom observation
Classroom observation
Phase 1
Phase 2
Administration s of questionnaires
Phase 3
Figure 1 Research Procedure The administration of the questionnaires was carried out by distributing thirty sets of the questionnaires to both experimental and control groups before the treatment. The second author then observed both groups in order to see how the students participated in the classroom before and after the treatment. The treatment (i.e., PI) was conducted on the experimental group in 8 weeks, which was divided into three phases, as follows: Phase 1 1.
2. 3.
Teacher shared with the students the expected and desired classroom participation behaviors. The expectations were that the students would ask questions whenever they had doubts and they were allowed to discuss with the teacher in the classroom. Teacher illustrated the benefits of small group discussions that provided space for practice. Teacher provided some instructions on how to use communication strategies such as taking/maintaining the floor, making clarifications, requesting for assistance and also indicating lack of understanding. Some useful phrases were taught such as “In my opinion...”, “Would you mind explaining that a little more, please?”, “What I‟m trying to say is…”, “I definitely agree with you”, “I suggest that we/you…” and many more.
Phase 2 1. 2. 3.
Teacher shared a video of an American classroom and asked students to spot effective participation behaviors. Both teacher and students had a discussion on Asian cultures and their expectations about students‟ and teachers‟ roles. Teacher then invited the academic coordinator to discuss her observation about Asian cultures and participation behaviors in the classroom.
Phase 3 Students were engaged in various activities such as mini-dramas, small group discussions and role-play. For the remaining weeks, the teacher repeated the phases 2 and 3 continuously through various different activities (e.g., debate). The control group did not receive any PI and they had normal English classes. During the in-class activities, the teacher observed the classroom in order to assess students‟ oral participation at the end of the treatment.
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Another administration of the questionnaires was carried out by distributing thirty sets of the questionnaire to both experimental and control groups after the treatment. The second author also observed both classrooms after the treatment in order to see how the students participated. Data Analysis An open-coding method was employed when analyzing the data from classroom observations. Generally, the open coding approach involved the process of analyzing the data in order to distinguish similarities and differences, to classify the data and compare them. Codes were also used in collecting and classifying a series of distinct events found in the data. Paired t-tests were applied to the questionnaires. Both sets of questionnaires were compared to assess both experimental and control groups‟ level of LA before and after the treatment. Paired t-tests were normally used to compare a group‟s scores before and after a treatment or an intervention (e.g., Wilkerson, 2008). Findings and Discussion Classroom Observations Due to space constraint, only the results for the experimental group are presented in this section. Figure 4.1 and Figure 4.2 show the percentage for the level of engagement for the experimental group before and after the treatment, respectively. As shown, there are five criteria in this category. The percentage of students who volunteered in group situations before the treatment was 27 percent, whereas after the treatment, 47 percent of the students almost always volunteered in group discussions. Some students were sharing more of their ideas than they did before the treatment. They were also open to sharing than keeping the ideas to themselves. According to Wade (1994), sharing of ideas among peers and being active participants during class discussion could help students‟ language development. Therefore, after the treatment, more students begun to volunteer in group situations. Next, before the treatment, 40 percent of the students sometimes had the confidence in practical tasks but they tended to be quiet in discussions or meetings. For the post-treatment, the percentage decreased to 27 percent. For instance, some students were willing to move around to complete the task although they were not part of the group discussions. Some students were confident in practical tasks but they behaved the opposite way in discussions or meetings.
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Figure 2: Level of Engagement (Pre-Treatment)
Figure 3: Level of Engagement (Post-Treatment)
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As mentioned in the data collection section, the experimental group was involved in many authentic and hands-on activities during the treatment. Therefore, before the treatment, 20 percent of these students were almost always reluctant to deal with people they didn‟t know. As expected, the treatment reduced the percentage to 0 percent as none of the students were reluctant. Besides that, before the treatment, the students sometimes (53 percent) were able to use the right technical term required for a topic. After the treatment, the same students seldom (53 percent) used the right technical term required for the same topic. Therefore, the eight weeks of treatment were not sufficient to equip the students with as many technical terms as possible. The percentage of the students volunteering answers increased from 27 percent to 47 percent as they were involved in more discussions during the treatment. Many students were, however, unable to contribute in classroom discussions although they knew the benefits of participation. Overall, the experimental group benefitted from the treatment and they showed some improvements in them. The level of engagement gradually enhanced and the students became more highly involved in classroom discussions and meetings. As for the control group, the students somewhat improved although they did not receive any treatment. They focused more on textbooks and workbooks and they were not exposed to any hands-on activities. Nevertheless, students showed some interests in learning the language. Questionnaires Table 1 and Table 2 show the statistical results based on the questionnaires. It can be observed in Table 1 that the mean score for the experimental group before the treatment was 64.53 and the mean score after the treatment was 76.13, indicating some effects of LA on students‟ classroom participation. Besides that, the mean score for the control group before the treatment was 50.87 and the mean score in week eight was 56.07. These also showed changes in the students‟ level of LA which could have affected their classroom participation. Table 1: Mean Scores for Experimental and Control Groups Exp
Cont
Pre Post
Pre Post
Mean 64.53 76.13 Mean 50.87 56.07
N 15 15
Std. Deviation Std. Error Mean 14.505 3.745 11.388 2.940
N 15 15
Std. Deviation Std. Error Mean 9.657 2.494 12.174 3.143
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Table 2: Paired t-test results
Cont Pre Post
Exp Pre Post
Paired Differences 95% Confidence Interval of the Difference Std. Std. Error Mean Deviation Mean Lower Upper t df -5.200 6.930 1.789 -9.038 -1.362 -2.906 14
Sig. (2tailed) .012
Paired Differences 95% Confidence Interval of the Difference Std. Std. Error Mean Deviation Mean Lower Upper t df -11.600 10.861 2.804 -17.615 -5.585 -4.136 14
Sig. (2tailed) .001
The t-test results displayed in Table 2 indicate strong evidence that the PI treatment provided ways for LA to affect classroom participation for the experimental group (t = -4.136, p < 0.001). As for the control group, the effect of LA on students‟ classroom participation was rather weak (t = -2.906 and p = 0.012). Specific results of the questionnaires focusing on the effect of LA for the experimental group are illustrated in Table 3 (Pre-Treatment) and Table 4 (Post-Treatment). For item 3, before the treatment, 6 students (40 percent) strongly disagreed that they would tremble when they knew that they were going to be called on in English class. On the other hand, after the treatment, most students (40 percent) felt otherwise. For item 9, out 15 students, 6 students (40 percent) disagreed that they felt anxious even if they were well prepared for English class. Whereas, after the treatment, 7 of them (46.67 percent) agreed that he or she felt anxious even if he or she was well prepared for English class. Next, 7 students (46.67 percent) disagreed for item 11 in which they felt their heart pounding when they were going to be called on in the English class. Whereas, after the treatment, 6 students (40 percent) agreed with that statement. For item 14, majority of the students (40 percent) felt unsure whether English class sometimes moved quickly and they were worried about getting left behind. There were only slight changes after the treatment in which 46.67 percent of the students felt the same way. As for item 17, 6 students (40 percent) agreed that they felt nervous when the English teacher asked questions which they hadn‟t prepared in advance. After the treatment, many students (53.33 percent) disgreed with this statement. Next, 33.33 percent of the students agreed for item 18 in which they felt anxious when taking part in group discussion. Whereas after the treatment, 46.67 percent of the students disagreed that they felt anxious when taking part in group discussions. For item 19, before the treatment, 53.33 percent of the students in English class tended to forget how to say things they knew. After the treatment, only 20 percent of the students still forgot how to say things they knew in English class.
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Table 3: Language anxiety (Pre-Treatment)
Item Statement I tremble when I 3 know that I‟m going to be called on in English class. Even if I am well 9 prepared for English class, I feel anxious about it. 11 I can feel my heart pounding when I am going to be called on in my English class. 14 English class moves so quickly I worry about getting left behind.
17
18
19
20
1 0
2 2
3 2
4 5
5 6
0%
13.33%
13.33%
33.33%
40%
0
1
3
6
5
0%
6.67%
20%
40%
33.33%
0
1
1
7
6
0%
6.67%
6.67%
46.67%
40%
0
0
6
4
5
0%
0%
40%
26.67%
33.33%
Mean
Std.D
4.00
1.07
4.00
.93
4.20
.86
3.93
.88
I get nervous when 1 6 3 3 2 the English teacher ask questions which 2.93 6.67% 20% 20% 13% 40% I haven‟t prepared in advance. I feel anxious when 0 5 4 4 2 taking part in a 3.20 group discussion in 0% 33.33% 26.67% 26.67% 13.33% class. In my English 0 8 5 1 1 class, I forget how 2.67 to say things I 0% 6.67% 53.33% 33.33% 6.67% know. I feel more tense 0 3 3 4 5 and nervous in my 3.73 English class than 0% 20% 20% 26.67% 33.33% in my other classes 1=Strongly Agree; 2=Agree; 3=Neutral; 4=Disagree; 5=Strongly Disagree
1.22
1.08
.90
1.16
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Table 4: Language anxiety (Post-Treatment) Item Statement 3 I tremble when I know that I‟m going to be called on in English class. 9 Even if I am well prepared for English class, I feel anxious about it. 11 I can feel my heart pounding when I am going to be called on in my English class. 14 English class moves so quickly I worry about getting left behind. 17
18
19
20
I get nervous when the English teacher ask questions which I haven‟t prepared in advance. I feel anxious when taking part in a group discussion in class.
1 0
2 6
3 2
4 2
5 5
Mean Std.D
0%
40%
0
7
0
3
5
0%
46.67%
0%
20%
33.33%
1
6
2
3
3
6.67%
40%
13.33%
20%
20%
0
0
7
4
4
0%
0%
13.33% 13.33% 33.33%
46.67% 26.67% 26.67%
0
1
3
8
3
0%
6.67
20%
53.33%
20%
1
1
0
7
6
6.67%
6.67%
0%
46.67%
3.40
1.35
3.40
1.40
3.07
1.33
3.80
.86
3.87
.83
4.07
1.16
40%
In my English class, 0 3 2 6 4 I forget how to say 3.73 0% 20% 13.33% 20% 26.67% things I know. I feel more tense 0 1 2 5 7 and nervous in my 4.20 English class than 0% 6.67% 13.33% 33.33% 46.67% in my other classes 1=Strongly Agree; 2=Agree; 3=Neutral; 4=Disagree; 5=Strongly Disagree
1.10
.94
Overall, the mean score increased for each item and this showed an improvement in their language anxiety. Therefore, language anxiety is the major factor that affects student‟s classroom participation. As for the control group, although the students did not receive any treatment, the mean score of the items had inconsistent changes in which some students overcame their language anxiety and some students remained the same for the entire eight weeks.
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For item 20, 33.33 percent of the students strongly disagreed that they felt more tense and nervous in their English class than in their other classes. After the treatment, the percentage increased to 46.67 percent of the students who strongly disagreed with the same statement. Therefore, most students did not feel more tense and nervous in their English class than in their other classes. Conclusion This study was conducted to investigate the degree to which Participation Instruction (PI) affected students‟ classroom particiation and examine the extent to in which Language Anxiety (LA) affected their engagement in the classroom. Data gathered from classroom observations show that PI had some effects on students‟ classroom participation. Most of the students were able to overcome their anxieties and they managed to participate in class discussions. The reasons for the improvements are that teacher and students shared their expectations and they were reminded about the expectations throughout the eight weeks of the treatment. The students had the goal to meet the expectations and the English teacher modified the lessons according to the needs of the students. Besides, the students also watched a few videos of American classrooms in which students actively participated in the classroom. Moreover, the students in the experimental group were exposed to various fun activities. As for the second research question, through the questionnaires, it can be concluded that LA affected classroom participation in which students managed to overcome most of their anxieties. If PI is integrated into regular English language teaching, students‟ classroom participation will not only improve, their anxieties towards English classroom will also become lesser, as shown in the questionnaire results. PI is vital to those students who come from a passive classroom participation background such as the students in this study. Besides that, PI creates an opportunity for students and teachers to share the differences in their classroom expectations. Moreover, the sharing of the expectations directed students towards expected classroom participation behaviours. Furthermore, PI is also believed to reduce conflicts between teachers and students and this helps align their expectations. Sharing expectations also help create a mutual understanding that allows students to feel more confident and comfortable in participating in classroom discussions. Therefore, PI can easily be incorporated into English language lessons. It was evident in this study that the students improved their classroom participation. Therefore, it is suggested that English language teachers need to identify the reasons behind Asian students‟ reticence and therefore create activities used in PI to change students‟ perceptions and behaviours when it comes to classroom participation. Besides, English language teachers should provide ample opportunities for students to practice and use the language in the classroom. According to Tsou (2005), language teachers need not to worry about allocating extra time for PI since it allows a smooth integration into existing English classes. Therefore, it is hoped that issues on speaking reluctance can be appropriately handled and more learning outcomes can be achieved. Further investigations involving a larger group of students are recommended. That is, having a larger sample size would help make the data more concrete and provide better findings. Another research area that can be done by future researchers is to study the challenges faced by teachers to make students participate in the classroom. These findings could also contribute to the search of various methodologies to reduce students‟ language anxieties and make them better participants in English classrooms. Thus, students‟ language anxieties and speaking reluctance could be well managed and classroom participation can be improved.
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References Chastain, K. (1975). Affective and ability factors in second-language acquisition. Language Learning. 25, 1, 153-61. Cortazzi, M. & Jin, L. (1996). Cultures of learning: language classrooms in China. In Coleman, H. (Ed.), Society and the Language Classroom. Cambridge University Press, pp. 169-206. Dornyei, Z. (2005) The Psychology of the Language Learner: Individual Differences in Second Language Acquisition. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Fassinger, P.A. (1995). Professors' and students' perceptions of why students participate in class. Teaching Sociology, 24, 25-33. Flowerdew, J. & Miller, L. (1995). On the notion of culture in L2 lectures. TESOL quarterly, 29(2), 345-373. Gan, Z. (2012). Understanding L2 Speaking Problems: Implications for ESL Curriculum Development in a Teacher Training Institution in Hong Kong. Australian Journal of Teacher Education, 37(1), 43–59. Gardner, R. C. (1985). Social psychology and second language learning. The role of attitudes and motivation. London: Edward Arnold. Gardner, R. C. & MacIntyre, P.D. (1993). On the measurement of affective variables in second language learning. Language Learning,43, 157-194 Gardner, R. C., Tremblay, P. F., & Masgoret, A. (1997). Towards a full model of second language learning: An empirical investigation. The Modern Language Journal. 81, 3, 344-62 Horwitz, E. K., Horwitz, M. B., & Cope, J. A. (1986). Foreign language classroom anxiety. The Modern Language Journal, 70(2), 125-132. Jalongo, M., Tweist, M., Gerlack, G., & Skoner, D. (1998). The College Learner. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Merrill. Jones, J. (1999). From silence to talk: cross-cultural ideas on students‟ participation in academic group discussion. English for Specific Purposes, 18(3), 243-259. Kraemer, A. (1973). Development of a cultural self-awareness approach to instruction in intercultural communication (Report 73-1 7). Arlington, VA: H.R.R.O. Le Thi Mai. (2011). An investigation into factors that hinder the participation of university students in English speaking lessons. M.A Thesis: English Teaching Methodology; Code: 60 14 10. Liu, M. (2006). Anxiety in EFL classrooms: Causes and consequences. TESL Reporter, 39(1), 13-32. Mustapha, S. M., Rahman, N. S. N. A., & Md.Yunus, M. (2010). Factors influencing classroom participation: a case study of Malaysian undergraduate students. Procedia Social and Behavioral Sciences, 9, 1079–1084. Oxford, R. (1999). Anxiety and the language learner: New insights. In J.Arnold (Ed.), Affect in language learning (pp.58-67). Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press. Tatar, S. (2005). Why keep silent? The classroom participation experiences of non-nativeEnglish-speaking students. Language and Intercultural Communication, 5, 284-293. Tsou, W. (2005). Improving speaking skills through the instruction in oral classroom participation. Foreign Language Annals, 38(1), 46–55. Tsui, A. (1996). Reticence and anxiety in second language learning. In Bailey, K., Nunan, D. (Eds.), Voices from the Language Classroom. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 145-167.
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Wade, R. C. (1994). Teacher education students‟ views on class discussion: Implications for fostering critical reflection. Teaching and Teacher Education, 10, 231–243. Wilkerson, S. (2008). Application of the Paired t-test. Xavier University Of Louisiana’S Undergraduate Research Journal, 5(1).
Mobile Learning Usage in Teaching and Learning in Education: Review of Research Ismaliza binti Ismail1, Norasykin binti Mohd Zaid1
[email protected],
[email protected] 1 Department of Educational Science, Mathematics and Creative Multimedia, Faculty of Education, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia,81310 Johor Bahru, Johor.
Abstract This review examined articles on mobile learning usage in teaching and learning in education published from 2000 to 2015. Mobile devices such as laptops, personal digital assistants, and mobile phones have become attractive learning tools with great potential in both classrooms and outdoor learning environment in support of better network technology has increased the interest on mobile learning in education. However, the articles related to this education system were inconsistent from year to year. As a result, this study aims to review the research on the usage of mobile learning for teaching and learning in education by: 1) identifying the trends of mobile learning usage for teaching and learning in education, including the user, selection of domain subject, and the types of technology are being used, 2) quantifying the overall beneficial and effectiveness while using mobile learning for teaching and learning in education on student learning score and 3) synthesizing the challenges and difficulties of using a mobile learning for teaching and learning in education. These findings have been interpreted to determine their implications on the development of mobile learning experiences in teacher education, including programmatic directions for integration and study. Keywords: Mobile Learning, Teaching and Learning, Mobile Devices, Learning Environment Introduction Over the last two decades, mobile devices (such as mobile phones, iPad, Laptop and PDA) and networked technology has improved drastically from time to time. The electronic devices in global markets are designed in a portable form, affordable price and multifunctional with superior capabilities and qualities. The spread of this phenomenon was also supported by wide coverage of rapid networked technology thus their emergence reshaped people lifestyle in a variety ways including educational field. Mobile learning categorized as a teaching and learning process by using portable devices such as mobile phone, iPad, iPod, tablet or PDA to transfer the contents (Menkhoff & Lars, 2012; Oberg, & Daniels, 2013; Bruce-Low, et al., 2013). A number of previous studies has been identified that mobile devices usage has become accustomed among a large age group according to capability and accessibility (Newhouse, Williams, & Pearson, 2006). Apart from that, Johnson et al. (2011) discovered significant investments have been conducted to provide many aspects: 1) infrastructures, 2) contents and, 3) resources related to the integration of the mobile devices into teaching and learning environments. Kulkuska-Hulme et al. (2009) had build their interest to involve in this field due to those three aspects. Some community have assume mobile learning as a main pedagogical elements in higher education (El-Hussien & Cronje, 2010). Nevertheless, the usage of mobile devices in regards of educational field possess several limitations such as lack of communication among the users. These limitations had
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lead to several main issues such as in integrating formal educational content into mobile learning context, and last but not least, lack of support and training by educators (Cochrne, 2012; Peng et al., 2009). Ekanayake and Wishart (2014) stated that educators support and training have been compulsory topics in mobile learning research for a long period. Basically mobile learning is under-theorized in teaching and learning environments as mentioned by Kearney and Maher (2013) , thus the need to apprise educators of the benefit of integrating old fashioned teaching and learning style into mobile technologies, and how to integrate them effienctly into their classes (Schuck et al., 2013). Purposes of this study In the context of this background, the main goal of this study was to perform a review of the research on the usage of mobile learning for teaching and learning in education published in the last 1 decade. The purposes of this study were as follows: 1. To identify the trends of mobile learning usage for teaching and learning in education, including the user, selection of domain subject, and the types of technology are being used. 2. To quantify the overall beneficial and effectiveness while using mobile learning for teaching and learning in education on student learning score. 3. To synthesize the challenges and difficulties of using a mobile learning for teaching and learning in education. Research Methodology Data Sources and search strategy Several journal articles published in 2000-2015 were searched electronically. Three groups of keywords were used in the initial reference searched. The first group is related to mobile learning, such as mobile learning usage, integrating mobile learning, and mobile learning in education (yielded 10 results). The second group is related to mobile learning beneficial, mobile learning effectiveness in teaching and learning, and how mobile learing effected to student score (yielded 10 results) while the third group related to challanges and difficulties of using a mobile learning for teaching and learning in education (yielded 11 results). These search groups were applied to Google Scholar and the following primary research journals:
Australasian Journal of Educational Technology Australian Educational Computing
British Journal of Educational Technology Canadian Center of Science and Education Computer Computer Assisted Language Learning
Computers & Education
International Journal of Business and Social Science The Journal of Open, Distance and e-Learning Research in Learning Technology Scientific Journal of Education Technology Teacher Development Journal of Technology and Teacher Education Journal of Science Education & Technology
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Contemporary Educational Technology Educational Media International
Educational Research
Educational Research for Policy and Practice Educational Sciences: Theory & Practice Educational Technology & Society
Innovations in Education & Teaching International Interdisciplinary Journal of Practice, Theory, and Applied Research International Education Studies
Journal of Research in Innovative Teaching Journal of Education & Human Development Journal of Digital Learning in Teacher Education Journal of Computer Assisted Learning International Journals of Computers and Communications Knowledge Management & ELearning: An International Journal International Journal on New Trends in Education and Their Implications International Journal of Mobile and Blended Learning International Journal of Interactive Mobile Technology
All of the 31 articles were selected based on requirement of the reseachers to develop the mobile learning first, then applied and tested to obtain the findings either it came out beneficial or not. Majorities of the articles in this review used case study and mixed method to conduct their research comprising of 48% of them used observation type of data sources for collecting data followed by video or audio recording and interviews, 31% focused on survey type of data sources and 21% used questionnaires, writing materials or tests. It can be observed that more than 50% researchers chose mobile phone as technology devices to integrate their learning as mobile learning. The rest of them preferred to use an iPad, tablet, iPod, PDA or laptop to run their mobile learning research project. Findings and Discussions Several main findings emerged as a result of the research synthesis of the selected articles on mobile learning for teaching and learning purpose, outlined below in terms of trends year by year included beneficial and effectiveness, and challenges in education environment. Trends in the mobile learning for teaching and learning literature As demonstrated in Figure 1, among the 3 types of education systems, the highest numbers of articles (8 articles) have been published in 2014 while the lowest (0 article) published in 2012. In general, there were consistency in 2000 to 2011 articles have been published (1-2 articles) for mobile learning and augmented reality due to the burden related to budget, maintenance, availability and affordability (Fetaji, et al., 2011).
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Figure 1: Publication trends for mobile learning, social media and augmented reality from 2000 to 2015 However, in 2012, the number of articles for the usage of mobile learning in education dropped in line with the increase of interest towards social media. The major contributing factors were the emergence of mobile devices such as Android and Apple in market with low cost, easy to use and variety of function affected the trend of mobile learning in education (Hussin et al., 2012; Pollara, & Kee Broussard, 2011; Jacob & Isaac, 2008). It clearly indicated that cost and capability of mobile devices as well as networked technology in particular period of time play significant roles whereby in year 2000 to 2011 (higher cost and relatively lower capabilities of mobile devices and networked technology) compared to year 2012 to 2015 (lower cost and relatively higher capabilities of mobile devices and networked technology). In 2012 to 2015, the number of articles related to social media and augmented reality were relatively increased. In contrast, the articles related to mobile learning observed significant drop in 2014 to 2015. Paulsen (2013) expressed that social media network such as Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and WhatsApp highly demand used in teaching and learning during this period which is used by many people to interact with each other and share information and knowledge. The growth of social media popularity is contributed by several reasons. Other than serving as interactive media sharing, discussion and messaging tools, all these services were mostly provided by free-of-charge. Quite interestingly, users just have to create free account and could invite many groups of people whom share common interests (Juang, 2010; Barcelos & Batista 2013; Moran et al., 2011). Saedd et al. (2009) also agreed that social media could increase on student engagement and affect on their academic performance. Welch and Bonnan-White (2012) has reported a number of students used Twitter to share information, resources and media relating to courseware that they had learned in class. Others crucial part whereas mobile learning is a passive learning which manage one-way communication type only. The users can express their question or opinion via this method, nevertheless did not get the response from others quickly compared to social media network group discussion. Therefore, the mobile learning usage is not compatible compared to social media network so that, the research development in mobile learning suffered decline.
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Meanwhile, Jiang, (2014) and Xie & Ma, (2008) also proved that the popularity and usage of mobile learning drop as a emergence of other new technology known as augmented reality which is an interaction of computer graphical ability with a real world object. It visualizes a complex component in teaching and learning into a simple way technique that can increase a student understanding on that topic (Azuma, 1997; Azuma et al., 2001; Billinghurst & Dünser, 2012). Apart from that, it is totally new and trending in educational technology which is attracted many researchers to conduct and develop a learning application and examined the effectiveness the used of augmented reality in education. However, social media network is more reliable and affordable for many studies since the cost of that is free and everyone can use it as long as they register the account even more than one account (Billinghurst & Dünser, 2012). Mobile learning is indicated as beneficial and effectiveness for teaching and learning in education on student learning score The case study carried out by Aubusson (2009) proved that mobile learning provides a positive way in developing and reaching the teaching and learning objectives. Previous research was conducted by (Burton et al., 2011; Cushing, 2011; Foulger et al., 2013; Franklin et al., 2007; Gado et al., 2006; Herro et al., 2013; McCaughtry & Dillon, 2008) also agreed that mobile learning generally considered as a beneficial approach for teaching and learning while could increased on student engagement and affect on their academic performance. In addition, Herro et al. (2013) had identified mobile learning in educational will be an interesting and interactive pedagogical strategy. Then, the researchers came out with a list of the benefits in terms of pedagogical application using mobile learning from the previous literature in teacher education contexts mainly gave a lot of positive contributions. Mobile devices were expected to have potential for helping educators to understand, manage and create new projects (Husbye & Elsener, 2013), explore mathematics in the real environment (Shotsberger, 2003; Kearney & Maher, 2013), conduct scientific studies (Gado et al., 2006), participates in language learning contexts (Mahruf et al., 2010); and explore real environment in physical education (McCaughtry & Dillon, 2008). Interestingly, the way classrooms are organized within teacher education programs by increasing mobility by using these tools can fundamentally changed (Price et al., 2014). In fact, mobile learning also could help build closer relationships as well as more personalized learning experiences for users as needs change over time (Crippen & Brooks, 2000; Herro et al., 2013; Kommers, 2009). With the help of growing development of mobile learning as well as the various functions, learning experience through this method becoming more interesting in getting their ideas, presenting contents style, and create user‟s own knowledge (Kultawanich, 2011; Tiryakioglu & Erzurum, 2011; Wannapiroon & Supa, 2012; Nilsook & Wannapiroon, 2012). According to Aubusson et al. (2009) has focused on creating a stimulating for class environment by using a mobile learning as a tools to replace existence teaching and learning method. Later, research by Welch and Bonnan-White (2012) further strengthens this fact. The challenges and difficulties of using a mobile learning for teaching and learning in education Among the challenges and difficulties of using mobile learning in education related to mobile learning integration including lack of budget, poor experience, mobile phone accessibility in school and emergence of social media network (Foulger et al., 2013). Mahruf
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et al. (2010) agreed that mobile learning usage as we noticed earlier required a cost related to the needs for technical and material support while educators indeed received minimal budget and assistance from department of educational institutions with concern to potential of implementation of mobile learning in teacher education (Foulger et al., 2013; Cushing, 2011). Lack of support regarding the policies could also underestimates teachers‟ perceptions regarding the effectiveness of using mobile devices as a tools to replace a conventional learning method (Ismail et al., 2013), as well as inadequate finance (Herro et al., 2013). Moreover, poor expertise in integrating mobile learning technologies was also contribute a difficulties to apply it into teaching and learning purpose (Foulger et al., 2013; Valtonen et al., 2011). Previous research has recommended that mobile technologies need to be used as tools for enhancing teacher skills in technology devices experiences, apparently used just add-on knowledge for its own reason only (Husbye & Elsener, 2013). Definitely, mobile learning course must be relevant for all teacher education programme, not strictly for educational technology courses (Foulger et al., 2013). Certainly, Herro et al. (2013) stated the best solutions regarding preparing educator candidates for the mobile devices as a learning tool is a definite barrier. According to Ismail et al., (2013), other crucial challenge identified was the forbidding of mobile phone usage within schools as a concern for safety and deterioration in performance, at the end it may triggering teachers‟ perspectives regarding mobile learning usage in their classes soon. Instead it also could hinder them from create any attempt to that end. Another challenge noted was the emergence of social media network, the study conducted by Al-Rahmi et. al., (2014) stated that the social media have attracted huge crowd of people. Das and Sahoo (2011) concluded the most fundamental factors of students participated in social media. First, it gives them opportunity to express their thought and second, more freedom and self-esteem. Additionally, the social media is not only accessible by a computer or laptop, but also mobile phone, tablet and other gadgets which allow them to access the social media easily, quickly and almost everywhere with wide internet connection nowadays (Purcell 2011; Smith, 2011; Moran, Seaman & Tinti-Kane, 2011). Compared to other online learning schemes (such as E-Learning), the social media gives slightly more convenience reasons to use. By using the same login information, the users can create group for particular subject which can be more than one group. Then, all these groups are synchronized by a single notification system. As a result, the users are more comfortable to access their account social media frequently. Conclusion This paper attempts to review a number of articles related to mobile learning for teaching and learning in education is mainly towards on significant aspect in mobile learning and a lack of syntheses in the context development of teaching and learning pedagogical in education. Findings are noted as well as the techniques and approaches for implementing mobile learning and mobile devices in varied of teaching and learning contexts. First, the review revealed that the number of articles published has increased dramatically in year 2013 and 2014. This trend is slightly consistent in 2000 to 2010 as an early period of mobile device emergence, along with findings of review on mobile learning from Hwang and Tsai, (2011) and Wu et al., (2012). Second, the existing studies reviewed support that mobile learning provides a positive way and beneficial in developing and reaching the teaching and learning objectives. Third, survey studies revealed that challenges and difficulties of using mobile learning in education related to mobile learning integration including lack of budget, poor experience, mobile phone accessibility in schools, and emergence of social media network.
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Pendekatan Belajar Melalui Bermain Dan Kepentingannya Terhadap Kemahiran Sosial Kanak-Kanak : Satu Sorotan Kajian Siti Maleka Binti Osman1, Zakiah Mohamad Ashari2, Nuryusra Ibrahim Kutty2, Sakinah Abdullah2, Nur Basyirah Abd Jabar2
[email protected],
[email protected],
[email protected],
[email protected],
[email protected] 1 Fakulti Pendidikan, Open University Malaysia 2 Fakulti Pendidikan, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia
Abstrak Pendidikan prasekolah adalah asas pendidikan negara di Malaysia. Kurikulum pendidikan prasekolah dirangka dan dirancang dengan teliti agar ianya bersesuaian dengan fitrah kanak-kanak. Bermain dan belajar adalah pendekatan yang terbaik bagi membangunkan mental, emosi dan kognitif kanak-kanak. Berdasarkan kepada objektif kurikulum pendidikan prasekolah, kajian ini dijalankan untuk mengenalpasti kepetingan pelaksanaan penekatan belajar melalui bermaian terhadap kemahiran sosial kanak-kanak prasekolah. Dalam kertas kerja ini, pengkaji merujuk kepada teori yang diasaskan oleh Jean Piaget, Vygotsky,Sara Smilansky dan Mildren Parten sebagai rujukan bagi mengenalpasti jenis-jenis permainan dan aktiviti bermain yang dilakukan kanak-kanak. Aktiviti bermain yang dilakukan kanak-kanak akan menjadikan kanak-kanak berinteraksi antara satu sama lain dan ianya akan meningkatkan kemahiran sosial mereka. Kemahiran sosial amat penting diterapkan kepada kanak-kanak kerana mereka adalah khazanah negara yang perlu dididik dan dipelihara untuk kelestarian keharmonian rakyat berbilang kaum di Malaysia. Antara objektif kajian ini ialah untuk mengenalpasti peningkatan kemahiran sosial kanak-kanak melalui pendekatan belajar melalui bermain. Kajian ini dijalankan secara kualitatif ke atas 20 orang kanak-kanak di salah sebuah pra sekolah Kementerian Pendidikan Malaysia di Johor Bahru. Social Skill Rating System (SSRS) digunakan sebagai alat ukur utama dalam kajian ini. Kata Kunci: belajar melalui bermain, kemahiran sosial, prasekolah. Pengenalan Pendekatan belajar melalui bermain telah disarankan oleh Pusat Perkembangan Kurikulum (2003) sebagai pendekatan yang terancang dan berstruktur untuk memberi peluang kepada kanak-kanak untuk belajar dalam suasana yang menggembirakan dan bermakna. Siti Fatimah Ali (2012) berpendapat belajar melalui bermain ialah satu teknik dalam proses pengajaran dan pembelajaran yang berkesan dan dapat mendatangkan keseronokan serta kepuasan yang bermakna kepada kanak-kanak. Selain dari itu, belajar melalui bermain juga akan membantu kanak-kanak untuk mengatasi kebimbangan dan konflik dalam kehidupan seharian dan secara tidak langsung akan meningkatkan penghargaan kendiri (Santrock 2004). Seterusnya Rubin dan Clark (1983) pula menyatakan bahawa kanak-kanak yang terlibat dengan permainan sosial akan lebih akrab dengan rakan-rakan dan ibu bapa berbanding dengan kanak-kanak yang tidak terlibat dengan permainan sosial. Kemahiran sosial kanak-kanak akan terbentuk melalui aktiviti bermain di prasekolah. Berdasarkan kepada kenyataan Smidt (2010), apabila kanak-kanak berinteraksi antara satu sama lain semasa bermain, kanak-kanak belajar kemahiran sosial seperti bertolak ansur,
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bekerjasama dan berkongsi sesuatu. Secara tidak langsung, kanak-kanak telah belajar sesuatu yang bermakna walaupun ketika bermain. Kemahiran-kamahiran ini memudahkan kanakkanak membina keyakinan diri dan membentuk peribadi yang positif dalam diri mereka. Hal ini ada dirangka dalam kurikulum Prasekolah Kebangsaan 2007 iaitu keupayaan mengurus emosi diri sendiri membolehkan murid memahami emosi, keperluan dan menghormati pandangan orang lain untuk membina kemahiran sosial dalam masyarakat berbilang kaum yang mesra dan harmoni. Nyanyian, gerakan kognitif, bahan bantu mengajar dan bahan-bahan permainan adalah antara medium yang digunakan guru-guru pra sekolah untuk menerapkan kemahiran sosial kanak-kanak seperti yang oleh dinyatakan oleh Hughes (1999). Selain dari itu, tokoh Islam Al-Ghazali (1988), juga menyatakan bahawa belajar melalui bermain akan mempertingkatkan motivasi kanak-kanak untuk belajar. Maka, segala bahan dan perlakuan kanak-kanak ketika bermain itu merupakan satu aktiviti normal dalam perkembangan seorang manusia. Oleh itu, pendidikan pra sekolah merupakan medium utama sebagai kesediaan kanakkanak untuk melangkah ke alam persekolahan sebenar (Saturia Amiruddin,2014). Kanakkanak yang mempunyai kemahiran dan perkembangan yang baik akan lebih bersedia untuk memasuki alam persekolahan (Maxweel&Clifford, 2004). Persediaan mereka juga turut dipengaruhi dengan sokongan keluarga dan persekitaran kanak-kanak. (Maxweel & Clifford, 2004). Objektif Pada dasarnya kajian ini merupakan sebahagian daripada penyelidikan dan kertas kerja ini bertujuan untuk mengenalpasti kepentingan pelaksanaan pendekatan belajar melalui bermain terhadap kemahiran sosial kanak-kanak prasekolah. Konsep Bermain Konsep bermain boleh digambarkan sebagai satu aktiviti yang dipilih sendiri, dan disesuaikan dengan minat kanak-kanak, keseronokan mereka dan kepuasan mereka ketika bermain (Ismail Abdul Fatai O et.al, 2014). Berdasarkan kepada kajian Sharifah Nor Puteh dan Aliza Ali ( Jurnal Pendidikan, 2011) telah menggariskan beberapa jenis permainan yang dilakukan oleh kanak-kanak ketika bermain. Jenis-jenis permainan tersebut dapat diklasifikasikan seperti berikut : 1) Permainan motor/fizikal Pendidikan fizikal adalah sebahagian daripada proses pendidikan yang berlaku melalui pengalaman dalam pelbagai situasi (Doherty&Brennan, 2008). Kemahiran motor terbahagi kepada dua iaitu kemahiran motor kasar dan kemahiran motor halus. 2) Permainan sosial Smidt (2010) menerangkan bahawa kanak-kanak berinteraksi antara satu sama lain semasa bermain, kanak-kanak telah belajar untuk bersosial seperti bertolak ansur, bekerjasa sama dan belajar untuk berkongsi sesuatu. Permainan jenis ini dilakukan dalam kumpulan atau individu. Permainan ini akan meningkatkan tahap kemahiran sosial kanak-kanak.
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3) Permainan konstruktif Permainan jenis ini akan berlaku apabila kanak-kanak membina sesuatu dengan memanipulasi persekitaran. Menurut Roopnarine & Johnson, (2005) aktiviti ini melibatkan aktiviti seperti menganyam, menggentel, melipat dan menyulam. Segala bentuk permaianan yang melibatkan seni kraf merupakan permainan konstruktif. Melalui permainan ini, kanak-kanak dapat memanipulasi idea, konsep dan pendapat. Permainan ini juga akan meningkatkan kreativiti kanak-kanak. 4) Permainan fantasi Permainan ini adalah beradasarkan fantasi kanak-kanak itu sendiri. Kanak-kanak cepat mempelajari sesuatu jika ianya berkaitan dengan imaginasi kanak-kanak. Melalui permainan berdasarkan fantasi ini, ianya membantu meningkatkan kemahiran sosial kanak-kanak dengan lebih baik. Semasa permainan fantasi, kanak-kanak akan bertindak bagaimana hendak menggambarkan karakter yang sesuai dalam sesuatu situasi itu. Mereka akan menggunakan bahasa dan imaginasi mereka bagi menyatakan idea, konsep dan keinginan. 5) Permainan mengikut peraturan Permainan seperti catur, dam, kad dan monopoli akan membantu kanak-kanak untuk mengikut peraturan. Melalui permaianan ini, kanak-kanak akan mempelajari cara-cara bagaimana untuk mengikut peraturan, menyesuaikan diri dan menyelesaikan masalah Sehubungan itu, Saidah Bahrin (2012) menyatakan bahawa permainan boleh digunakan pada semua peringkat sukatan pelajaran bahasa dan dapat melibatkan murid-murid dari sekolah rendah hingga kepada orang dewasa. Manakala, menurut Theresa Caplan dan Frank Caplan (1973), bermain sebagai penentu penting bagi perkembangan kekuatan sahsiah, daya cipta, kestabilan emosi, perkembangan sosial dan intelek di samping dapat memperkembangkan kekuatan fizikal, koordinasi dan ketangkasan seorang murid.Oleh sebab itu, aktiviti bermaian disaran penggunaannya didalam dan luar bilik darjah kanak-kanak supaya mereka boleh menambah pengalaman, menjana idea dan membina konsep pengetahuan yang baru. Bermain dapat memberi kesan yang mendalam terhadap kemahiran sosial kanak-kanak. Sepertimana yang dijelaskan oleh Ismail Abdul Fatai O., et.al(2014) iaitu kesan bermain kepada kanak-kanak iaitu kanak-kanak akan mempelajari konsep kerjasama (Kagan ,1990; Slavin,1990), kanak-kanak akan dapat pengalaman baru melalui aktiviti bermain tiruan(Tryon&keane,1986) dan kanak-kanak juga dapat pengalaman baru melalui kesilapan yang mereka lakukan dan cubaan yang berulang kali (Ismail et.al,2014). Maka, melalui aktiviti bermain secara berulang akan memberikan kanak-kanak satu pengalaman dan ilmu baru kepada mereka. Teori bermain Teori bermain ini dipelopori oleh Jean Piaget (1930). Beliau merupakan pelopor kepada teori kognitif. Kognitif merujuk kepada aktiviti-aktiviti mental seperti berfikir, menaakul, menganalisis, membentuk konsep dan menyelesaikan masalah. Berdasarkan teori beliau, bermain dibahagikan kepada tiga kategori permainan iaitu practice play, permainan yang melibatkan deria sentuhan yang berlaku pada kanak-kanak enam bulan hingga dua tahun. Kedua, symbolic play iaitu permaian yang memerlukan kanak-kanak berpura-pura, berfantasi dan melakonkan semula watak yang melibatkan emosi dan kebiasannya permainan ini dimainkan oleh kanak-kanak berusia dua hingga enam tahun. Ketiga, games with rules iaitu permainan yang memerlukan kanak-kanak berdisiplin kerana terdapat peraturan permainan yang perlu dipatuhi ketika bermain. Permainan jenis ini dimainkan oleh kanak-kanak berusia
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enam atau tujuh tahun ke atas. Kesimpulannya, Piaget berpendapat pertumbuhan pemikiran manusia itu berlaku melalui pembinaan pengetahuan iaitu berdasarkan kepada pengalaman manusia itu sendiri. Manakala, Vygotsky (1962) pula cenderung kepada teori konstruktiviti sosial. Tudge&Rogoff (1989) menyatakan bahawa Vygotsky meletakkan fokus utama kepada interaksi sosial sebagai media pengembangan kanak-kanak terutamanya interaksi dengan orang lebih berkemahiran dari segi intelektual yang membantu kanak-kanak belajar. Kearsley, 1994 ; Tudge & Rogoff, 1989; Butterworth, 1982, menyatakan bahawa perkembangan budaya kanak-kanak wujud dua kali iaitu, pada tahap sosial dan tahap individu. Tahap pertama wujud di antara manusia (interpsikologikal) dan tahap kedua berlaku dalam diri kanak-kanak (intrapsikologikal). Kenyataan ini menjelaskan bahawa kognitif kanak-kanak bermula di antara dua atau lebih ramai orang selepas itu akan membentuk dalaman kanak-kanak. Maka, kedua-dua tahap ini akan berlaku apabila kanak-kanak bermain. Berdasarkan kepada teori beliau, perkembangan seorang kanak-kanak dipengaruhi oleh persekitaran keluarganya. Model Sara Smilansky (1968) pula berdasarkan kepada teori Jean Piaget. Menurut beliau terdapat empat tahap bermain kanak-kanak. Pertama, functional play iaitu berlaku pada dua tahun permulaan dalam kehidupan manusia. Ianya termasuklah penerokaan objek dengan menggunakan sentuhan anggota badan dan aktiviti fizikal seperti membuang. Kedua, constructive play iaitu berlaku apabila kanak-kanak mula memanipulasi bahan-bahan untuk mencipta sesuatu dan corak. Ketiga, dramaric play iaitu kanak-kanak akan menjadikan persekitaran mereka sebagai contoh perlakuan yang mereka tiru mengikut tema permainan mereka. Keempat iaitu permainan mengikut peraturan (games with rules) iaitu permainan yang memerlukan kanak-kanak bermain mengikut peraturan yang ditetapkan. Model Sara Smilansky mempunyai persamaan deng teori Jean Piaget yang menjadikan bermain adalah major utama yang menyumbang kepada perkembangan pembelajaran kanak-kanak. Seterusnya, model Midren Parten (1932:1933) memfokuskan kepada konsep bermain kanak-kanak dalam pembelajaran di prasekolah. Menurut beliau terdapat enam bentuk aktiviti permainan kanak-kanak iaitu fuctional play, permainan yang dilakukan oleh kanakkanak secara berulang-ulang. Kedua, constructive play iaitu memanipulasi objek dan permainan ini amat mencabar kanak-kanak untuk membina sesuatu. Ketiga, parallel play iaitu permainan yang memerlukan kanak-kanak bermain secara berkumpulan dengan menggunakan maianan yang sama tetapi tidak berinteraksi antara satu sama lain. Keempat, onlooker play bermaksud permainan yang memotivasikan kanak-kanak untuk turut serta bermain setelah mereka melihat orang lain bermain. Kelima, associate play iaitu aktiviti bermain yang melibatkan beberapa kanak-kanak yang berinteraksi, berkongsi dan bermain mainan yang sama tetapi tidak melakukan permainan yang sama. Keenam, cooperative play iaitu permainan yang dilakukan bersama kanak-kanak seperti berlumba basikal, lumba lari dan membuat puzzle. Berdasarkan kepada teori Piaget, Vygotsy, Sara Smilansky dan Parten ini ianya menunjukkan bahawa kanak-kanak tidak dapat dipisahkan dengan aktiviti bermain. Hal ini turut dinyatakan oleh Papalia dan Olds (1996) serta Santrock (2004) yang melihat bahawa aktiviti bermain adalah „bisnes‟ bagi kanak-kanak. Maka, dunia kanak-kanak adalah bermain. Kepentingan bermain terhadap kemahiran social Kaedah bermain merupakan salah satu cara memberi pendidikan kepada kanak-kanak berdasarkan kesesuaian mereka. Menurut Frost, Bowers dan Wortham (1990) bermain dapat menyumbang kepada perkembangan kanak-kanak dari aspek sosial, kognitif, afektif dan motor. Menurut Caplan & Caplan (2007), bermain dapat membina keyakinan diri dan
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memberi kuasa kepada potensi pembelajaran mereka. Kemahiran sosial pula didefinisikan secara umum sebagai terma tingkah laku, penerimaan rakan sebaya dan hubungan sosial (Xiaoyan Liu,2011). Manakala Gresham dan Elliot (1987) berpendapat, kemahiran sosial didefinisikan sebagai pembelajaran tingkah laku yang membolehkan seseorang berinteraksi dengan orang lain melalui cara yang berkesan dan mengelak dari tindak balas yang tidak boleh diterima dari segi sosial. Kanak-kanak bermain mengikut naluri mereka sendiri. Kebebasan kanak-kanak dalam membuat keputusan membantu kanak-kanak lebih bersedia untuk menghadapi cabaran di masa akan datang. Aktiviti bermain adalah medium utama yang dapat membentuk peribadi kanak-kanak terutama kemahiran sosial. Kemahiran sosial akan terbentuk dalam pelbagai bentuk permaianan yang kanak-kanak pilih. Jika kanak-kanak memilih untuk memainkan peranan maka kanak-kanak telah terdedah kepada bagaimana hendak menyesuaikan diri mereka dalam situasi yang mereka ciptakan ketika bermain. Perkembangan sosial adalah satu proses apabila kanak-kanak belajar berhubung dengan orang lain mengikut cara yang dapat diterima oleh masyarakat dan budayanya. Seterusnya, perkembangan sosial kanak-kanak terdiri daripada kemahiran berinteraksi dengan orang lain, pembentukan kendiri, penghargaan kendiri dan kawalan kendiri. Identiti sosial dan kefahaman kendiri kanak-kanak berkembang dalam dua peringkat, iaitu kewujudan kendiri dan kategori kendiri (Lewis,1995;Lewis & Books-Gunn, 1979). Berdasarkan kepada kertas kerja ini, kemahiran sosial akan memberi impak yang besar kepada perubahan sosial kanakkanak dan akhirnya melahirkan kanak-kanak yang bijak berinteraksi dan berkomunikasi dengan individu lain dan masyarakat sekitarnya. Kemahiran yang diperolehi berupaya membentuk keyakinan dan jati diri kanak-kanak apabila berhadapan dengan orang lain dalam pelbagai situasi. Sepertimana yang dijelaskan dalam kajian lepas iaitu kemahiran sosial kanak-kanak amat penting bagi membentuk peribadi, kekuatan jatidiri, kestabilan emosi, meningkatkan kognitif kanak-kanak serta membantu ibu bapa dalam memupuk disiplin kepada kanakkanak. Kanak-kanak yang mempunyai kemahiran sosial yang baik pastinya mempunyai disiplin diri yang kukuh serta mampu memimpin rakan sebaya. Kesannya, kanak-kanak akan lebih prihatin kepada emosi orang lain dan pandai menyesuaikan diri mereka mengikut keadaan dengan lebih baik. Berdasarkan kepada kenyataan Smidt (2010), apabila kanak-kanak berinteraksi antara satu sama lain semasa bermain, kanak-kanak belajar kemahiran sosial seperti bertolak ansur, bekerjasama dan berkongsi sesuatu. Secara tidak langsung, kanak-kanak telah belajar sesuatu yang bermakna walaupun ketika bermain. Kemahiran-kamahiran ini memudahkan kanakkanak membina keyakinan diri dan membentuk peribadi yang positif dalam diri mereka. Hal ini ada dirangka dalam kurikulum Prasekolah Kebangsaan 2007 iaitu keupayaan mengurus emosi diri sendiri membolehkan murid memahami emosi, keperluan dan menghormati pandangan orang lain untuk membina kemahiran sosial dalam masyarakat berbilang kaum yang mesra dan harmoni. Atas kesedaran ini, Kementerian Pendidikan telah menetapkan beberapa matlamat pendidikan prasekolah iaitu memperkembangkan potensi kanak-kanak berumur empat hingga enam tahun secara menyeluruh dan bersepadu dalam aspek jasmani, rohani, intelek dan sosial melalui persekitaran pembelajaran yang selamat, menyuburkan serta aktiviti yang menyeronokkan, kreatif dan bermakna. Ini adalah untuk meningkatkan kemahiran, menanam keyakinan dan membentuk konsep kendiri yang positif pada diri kanak-kanak agar mereka barjaya dalam persekitaran sedia ada dan bersedia untuk menangani cabaran dan tanggungjawab di sekolah rendah kelak. Justeru itu, bagi menjadikan sebuah negara yang mempunyai semangat patriotik yang tinggi, kemahiran sosial dalam pembelajaran kanak-kanak perlu dititikberatkan. Hal ini perlu
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kerana, melalui aktiviti yang menjana kemahiran sosial yang positif, guru, ibu bapa mahupun masyarakat dapat memupuk semangat cintakan negara kepada kepada kanak-kanak. Kemahiran sosial kanak-kanak pula akan terbentuk dengan sendirinya. Emosi dan kognitif kanak-kanak dapat dijana dengan lebih positif. Perbincangan Proses pembelajaran kanak-kanak adalah berkait rapat dengan permainan. Bermain dapat meningkatkan tahap penguasaan kanak-kanak dari pelbagai aspek antaranya, aspek komunikasi, psikomotor, keyakinan dan emosi kanak-kanak. Morrison (1998) menyatakan bahawa aktiviti bermain sebenarnya adalah satu proses permulaan bagi kanak-kanak untuk belajar. Berdasarkan kepada kajian Asmah (2001), Play in Brunei Preschool Classrooms, mendapati bahawa ibu bapa telah meminta agar sesi pendidikan pra sekolah memfokuskan kepada membaca, menulis dan mengira berbanding kaedah pembelajaran secara bermain. Hal ini menunjukkan bahawa pendekatan belajar melalui bermain adalah sesuatu yang baru kepada ibu bapa. Selain dari itu, belajar melalui bermain juga akan membantu kanak-kanak untuk mengatasi kebimbangan dan konflik dalam kehidupan seharian dan secara tidak langsung akan meningkatkan penghargaan kendiri (Santrock 2004). Seterusnya Rubin dan Clark (1983) pula menyatakan bahawa kanak-kanak yang terlibat dengan permainan sosial akan lebih akrab dengan rakan-rakan dan ibu bapa berbanding dengan kanak-kanak yang tidak terlibat dengan permainan sosial. Kemahiran sosial kanak-kanak akan terbentuk melalui aktiviti bermain di prasekolah. Hubungan kanak-kanak dengan orang dewasa lebih mudah dibentuk dan difahami kanak-kanak. Akibat jika tiada kemahiran sosial pula kanak-kanak akan sukar untuk memahami pembelajaran mereka. Hal ini disebabkan, kanak-kanak kecil tidak boleh belajar kandungan akademik jika mereka mengalami kesukaran mengikuti arahan, berinteraksi dengan orang dewasa dan rakan-rakan, dan mengawal emosi negatif, kerana pembelajaran sering digambarkan sebagai proses sosial (Zins, Bloodworth, Weisberg & Walberg, 2004). Sehubungan itu, kemahiran sosial amat penting dalam memperkukuhkan keharmonian masyarakat secara amnya. Kanak-kanak mudah mempelajari apa jua pelajaran di sekeliling mereka, maka dengan cara ini, aktiviti sosial kanak-kanak yang kini semakin terhapus dapat dipulihkan ketika berada dalam pendidikan prasekolah. Ianya amat memabantu kanak-kanak lebih berktrampilan dan yakin diri. Pencapaian akademik yang cemerlang bukanlah pengukur utama kepada kejayaan seseorang. Oleh itu, kestabilan emosi dan intelektual kanak-kanak hendaklah dipupuk melalui aktiviti-aktiviti yang merangsang kemahiran sosial kanak-kanak secara semulajadi. Kesimpulan Kemahiran sosial adalah isu utama dalam pendidikan pada hari ini. Kanak-kanak yang pintar kadangkala tidak seimbang dengan emosi dan kehidupan sosial mereka. Atas kesedaran inilah, aktiviti bermain dijadikan sebagai pendekatan utama dalam membantu kanak-kanak membangunkan hidup mereka ke arah lebih positif sejak berumur 4 tahun hinggalah mereka bersedia memasuki alam persekolahan yang lebih mencabar. Justeru itu, aktiviti bermain merupakan pilihan yang tepat bagi mencapai kestabilan emosi, sosial, intelek dan rohani kanak-kanak. Salah satu pendekatan yang sesuai digunakan untuk meningkatkan kemahiran sosial adalah melalui kaedah bermain. Oleh itu, pendidikan prasekolah adalah tempat yang paling sesuai bagi melaksanakan konsep belajar melalui bermain.
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Rujukan Anderson, M (1998). Jerome Bruner. Educational Psychology. Portland, OR : Cortland College. Retrived June 2002 Baker-Henningham, H., Walker,S.(2009). A qualitative study of teacher‟s perceptions of an intervention to prevent conduct problems in Jamaican pre-schools. Child: Care, Health & Development, 35(5), 632-642 11p Fleer, M. (2011). Kindergartens in cognitive times: Imagination as a dialectical relation between play and learning. International Journal of Early Childhood, 43(3), 245-259 Fatai, I. A. O., Faqih, A., & Bustan, W.K (2014). Children‟s active learning through unstructured play in Malaysia. Childhood Education, 90(4), 259-264 Gresham,F.M., Cook, C.R., Collins, T., Dart, E., Rasetshwane,K., Trueson, E., & Grant, S. (2010). Developing a Change-Sensitive Brief Behaviour Rating Scale as a Progress Monitoring Tool for Social Behaviour : An Example Using The Social Skills Rating System- Teacher Form. School Psychology Review, 39(3), 364-379 Hewitt, B.,& Maloney. C. (2000). Malaysian Parents‟ Ideal and Actual Perception of Preschool Education. International Journal Of Early Years Education, 8(1),83 Kwon, K., Kim, E.M., & Sheridan, S. M. (2014). The Role of belief about the importance of social skills in elementary children‟s social behaviours and school attitudes. Child & Youth Care Forum, 43(4), 445-467. Preston, K. (2015). It‟s Elementary : Social Skills Boost Academics. ASHA Leader. 20(9). 48-54. 7p Rohani Abdullah, Nani Menon & Mohd. Sharani Ahmad (2004) Panduan Kurikulum Prasekolah. Pts Publication & Distributors Sdn. Bhd. Raban, B. & Nolan, A. (2006). Preschool Children‟s Reading Experiences. Educations Preschool.Journal of Parent Participation.Issue 47: p26-27. Wood, Elizabeth, and Attfield, Jane. Play, Learning and the Early Childhood Curriculum (2nd edition). London. GBR : SAGE publications Ltd., 2005. Proquest ebrary. Web 13 December 2015.
A Snapshot of High Order Thinking Skills in Few Secondary Schools in Penang Mohd Sazali Khalid1
[email protected] 1 Research & Development Division SEAMEO RECSAM, Penang, Malaysia
Abstract A language is a very beautiful instrument if it is used effectively in a mathematics classroom. However, HOT (High Order Thinking) questions did not help the students to learn productively when the teachers and students lack the confidence of using them. The aim of this paper is to demonstrate how HOT was used in four Penang schools in mid-2015 among Year 7 to Year 10 students. The method used was a participant observation with some forms of interview with nine teachers and 221 students ( Female=130; Male= 91). The study took six months with 25 hours video recordings. The findings were less than 60% of the oral questions were HOT enough. Few young teachers were doubtful whether their HOT questions had achieved certain targets during the introductory topics such as co-ordinate geometry, linear programming and probability. Some weaknesses in HOT were hidden during Collaborative Learning (CL) activities. Keywords: HOT, LOTS, subject content, collaborative learning and confidence Introduction Education builds a powerful nation. Traditionally, a teacher explains something to a class while their students absorb without asking. In the meantime, the teachers used questions to check how the students progressing in the lessons by What, Why, When, Which and How questions. Some teachers used story telling methods to teach. In mathematics, the „what‟ refers to the subject content of the lesson. It can go as early as primary education and sometimes it demands more than what is being taught now. The „why‟ is the students had to dig deeper past the understanding stage in solving a problem and what kinds of explanation they were offering as what the spiral education wants. The „where‟ refers to which subject content they are referring to and the „how‟ calls for the methods used. Mostly, they used the common four operations called add, subtract, multiply and divide plus extended fraction, ratio and proportion. Both procedural and conceptual understandings were tested. Currently, parents in Malaysia saw their children aged 11 and 15 were a bit behind their Singapore, Finland and Japan counterparts in critical thinking, problem solving and communication skills. In other words, HOT was debated. By definition HOT refers to “..uses the arts to make learning more meaningful to students and help them to develop critical-thinking skills”.p90 (Fredricks, 2014) and this is the basis of Assessment and Evaluation Test at 15+ (PT3) which was introduced in 2014 . Besides, PT3 is acting as the stimulus towards achieving Gardner theories – discipline, synthesis, creative, values and ethics.(Kamarudin, 2016). Looking at this importance, SEAMEO RECSAM was mandated to conduct a „training of trainers‟ in HOT in 2013. Following that SEAMEO RECSAM is planning to run an impact study of HOT throughout 2016. To guide this paper, two research questions were used. The first research question(RQ1) -Is to what extent has HOT being applied in the schools in Penang? The second research question (RQ2) How effective is HOT among the teachers here?
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Spectrum of Issues There are few interesting issues happening now. First is about the level of motivation, attitude, commitment, background, school climate and learning environment that affects the performance of any teachers globally. If these factors are not properly addressed, more problem would occur. The Programme for International Student Assessment PISA(2012) reports revealed that some teachers failed in applying critical thinking effectively in their classrooms. This was proven when worded questions were mostly unanswered by the students in PISA. MOE (2013). In the mean time, Knipprath(2010) explored a Japanese method of teaching and learning where the teachers were dedicated, commited and well versed in mathematics and this brought Japan among the top countries in education and technology. Next is excellent teachers (GC) at schools. Malaysia has many levels of teachers and one of them is GC. Time and time again GC has proven to have helped the students to perform well in all public examinations at Year 6, Year 9 and Year 11. GC teachers are quite busy in their core business at schools and maintaining high percentage of passes among the students as well. But less attention was paid to non-GC teachers at the lower forms and who are directly responsible to the construction of early mathematical concepts. From daily papers, the public have been complaining some teachers attended meetings and courses about 21st Century skills but little of it was applied in their classrooms example ICT use. They argued this disturb the teaching and learning cycles in this era. (Fredricks, 2014; Torres et. al, 2009; Meriam, 2002). Moreover, many teachers used examples in learning the structure, articulating meanings and senses, obtaining conceptual insights and this suited more to the university students (Sandefur et al, 2013) especially in the proving topics in mathematics. Third, the use of dual languages in this country. This is a long issue where English and Malaysian language (BM) were used interchangeably since 1980‟s. The books are in English, but the teachers are explaining them in BM. Sooner some teachers might have simplified critical thinking questions into Low Order Thinking (LOT) questions instead. Reasoning and problem solving skills were suddenly lost. (Fredricks, 2014; Torres et. al, 2009). Next, Bloom‟s Taxonomy that classified learning objectives into cognitive, affective and psychomotor domains. This taxonomy was originally developed in 1956 and now Anderson in 2001 expanded this to include Creative. At the moment, most teachers are quite confident with LOT than HOT because early mathematics stress on recall, understand, drill and practice which is synonym to primary level education. Mohd Sazali (2015) found from interviews, open ended tasks should be encouraged but this required the teachers to sacrifice more. By having open ended task, the teachers are expected to scaffold whatever their students‟ skills they have in learning in order to gain newer and higher skills as they matured towards their adulthood and job seekers. Currently, many adults are playing a wait and see game regarding furthering their studies and holding to their old jobs since „jobs‟ are getting scarcer not only here but also Taiwan and Norway (Li-Jian et,al. 2010). Here critical thinking is needed. The nearest happenings to HOT in Malaysia, was the way PTK3 was run in 2013. The examination results revealed questions with critical thinking elements produced many casualties among 15 plus candidates. Many students did not obtain straight A‟s and this did not go very well among some school principals who were obsessed in the school league ( Kamarudin, 2016). Many teachers confessed HOT questions were difficult due to unfamiliarity among the students. At present, many teachers are using collaborative learning methods in their classrooms. But collaborative work can be fruitful when the groups of students are homogeneous type such as in Mara Junior Science Colleges( Meriam Ismail,2002; Mohd Sazali & Helmy Adly, 2012). The next question asked is – can software applications like Geometer Sketchpad and GeoGebra be introduced successfully into
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mathematics classrooms when the present new teachers are said to be so IT savvy? If not, is it because of motivation, attitude and belief among the teachers? ( Shu-Hui Lin & Yun-Cheng Huang, 2016). Generally, the headache is most students are too shy to challenge the teachers from HOT points in view. This paper tries to address this. Objectives The objectives of this study are to examine generally how HOT are used in the classroom in Penang and how the teachers are adapting to HOT. Methodology This is a qualitative research. It is taken from a five month study beginning May 2015 among nine teachers and 221 students in four different kinds of schools in Penang within the radius of 10 kilometers from SEAMEO RECSAM and USM (Apex University). Two are categorized as Smart, one High Performing school and one is a Normal going schools. Two of them are single sex schools while two are mixed. Male and female students were equivalent in number aged 13 – 16. Three male and six female teachers participated. Three teachers have more than 20 years experience teaching mathematics while the rest vary between 3 to 12 years only. These schools were selected based on their reputation and the distance from SEAMEO RECSAM, a regional center for science and mathematics education in South East Asia. In order to answer both research questions a participant observation method was used. The assumptions were they should do well in HOT because many Penang students can speak English and a study on HOT would certainly take longer but more interesting. To do that, video recordings were taken by two technicians and transcribed for validation and comment purposes. Analysis of the transcription using several keys for different episodes was done such as „ST1‟ story telling; „QS1 – direct probing‟; „QS2 – more elaboration‟. Interviews were also carried out. During video reviewing, the way questions were posed and answers obtained were carefully studied. The speed of the dialogue was taken. Results The results will be presented based from the two research questions posed. (i) Time taken from question by the teachers to the answers obtained from the students Some observations were presented in Table 1 and Table 2 below. Table 1: Time spent between asking a question and getting the answers Episode/ Teacher Number ST1 QS1 QS2
T1 T2 (teacher#1)
T3
Within the first 15 minutes 0.50 0.40 1.00 2.00 1.00 2.00 0.30 0.30 0.30
T4
T5
T6
T7
T8
0.45 0.30 1.50
Within the last 20 minutes 0.30 0.30 0.50 0.30 0.50 2.00 2.30 2.30 1.30 1.30 1.50 1.30
T9
0.30 2.30 1.45
During story telling episode, within the first 15 minute, question and response time was quite rapid. Then difficulties started to grow when the students were brought from story telling
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stage (ST1) to some harder questioning that needs more probing from the teachers (QS1, QS2). From Table 1.0, the time where teachers were willing to wait for an answer was between half to 2.00 minutes from both ST1 to QS1 probing sessions. During the interview session, the teachers explained it is important for other student(s) to answer well. During the last 20 minutes before the class ended, the waiting time increased even though they were trying the questions in teams. If the teachers had waited longer, the class would turned dull. When QS2 „explaining something more‟ strategy was completed, waiting time by the student to answer the question took lesser time (average 2.00 minutes). This shows, some learning and understanding was taking place. An example of QS1 is Why you multiply that? While an example QS2 is You mean the denominator is less one now? Here the questions by the teachers were more focused on a particular operation which the students could pick up a bit easier. The effect of teacher elaboration can be seen more in Table 2. Table 2: Excerpt - Time taken between a question posed and answer obtained School
Teacher#
Question Number
A A+ B B+ C D
1 1 1 1 2 4
2 2 3 3 3 1
Starting time Stopping Waiting in giving a time by time question providing the (in min) answer 09:42 hours 09:46 hours 4:00 10:07 10:09 2:00 8:12 8:13 1:00 8:41 8:42 1:00 11:25 11:26 1:00 13:10 13:12 2:00
Here the questions are different based on topics and different grade of students. The symbols A+, B+ indicates „after elaboration‟ when QS1 and QS2 were applied by different teachers. From Table 2, we can see the teachers did not wait much for the answers from their students. Mostly within two half minutes the teacher had passed the same question to somebody else if she got incorrect responses. From an interview, the good point raised was they would like to give equal chance to another student to try. Another thing observed was most teachers did not rely on one particular student only or the same group of students. In one of the interviews, they commented many other students wanted to try answering the same question and the class was noisy so they must react faster with the answers. But without proper explanation on a particular question and the teachers did not stay long on it , this would not be good if HOT was to be developed at the secondary levels. The less waiting time suggested they may give a suitable question for the earlier part of the introductory topics which can be solved easily by anybody. The issue raised was may be it would take much time and this was difficult for the teachers in completing their lessons on time if the questions posed kept on getting more difficult and could not be handled by their students. We tried to see this behavior during the end of the year when the classes had completed the syllabus and curriculum. It was hard to do this, since the teacher had applied collaborative learning(CL) principles in the classes. However, during presentation stage of CL , we observed some questionings between the teachers and the students. See Table 3. Some HOT questions were done collaboratively. See Tables 3, 4 and 5 below.
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Table 3 : Excerpt - Frequency of a teacher passing question from presenter to his team Presentation/ T1 T2 T3 Teacher (teacher#1) Number Within the first 15 minutes P1 1X 1Y 0 P2 2XX 1Y 2XX P3 1Y 1Y 1X
T4
T5
T6
T7
T8
Within the last 20 minutes 0 1X 2XX 2XX 2XY 1X 1Y 2YY 2YX 2YY 3XXX 3XXY 3XYX 2XX 2XX
T9
2XX 2XX 2YX
Here the key such as 1X reflects one question, but incorrect response; 2XY is 2 questions asked but the teacher got one incorrect and one correct responses. From Table 3, HOT might not be tried effectively. Looking at the speed the teachers moved from one student to the other, it showed the teacher spent little time waiting. When the researcher intended to see how HOT was used by the teachers, few of them shifted that to their students. In T4, the team of students could be weak when he got all incorrect answers. In T5, at least the team managed to get correct response at the end of the presentations. Some limitations came in when video recorders were lacking and by sitting at the back of the classroom, little observation took place. In one of the schools, no extra copy of the question paper was given to the researcher. Another interesting thing in this study was the man teachers waited a bit longer than the lady teachers. See Table 4 below. Table 4: Waiting Time between lady and man teachers for „a‟ question School
Teacher
Question Number
A B C C D D
Lady A Lady B Lady C Man D Lady E Man F
3 3 2 4 4 1
Start time in giving a question am/pm 10:55 08:22 11:22 11:30 12:16 0950
Stop time by providing the answer 11:15 08:36 11:32 12:00 12:32 10:21
In this Table 4, higher number of question indicates difficulty level. Explanation by both teachers were collected and the levels of questions played a strong factor such as if the questions were diagram types in geometry, the time taken was shorter as compared to worded types in probability. In Table 5 , some types of questions were presented here.
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Table 5: Few examples of Questions asked Level Memorize
Example of Questions You know that… how…
Knowledge
Who knows what formula must we use here?
Understanding
You understand this or not?
Analysis
Q1) Why ..this cannot be positive ? Why negative?
Synthesis
Q5) If the 3D numbers get more and more, what is the chance of Along winning the Jackpot? Why? Teacher: Looking at the diagram from this projector, can you prove my answer was a bit wrong?
Evaluation
None
Create
None
Rationale of this behavior The teacher picked up any student and checked his attention. She directed the class towards a certain formula. She did not give a chance to explore first. Judging ..is it useful or meaningless? The teacher might force the student to understand. If not, may be ..someone got punished. May be? Given two bottles with 5 Greens and 4 Reds, what is the probability of getting all Greens from two different pickings with REPLACEMENT? May be incorporated within the Collaborative Learning strategy but ..this was difficult to detect among team work processes. May be inside the questions given out for work group activities. No comment
From Table 5, it was a bit easier to create HOT questions from probability. Not Geometry Coordinate. This is because from the observations, more practice was needed among lower grades (Form 1 and II) to create senses on the few coordinates on the grid board. In short, they relied more on drill and practice type. In probability, one has to be quick to think and solve the problem mentally. Thinking fast and seeing the logic was not easy to measure except from the answers given. Many parties were serious when their answers were found to be different. The act of proving can be used as HOT. This shows, HOT can be exploited based on different circumstances and situations. Other than checking the „time between the teachers‟ asking and responses from the students‟, the researcher look at the types of questions too. This is to determine the quality of the questions. However, most questions came from the workbooks the Ministry had proposed. (ii) Examining few episode sessions There were many interesting episodes from this short study. However, two episodes were given here because of page limitations.
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Topic - Coordinate Geometry (Year 7 ). Teacher (T): Class, can anybody locate where point A is (2,3)? Boy1: I can teacher. T: OK. Go and mark the point A please. And many more questions. Mostly is about locating points B,C, …, Z. They took about 10 minutes here. The query in the interview was: Researcher (R ):„Where is the HOT question?‟. Soon R: „.. why not this question such as what would the highest point in the first quadrant be ?.. and could not this be an example of a HOT question? T: Yes, you are right but this question is meant at the introductory parts in Coordinate Geometry. Some discussion happened at this point. Next, Episode 2: Topic: Basic Probability (Year 10). T: You have learnt the Tree Diagram last week. Here you have 3 Green balls and 4 Red balls. What is the probability of getting at least one Red? The class started to draw the tree diagram. While looking at the recordings, the researcher asked the teacher:.. “R: From this, where is the HOT Question? T: May I asked ..why HOT question? What is the purpose of a HOT question here? (laughing) R: How did you determine HOT has helped the students to think deeper and broader? T: First the answer of the question say 1/7.The HOT question may arise when the answer from one student and the rest is not the same. Something could be wrong. They double checked each other. They walk backward proving their answers. R: ” I think .. feeling something is wrong demands some deeper thinking to happen among the students. Can you explain here Madame? T: They started to discuss more thoroughly. They examined each branch of the tree diagram, discussed the error .and they spotted the word NOT replaced before the second ball was taken up ‟‟. R: Yes. Can this be the purpose of HOT, agree? T: Yes ..(laugh) my students started to see the word „replaced and non replacement... they see the meaning of words here‟. Along the project, it was noticed the English used was very positively taken between the teachers and the students. In normal school, BM was used with some English thrown out sporadically. However, looking back at all the episodes there were few signs of HOT questions such as „justify your answer ?, prove it ?..what theorems were used here? ..why? can you create another branch in this tree when this coin was taken out .. three times in a row? Did you see any differences between the fraction? Why is that? All these can be given orally. This is now covered in the next section. Discussion and Recommendation The discussion is based on the research questions. RQ1 - to what extent has HOT being applied in the schools in Penang? And RQ2- How effective is HOT among the teachers here? From this study, HOT did not happen so clearly in the introduction stages of every topic. May be the teacher wanted to show she is in full control of the classroom by first covering a body of content and then supplying them questions and answers in that order. Tables 1 to 4, proved this. At the end of the year when all topics were covered, HOT questions were more clearly seen. The trend was firstly in June 2015, the question given was passed from one
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student to another quite hurriedly. By asking too hurriedly, the students thought quite shallowly and they might fail to think what the consequences of their answers would be and many more. At the introductory topic, the questions were shorter and simpler than what was given out at the concluding chapter in October 2015. The waiting time during HOT questions was different. Moreover, in the earlier topics, the students were sitting alone while after the concluding chapter, the students were sitting in groups. This concurs with Felder (1991) and Meriam (2002) in the sense that collaborative learning offers a lot of strength to the students as a whole but the explanation given by the presenter of each group was mixed if the teacher did not make enough preparation in asking deeper questions after the presentations as in Table 5. From observation, not much was asked beyond what was covered in the presentation. This went along with Mohd Sazali & Sulaiman (2013) when first, the students were not given enough time to think sufficiently and second, there is no challenging questions „out of the box‟ after presentation. Looking beyond this, the opportunity to develop them as future scientists, inventors or designers which was preached by Fredricks 2014 was lost. Some teachers were good at numbers but not natural enough with languages in handling HOT that demands linguistic flair and styles. Maybe the mathematics did not warrant competent language teachers. In this work, there is some room for improvement in using HOT , assessing and measuring learning objectives which run parallel to the work of Torres et al (2009) and Fredricks (2014) where the teachers must try harder so that the students enjoyed some deep thinking and solving the problem. What was seen in the sample schools, the learning processes did not produce vividly the fun and excitement in critical thinking and problem solving and most importantly how to sustain any kind of excitement from learning mathematics. Few episodes were quite dull when the researcher walked into their classrooms. The teachers could have tried simpler experiments in HOT questions first to motivate confidence before the proper HOT session begins. Unfortunately this was not easy since those teachers were the same actors or actresses throughout the year. May be the lower secondary students were not familiar with HOT yet. The link between lower to upper secondary levels must be developed naturally in mathematics so that the students made thinking as their natural habit. This can be taken up as further research in terms of motivation, belief and attitude among teachers and how sustaining HOT from lower to the upper grades. Employing good teachers with strong background in subject content could be a right step in the right direction here. Here the second research question is discussed. During the interviewing sessions the purpose of HOT is stated i.e., to check where the application of knowledge in solving the problem was given. Is fraction concept sufficiently covered in the probability work? Why is it not sufficient here? One can see spiral knowledge is in action. To confirm some feelings of doubts, during October 2015, the same classes were visited. Our record showed in four classrooms, when the teachers were discussing HOT questions , the teachers‟ waiting time increases. But the pity was only 1 or 2 students from each group were solving the problem while the rest of the group were eager to transfer the solution to the mahjong paper for presentation. This showed that not everybody was solving the problem collectively and this goes against what Shu-Hui Lin & Yun-Chen Huang (2016) had proposed. During presentation stage, not all groups listened. Some look confuse, unclear, helpful and useful to the others. This happened may be because each group got different HOT tasks. Sometimes, the presentation in CL was not given equal time frame. May be the students have limited knowledge and each question differed in difficulty. By following the examples shown by the teachers in getting the insight conceptually and articulation might not suffice at this age (Sandefur et. al., 2013). What is needed is the students must get the knowledge and skills syntactically when the students appreciate solving mathematics such as proving work. (See
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Table 5). For the teacher, it is good to dwell on one question much bit longer so the logic and structure of the knowledge derived and new confidence can be built upon after the completion of each episode. This needs more research. By rushing, HOT could not be developed satisfactorily and this demands a confident teacher. From nine teachers observed, only three were very confident with HOT orally. Many relied on LOT. From 100 oral questions by the teachers throughout the study, less than 40 were anywhere near HOT. This study has few problems i.e., the results here is limited among the participating schools only and it cannot be generalized to all schools yet. Staying with a language during HOT is more advisable else translation or code switching issues must be accommodated and future study looks very much in order. Conclusion In this study, four schools in Penang with nine teachers and 221 students of equivalent mix gender took part. This paper has addressed two research questions qualitatively. It showed few limitations faced by the participating teachers. The limitations are the time itself been used in the mathematics classroom and the amount of unfamiliarity of HOT among participants. If the teachers rushed in finishing the syllabus, the true colors of HOT could not bloom well enough. Secondly, so far evaluation and creative levels in HOT hardly took place. If they settled to do a question per time as a whole class, may be they can CREATE a solution, question and understanding as Anderson et. al.(2001) had suggested. This needs a confident teacher. Acknowledgment Our deepest appreciation to all the schools‟ principals in Penang, teachers and students who had taken part in this small study. Our gratitude also to MOE and Penang State Education Office for allowing this project to catch important moments in using HOT after 2013. References Anderson, L.W., Krathwohl, D.R., Airasian, P.W. et al (2001). (Eds.) A taxonomy for learning, teaching and assessing: a revision of Bloom’s taxonomy of educational objectives. USA: Addison Wesley Longman, Inc. Felder, R.M.(1991).Effective Teaching in a workshop. Department of Chemical Engineering, North Corolina State University, Raleigh, NC. Fredricks, J.A.(2014). Eight myths of student disengagement – Creating classrooms of Deep Learning. London: Sage Hua-Li Jian, Sandnes, F.E., Yo-Ping Huang, Yueh-Min Huang and Hagen, S. (2010). Studies or leisure? A cross-cultured comparison of Taiwanese and Norwegian Engineering students preferences for university life. International Journal Engineering Education. Vol 26(2) 227-238 Kamarudin Musa (2016). Pentaksiran Kemampuan Berfikir Pelajar. Dewan Masyarakat – Februari. Kuala Lumpur: DBP 27-29 Knipprath, H.(2010). What PISA tells us about the quality and inequality of Japanese Education in Mathematics and Science. International Journal of Science and Mathematics Education. 8. 389-408 Meriam Ismail.(2002).Cooperative Learning in schools and learning organization practices. Knowledge and Research. Kuala Lumpur: Merliq Enterprise
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Ministry of Education (2013). Program Latihan Kemahiran Berfikir Aras Tinggi KBAT dalam Pembelajaran dan Pengajaran Matematik. Putrajaya: BPG Ministry of Education (2013). Education Blue Print 2013- 2025.Putrajaya: MOE Mohd Sazali Khalid & Helmy Adly Md Noor.(2012). Teaching and Learning Mathematics using CDiCL: Making sense through computers within teamwork. Batu Pahat: UTHM Press Mohd Sazali Khalid & Sulaiman Yamin (2013). e-Learning in Malaysian Technical University Network. Journal of Engineering and Technology. Vol.4(1). 27-38 ISSN 2180-3811 Melaka: UTeM University Press Mohd Sazali Khalid (2015). Insight into HOT in a few mathematics classrooms in Penang: A small case study. RECSAM Online Journal. Learning Science and Mathematics. Accessed 24 February, 2016. http://www.recsam.edu.my/lsm/index.htm 59-68 Sandefur, J., Mason, J., Stylianides, G.J., Watson, A.(2013). Generating and using examples in the proving process. Education Studies in Mathematics. 83 323-340 USA: Springer Torres, C., Lopes, A.P., Babo, L., & Azevedo, J. (2009). Developing multiple choice questions in mathematics. Accessed 15 February 2016. http://recipp.ipp.pt/bitstream/10400.22/586/1/Artigo_Escolha_Multipla_CristinaTorre s.pdf
Inculcating Students Creative Thinking with the Use of Graphing Technology Jeyaletchumi Muthiah1, Munirah Ghazali1
[email protected],
[email protected] 1 School of Educational Studies, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Malaysia
Abstract Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) is the buzz word in the teaching and learning fraternity especially in Malaysia. However, there are studies that shows lack of student centred activities can be a hindrance towards elevating them to the desired thinking ability. Thus, a case study comprising a class of Malaysian secondary students were engaged in a graphing technology-enriched classroom activities. The results revealed that the use of graphing technology was able to leave an impact on the students’ participation and perception of higher order thinking skills. Moreover, with the change of the teacher’s role as a facilitator gave more opportunity for students’ explorations. Therefore, the graphing technology is deemed suitable and can be used as a catalyst to redesign the classroom environment to inculcate creative thinking among students of different achievement abilities. Keywords: Higher order thinking skills, creative thinking, graphing technology, student centred activities. Introduction For almost three decades, the potential for learning of Mathematics with digital technologies have been studied especially in the field of educational studies (Goos & Bennison, 2008; Young, 1997). Various researches and studies have been conducted to determine the relationship `The way Mathematics is being taught can change the way Mathematics is learnt'. Therefore, the approaches and methods used by teachers to conduct the lesson is the focus of student learning. The use of technology especially, Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is much encouraged in the teaching and learning process. Pupils‟ understanding of concepts can be enhanced as visual stimuli are provided and complex calculations are made easier with the use of calculators. Two important goals of mathematics teaching are the development of the theoretical meaning and mathematical concepts and their applications. The application of mathematical concept is done through solving mathematical problems. With these points in mind, this study will be carried out to see how graphing calculators can be used as a tool to enhance learning of mathematics among the Malaysian school students. Here, this study would try to suggest how questions can be posed and should be non-routine types that are not just merely calculator pressing. Instead it should be more of thinking questions. The students also must be exposed on what to record and how to record their findings so that a fair evaluation takes place. Purpose Many research findings had concluded that students learn better with the assistance of technology. Therefore, this study intends to investigate mathematical lessons that can be carried out with the aid of technology. In this research handheld technology and particularly graphing calculator is used.
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Research Questions 1. What were the observable behavior of the students while they were working with the graphing calculator ? 2. How did the graphing calculator assisted the students to sketch the graph of polynomial functions and their ability to be creative with the equations? 3. What were the students‟ perception on learning Mathematics with technology? 4. What were the students perception on learning Mathematics with graphing calculator? The findings from this study would be beneficial to the stake holders (education specialists, curriculum writers, administrators, teachers, parents and students) that are looking for a practical tool to achieve a meaningful lesson. Review Of Literature There are also numerous of studies done on the impact of the powerful handheld tool (graphing calculator) on topics such as functions, algebra, linear programming, finite mathematics, applied and science calculus, business and not forgetting the statistical field. Many research findings have reported that graphing calculators can help to build students conceptual understanding by allowing them to explore through symbolic, graphical or numerical representation which may not be possible without the said technology (Laughbaum, 2000). Graphing calculator is a potential useful tool in teaching and learning Mathematics. It eliminates rigid computations and time-consuming mathematical procedures. It is actually a cross between a computer and a scientific calculator. This is a very powerful handheld tool that can do investigations and explorations in algebra, statistics and geometry. It enables students to visualize concepts and appreciate mathematics in a very meaningful way. One of its main affordance is portability. This makes the graphing calculator as an appropriate technology that can support the teaching and learning process of Mathematics especially in secondary school. Method This research aims to investigate on the advances of interactive technologies that can enhance the learning of Mathematics at secondary school. With that in mind, it incorporates the Ausubel's Meaningful Learning Theory that comprises of five main attributes. They are Authentic, Cooperative, Constructive, Active and Intentional (ACCAI). The topic Graphs of Functions from the Malaysian School Syllabus was chosen to prepare and implement a lesson of 60 minutes for a Form 4 class. The latest TI-Nspire Model CX graphing calculator together with the TI-Smart View was used for this study. However this is the first time for the students to use graphing calculator as they were never exposed to this tool before attending this session. The students were also given the survey form to be filled in before the lesson begins. Then the students were asked to fill in the form after lesson was completed.
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Results Research Question 1 : What were the observable behaviour of the students while they were working with the graphing calculator? The students were observed to be very active and participated in the activities well. They also worked cooperatively with their partner to complete the task. They were also not shy to ask questions and for help when they were left behind compared to their friends. Research Question 2 : How did the graphing calculator assisted the students to sketch the graph of polynomial functions and their ability to be creative with the equations? The students were able to trace the coordinates of the vertex. Students also were able to identify the axis of symmetry and trace the intercept. They were also able to graph a new problem without much assistance. Students could also relate the happening when the points are dragged around. Some of them were more explorative and started to check other functions of the calculator. Research Question 3 : What were the students perception on learning mathematics with technology? Findings from students feedback shows that all of them enjoyed learning Mathematics using technology. Basically they say that it can make complicated and tedious questions easier. Students also mentioned they feel very interested and happy to be in the class. Research Question 4 : What were the students perception on learning Mathematics with graphing calculators ? The students indicated that graphing calculator is essential for learning Mathematics. Its extended ability such as curser on the screen and its sophisticated button makes students would want to learn more about the capability of graphing calculator. They also feel that being able to visualization in a color screen make the students feel motivated to learn Mathematics. They also expressed the advances of graphing calculator. For instance, by using the graphing calculator, they could learn and solve problems faster. They also mentioned that they feel happy and enjoyable to learn in an interesting manner. Students also would want to learn more functions of the sophisticated graphing calculators. Generally, the students were very participative during the class activities. Students were also given some worksheets during the lesson. Discussions From Findings All the students showed positive attitude towards Mathematics. Some of the interesting facts that were observed during the lesson are related to the students‟ participation in the classroom discussion. They exchanged ideas freely and asked questions on the parts that they could not be understand easily. On the whole the students enjoyed the lesson and expressed that using the graphing calculator was lots of fun. They also declared that they have never used any technology throughout their mathematics lesson in the secondary school. They also answered the questions posed to them on the whiteboard and in their worksheets. They even explored more than graphing the linear equations. Some of them were observed to drag every point on the graph and come back to its original coordinate easily without changing the straight line equation concept.
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They also worked very well with their pair or other members sitting on the same table. They shared their explorations and findings by giving their predictions and opinions. Students also presented and explained their answers very well to their classmates. They also volunteered to demonstrate their findings on the whiteboard and discuss with the whole class. Besides that the questioning techniques used by teacher is also found to be very effective. Some example questions are: What are the possible values? Write down your understanding… Can you explain the connections that you observe? How do you arrive at the answer? Explain your findings What do you understand about the x-intercept? What do you understand about the y-intercept? Explain your answer What do you think you do next? Compare your answers. Are they the same? Please explain your answer. Thus, students were given an opportunity to explore, investigate, to explain and give reasons to support their answers. Conclusion In this study it is observed that graphing calculator can be used to facilitate the connection between conceptual understanding and procedural skills with carefully designed lesson plan. Graphing calculators also can make connections between algebraic and visual learning and this has been one of the goals for using technology in the classroom. Studies (Hennessy, 1998) show that student tend to make better connections if they can visualize what is occurring in a problem as well as being able to solve for a solution. However, it‟s important to mention here that graphing calculator or any other technology for matter cannot replace the human mind, but it should rather be viewed as a powerful tool that helps to solve mathematical problems and not as a tool that solves problem. Therefore, to provide educators with evidence of student understanding, students need to explain, interpret and apply what they have learnt (Savary & Duffy, 1995) and move away from creating tables and plotting points as learning happens through explorations. So that time is not wasted on the procedural routine activity but concentrated on answering questions that comes as a follow-up. Consequently, students were tasks that requires them to be creative with polynomial equations. The time spent in completing repetitive calculations tasks can be greatly reduced with the use of graphing calculator. In short, mathematics education should help students to think mathematically. So graphing calculator can be used as a powerful tool that can be of help towards achieving this objective. References Goos, M., & Bennison, A. (2008). Surveying the technology landscape: Teachers‟ use of technology in secondary mathematics classroom. Mathematics Education Research Journal, 20(3), 102-130. Hennessy, S., et al., 2001.„The role of the graphic calculator in mediating graphing activity.‟ International Journal of Mathematical Education in Science and Technology, 32 (2), pp. 267-290.
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Laughbaum, E.D. (2000). Hand-held Technology in Mathematics and Science Education: A collection of papers. Teachers Teaching with Technology: The Ohio State University. Idris, N.(2004). Exploration and entertaining Mathematics:Why Graphing Calculator?:In: 2nd National Conference on Graphing Calculators 4-6 Oct. 2004, Penang, pp. 45-50. Ministry of Education Malaysia (2003). Integrated Curriculum for Secondary Schools: Curriculum Specifications Mathematics Form 5. Ministry of Education Malaysia (2003). Integrated Curriculum for Secondary Schools: Curriculum Specifications Mathematics Form 3. Savary, J. R. & Duffy, T. M. (1995). PBL: An Instructional model and its constructivist framework. Educational Technology, 1995, 35, 31-38. Young, A. C. (1997). Higher Order thinking: What is it and how is it taught? Educational Technology, 37, 38-41.
A review of teaching approaches and strategies to enhance Higher Order Thinking Skills in Science Education Ahmad Johari Sihes1, Misnah Bahari1
[email protected],
[email protected] 1 Department of Educational Foundation and Social Science Universiti Teknologi Malaysia
Abstract We aimed to systematically review studies that examine the teaching approaches and strategies to enhance Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) in Science Education. The review emphasized the thinking instruments and activities can be chosen to develop HOTS among students. There are at least 13 articles reviewed. The related journal articles on teaching approaches and strategies were downloaded from various sources on the net. The articles were then analysed and organised according to definition in the field of Science, previous studies on teaching approaches and strategies, as well as thinking instruments and activities to enhance HOTS among students. Keyword: teaching approaches and strategies, Higher Order Thinking Skills, Science Education Introduction Two major goals of science education are to develop students‟ scientific literacy and their higher order thinking skills. Achieving these goal should account for learning science in context (Gilbert, 2007) as well as learning scientific concepts and processes through dealing with real problems and adapted scientific articles. Objectives We aimed to systematically review the literature that examine the teaching approaches and strategies to enhance higher order thinking skills in science education. At first, we reviewed the definitions of higher order thinking skills. Finally we reviewed on the teaching approaches and strategies to enhance higher order thinking skills in science education. Material and Methods Material There were at least 13 articles reviewed. There were 12 out of 13 articles showed strategies and approaches that given impact on improving higher order thinking skills, while one study showed no significant effect, however researchers propose several variables that need to be changed to get more significant effect. The articles were empirically reviewed of the strategies and approaches by different group of people related to higher order thinking skills in science education.
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Procedure The articles were downloaded from various resources and gathered into Mendeley Desktop to ease the data management. Then the keyword of searching was narrowed from higher order thinking skills in science education. The downloaded articles were then summarised and organised in the following sections. Findings First, the downloaded articles were analysed on definition of higher order thinking skills. Second, we then examine the teaching approaches and strategies which emphasized the thinking instruments and activities that can develop HOTS among students. Definitions of Higher Order Thinking Skills Brookhart (2010) identifies definitions of higher-order thinking as falling into three categories: (1) those that define higher-order thinking in terms of transfer, (2) those that define it in terms of critical thinking, and (3) those that define it in terms of problem solving. In the category of transfer, (Krathwohl, 2002) define transfer in how it differs from retention: Two of the most important educational goals are to promote retention and to promote transfer (which, when it occurs, indicates meaningful learning). Retention requires that students remember what they have learned, whereas transfer requires students not only to remember but also to make sense of and be able to use what they have learned. While learning for recall requires thinking, the higher-order thinking is in „transfer‟. That is, students not only acquire the knowledge and skills, but also can apply them to new situations. It is this kind of thinking, according to (Brookhart, 2010) that applies to life outside of school where thinking is characterised by „a series of transfer opportunities (rather) than as a series of recall assignments to be done‟. The critical thinking category includes definitions that refer to „artful thinking‟, which includes reasoning, questioning and investigating, observing and describing, comparing and connecting, finding complexity, and exploring viewpoints (Barahal, 2008). In critical thinking, being able „to think‟ means students can apply wise judgment or produce a reasoned critique. The goal of teaching is then to equip students to be wise by guiding them towards how to make sound decisions and exercise reasoned judgment. The skills students need to be taught to do this include: the ability to judge the credibility of a source; identify assumptions, generalisation and bias; identify connotation in language use; understand the purpose of a written or spoken text; identify the audience; and to make critical judgments about the relative effectiveness of various strategies used to meet the purpose of the text. In the problem-solving category (Brookhart, 2010) provides the following definition: A student incurs a problem when the student wants to reach a specific outcome or goal but does not automatically recognize the proper path or solution to use to reach it. The problem to solve is how to reach the desired goal. Because a student cannot automatically recognize the proper way to reach the desired goal, she must use one or more higher-order thinking processes. They may include remembering information, learning with understanding, critically evaluating ideas, formulating creative alternatives, and communicating effectively.
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Teaching Approaches and Strategies in Science Education Our ever-changing and challenging world requires students, our future citizens, to go beyond building of their knowledge capacity; they need to develop their higher-order thinking skills, such as critical system thinking, decision making and problem solving. The development of higher order thinking skills, or Higher Order Cognitive skills (HOC) is prominent in order to facilitate the transition of students‟ knowledge and skills into responsible action, regardless of their particular future role in society. Learning is the outcome that all good teachers should strive for (Zoller, 2000). Problem-Based Learning (PBL) is used frequently in inquiry classes to give students practice thinking their way through problems with the guidance of the teacher. This equips students to better tackle their own inquiry research individually. Weiss (2003) reviews the principal features of problems that require higher-order thought. These problems should be; Structured - problems that are "messy" like everyday life require real thought about real, not necessarily perfect, solutions; Challenging - so they extend the students' current knowledge; Collaborative - Students must work together, but not in a segmented way: the focus must be on consensus and synthesis; Authentic - The problems must not be too theoretical; they must resonate with the students' lives or how they might imagine their lives in the future. These problems can be found almost anywhere in the professional life of someone in our discipline. Tapping one's professional networks for "good teaching problems" can generate many options from which to choose. Emphasize to students the importance of fully understanding a problem and generating the criteria for a "good" solution to it before they start developing a solution. These kinds of problem-solving activities do not necessarily need to be for a grade, but students should understand the general direction in which they are expected to take their solutions. However, (Murphy, Bianchi, McCullagh, & Kerr, 2013) reviewed the policy development on thinking skills and personal capabilities (TSPC) and its implementation in the revised Northern Ireland curriculum. Both development and implementation were built upon solid educational foundations, and were influenced strongly by research at all stages. Some of the coteaching projects described comprised an element of scaling up the implementation by focusing specifically on developing thinking skills and personal capabilities (TSPC). Classroom application of science teaching which develops children‟s thinking skills evidenced in the requirement of teachers to provide opportunities for children to engage explicitly in thinking and expressing their thoughts in several ways, for example in pictures, diagrams, multimedia, writing and orally. They found that oral expression was most important for children to clarify their thinking. In Vygotsky‟s Thought and Language (Vygotsky, 1986) he established the explicit and profound connection between speech (silent inner speech and oral external speech) and the development of mental concepts and cognitive awareness. He observed that whilst young children „think out loud‟; adults also speak their thoughts when carrying out complicated tasks (for example, following written instructions when cooking or setting up an electrical appliance). Young children can express their ideas more fully using spoken than written language and in science, a teacher can gauge better the level of understanding using oral assessment. Other aspects of developing thinking skills through science in school were: engaging children‟s interest and motivation using curious phenomena; giving children opportunities (as scientists) to repeat activities in order to make deeper observations; facilitating peer collaboration in developing hypotheses which are consistent with observations and in evaluating same; presenting data in several formats; and fostering scientific concept development by linking their work in school with science outside (every day and scientific contexts). Barak & Shakhman, (2008) examining what teachers know and do about fostering
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higher-order thinking in the context of teaching science, and how they see themselves involved in fulfilling this goal. The findings showed diversity among the teachers in four areas: meta-strategic knowledge in the concept of higher-order thinking; utilization of instructional strategies related to this; beliefs about the students; and teachers‟ self-perception of the issue discussed. The main outcomes are summarized below. Introducing elements of constructivist pedagogy combined with specific steps aimed at fostering higher-order thinking into class could be a realistic aim for teachers. One example of a systematic approach of fostering thinking in teaching a specific content is the Instrumental Enrichment Research Trust (IERT). This model includes the following four elements: Introducing the aim of a thinking strategy or problem-solving approach to the students in the context of learning a specific subject matter; engaging the students in the suggested strategy; encouraging reflection on using the strategy; and teaching the students how to transfer a specific strategy to other related contexts. An additional approach has been suggested by Zohar (2004), who identifies six elements of teachers‟ pedagogical knowledge that are essential in the instruction of higher-order thinking skills in science class, such as: „teaching thinking as consisting of inducing a process, introducing in class problems that necessitate higher-level reasoning, and regarding students‟ reasoning difficulties as opportunities for fruitful interactions between teachers and students. As metacognitive play a role in improving students' higher -order thinking skills, then there is a close relationship with the study by Rahman et al., (2011). The promotion of students‟ metacognitive skills will help develop self-directed learners who possess a very important characteristic for lifelong learning to identify any differences by preferred learning style in student‟s preferences regarding strategies to promote metacognitive skills development in the classroom the study showed that the most preferred metacognitive development activities regardless of dominant learning style were emotional support, teacher‟s encouragement and motivation and students voice (the feeling that student‟s own voice was being heard) respectively. The results indicated that students need encouragement and support from teachers to develop their metacognitive skills. However, Hopson, Simms, & Knezek (2001) reported that the technology-enriched classroom differed from the traditional classroom in several significant ways. The learning was more student centred and less teacher/textbook driven. The environment facilitated the use of cooperative groups and student participation focused on application rather than knowledge acquisition. The almost exponential increase in available sources of information in the technology-enriched classroom created the need for student learning to be assessed using non-traditional methods. The use of individual student products and group projects replaced tests and homework as the primary assessment tools. There are several implications for this study related to the design of classrooms to enhance the development of higher-order thinking skills. They have identified technology as the catalyst for restructuring and redesigning the classroom to create an environment that promotes and encourages the development of the higher-order skill evaluation. In this study, technology was the tool that allowed the students to move beyond knowledge acquisition to knowledge application. In earlier studies Vandusen & Worthen (1995) reported that the use of technology applications allowed students to organize, analyse, interpret, and evaluate their work. As the students began to use the technological resources to manage their learning, the role of the teacher was transformed from lecturer to facilitator. The availability of vast amounts of easily accessible information freed the teacher from the role of purveyor of facts and allowed the teacher to encourage the students to use the computer as a tool for problem solving. Exposure to technology and training in its use results in a more positive attitude relative to computer importance. Such a positive attitude indicates that once students are successful using technology and recognize the associated benefits, they will choose to continue using it as a
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learning tool. More positive attitudes toward motivation and creativity indicate that, when provided with technology, students are more likely to take control of their learning, stay focused until the task is complete, and pursue more obscure and hypothetical solutions to problems. However, Madhuri, Kantamreddi, & Goteti (2012) study suggests that the present inquiry-based pedagogy has better proved outcomes compared to a conventional recipe lab approach. This experience can be more effective if it is integrated with problem-based learning. These results are significant especially in terms of the performance of participants to conduct systematic and accurate experiments. Enhancing the performance quotient of the class can be significantly influenced by such inquiry-based approaches. In addition, they enable participants to appreciate the importance and relevance of the concepts in terms of real-life problems. Similar work needs to be carried out in other relevant disciplines, such as mathematics and physics, to inculcate holistic thinking among participants to apply the concepts they learn in day-to-day real-life situations, thereby enabling them to become lifelong learners. Van Den Berg (2004) in his article showed how assessment can be used to develop learners' higher-order thinking skills. A review of the literature on assessment in Outcome Based Education (OBE) indicates that one can distinguish between the following kinds of assessment. All of them should be dealt with in the classroom to ensure that assessment is an ongoing process: baseline assessment, formative assessment, summative assessment, portfolio assessment and systemic assessment. Different assessment methods should be used within the different kinds of assessment. No single method can appraise the totality of the learner's school and learning experience or do justice to the diversity of learners who must be accommodated (Sanders & Horn, 1995). The development of students‟ capacities of critical thinking (CT), which is necessary for the analysis of unfamiliar situations, so that their question-asking, problem solving, and decision-making capabilities will be based on a framework of rational thinking (Zoller, 2000). A longitudinal case-study by (Miri, David, & Uri, 2007) aimed at examining whether purposely teaching for the promotion of higher order thinking skills enhances students‟ critical thinking (CT), within the framework of science education. By using critical thinking assessment instruments, they have found that the experimental group showed a statistically significant improvement on critical thinking skills components and disposition towards critical thinking subscales, such as truth-seeking, open-mindedness, self-confidence, and maturity, compared with the control groups. This findings suggest that if teachers purposely and persistently practice higher order thinking strategies for example, dealing in class with real-world problems, encouraging open-ended class discussions, and fostering inquiryoriented experiments, there is a good chance for a consequent development of critical thinking capabilities. Teaching science involves introducing students to the social language of school science. The teacher must make the scientific ideas available on the social plane of the classroom, assist students in making sense of and internalizing those ideas, and support students in applying the ideas. In doing this, she needs to draw upon students‟ prior and everyday views of the topic, convince students of the scientific views, as well as monitor and respond to students‟ understandings (Scott & Mortimer, 2005). From this point of view (Chin, 2007) has find out how teachers use questions in classroom discourse to scaffold student thinking and help students construct scientific knowledge. Particular attention was paid to questioning exchanges that stimulated productive thinking in students, as manifested by their verbal responses. A framework was developed that included four questioning approaches adopted by the teachers. This included Socratic questioning, verbal jigsaw, semantic tapestry, and framing. This study describes various questioning approaches, their
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features, and the conditions under which they were used. It also discusses the implications of these approaches for instructional practice. The findings from this study have potential in translating research insights into practical advice for teachers regarding tactical moves in classroom discourse, and provide guidelines for teachers to increase their repertoire of questioning skills. Gokhale (1995) was found that students who participated in collaborative learning had performed significantly better on the critical- thinking test than students who studied individually. It was also found that both groups did equally well on the drill- and- practice test. This result is in agreement with the learning theories proposed by proponents of collaborative learning. According to Vygotsky (1986) students are capable of performing at higher intellectual levels when asked to work in collaborative situations than when asked to work individually. Group diversity in terms of knowledge and experience contributes positively to the learning process. Bruner (1985) contends that cooperative learning methods improve problem- solving strategies because the students are confronted with different interpretations of the given situation. The peer support system makes it possible for the learner to internalize both external knowledge and critical thinking skills and to convert them into tools for intellectual functioning. In the present study, the collaborative learning medium provided students with opportunities to analyse, synthesize, and evaluate ideas cooperatively. The informal setting facilitated discussion and interaction. This group interaction helped students to learn from each other's scholarship, skills, and experiences. The students had to go beyond mere statements of opinion by giving reasons for their judgments and reflecting upon the criteria employed in making these judgments. Thus, each opinion was subject to careful scrutiny. The ability to admit that one's initial opinion may have been incorrect or partially flawed was valued. The collaborative learning group participants were asked for written comments on their learning experience. In order to analyse the open- ended informal responses, they were divided into three categories: 1. Benefits focusing on the process of collaborative learning, 2. Benefits focusing on social and emotional aspects, and 3. Negative aspects of collaborative learning. Most of the participants felt that group work helped them to better understand the material and stimulated their thinking process. In addition, the shared responsibility reduced the anxiety associated with problem-solving. The participants commented that humour too played a vital role in reducing anxiety. A couple of participants mentioned that they wasted a lot of time explaining the material to other group members. From this research study, it can be concluded that collaborative learning fosters the development of critical thinking through discussion, clarification of ideas, and evaluation of others' ideas. However, both methods of instruction were found to be equally effective in gaining factual knowledge. Therefore, if the purpose of instruction is to enhance criticalthinking and problem-solving skills, then collaborative learning is more beneficial. Bramwell-Lalor & Rainford (2014) study shown that the use of concept mapping in advanced level biology can lead to learning gains that exceed those achieved in classes where mainly traditional methods are used. The students in the concept mapping experimental groups performed significantly better than their peers in the control group on both the lower order and higher-order cognitive items of the biology test. Cognitive skills have been classified in higher-order skills by (Zoller, 2002) . He defines Higher Order Cognitive Skills (HOCS) are sometimes linked to the skills beyond the comprehension level in Bloom‟s taxonomy of educational objectives in the cognitive domain (Bramwell-Lalor & Rainford, 2014). „HOCS‟ has been used as an encompassing term that includes activities requiring critical and evaluative thinking, decision-making and problem-solving (Zoller & Pushkin, 2007), as well as the ability to transfer learning to other situations (Kretchmar, 2008). According to (Bramwell-Lalor & Rainford, 2014) the impact of the use of concept maps was very promising as the students showed significant gains in the use of their HOCS in biology.
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These findings are significant as while the use of concept mapping in science education is widely documented, there is relatively little empirical research on its impact on students‟ higher-order thinking skills. It also provides insights into the views of students and teachers engaged in using concept mapping. When students are able to improve their HOCS, this will provide the springboard for them to transfer their knowledge and understanding to everyday life situations. In the case of Malaysia, a conceptual framework of Thinking Skill Thinking Strategy (TSTS) was constructed by the Curriculum Development Centre to infuse thinking in students. The TSTS framework (Malaysia, Curriculum Development Centre, 2001) found in the Science Curriculum Specification acts as a guide for teachers to teach the skills during the teaching and learning process. Salih (2010) discuss the potential of an analogical task in accelerating the thinking skills of Malaysian students in the teaching and learning of an abstract biology concept. As the students strive to generate their respective analogies, their reasoning capabilities, creative and critical thinking skills as well as their thinking strategies developed significantly. An analogy is defined as a concrete and visualisable representation of the similarities (matches) and differences (mismatches) between the „source‟ and „target‟ concepts. The „target‟ is the unfamiliar abstract material to be learnt. The „source‟ concept is a familiar visualisable material to the student that is obtained from the surroundings or from a situation in the environment such as a thing (living and non-living), process, system, place or an activity. The term „match‟ and „mismatch‟ describes the interaction between the „target‟ and the „source‟ concept. A „match‟ occurs when the interaction between the „target‟ and the „source‟ concepts focuses upon similar characteristics and a „mismatch‟ occurs as the interaction comes across differences between the „target‟ and the „source‟ concepts (Salih, 2010). The most important TSTS process using an analogical task is indicated in the SelfGenerated Analogical Reasoning Model (SGAR) model where the process to seek matches and attend to the mismatches („break down‟ of the analogy) occurs. This is crucial because, it involves higher level thinking processes among the students. The mismatches seemed to induce cognitive conflict to the encoding of new information (abstract science concept being learnt) in long-term memory. The process of attending to the mismatches apparently appears to play an important and crucial role in the conceptualisation of the abstract science concept since it involves securing a balance between the schema of the learnt abstract concept and the already existing schema in memory. As such, students and teachers should be advised to acknowledge the mismatches, as it can be argued that this is where the process of higher order thinking (HOTS) takes place to assist in the understanding and retention of the abstract science concept. The SGAR model emerged from the perspective of the learner using an analogical task. It could be used as two prongs, (i) to guide the learner, the teacher and also the textbook authors in generating analogies, and (ii) to incorporating thinking skills during the process. What is probably an advantage of this model is that, it was designed to accommodate the needs of the learner as an information receiver in the learning process. In doing so, the students develop thinking subconsciously which they probably might not engage in if asked to think consciously in a lesson. Once clearly explained and after practices with analogies, students could be encouraged to practice self-regulated learning for other abstract science concepts. Thus, it can be observed that the analogical task could possibly play a dual role of facilitating both the teaching and learning process and also inculcating creative and critical TSTS as envisioned in the Malaysian science curriculum. Ramirez & Ganaden (2008) investigated the effect of creative activities on high school chemistry students‟ higher order thinking skills. Various creative activities were incorporated into fourteen lesson for ten weeks. Findings revealed that textbook and supplemental guide activities put more emphasis on information gathering, remembering, and organizing skills
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than on focusing, integrating, evaluating, and analysing skills. He stressed the importance of cognitive engagement in making classroom activities effective. Observations in the studies reviewed support the existence of a connection between creative activities and higher order cognitive skills. (Davis, 2004) underscored this connection when he included in his list of creative abilities the three higher order thinking skills in Bloom‟s taxonomy; analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. However, the results of the study are: (1) Students exposed to Instruction with Creative Activities (ICA) do not score significantly higher than the students exposed to Instructions with No Creative Activities (INCA) in the test for higher order thinking skills; and (2) students exposed to ICA do not have a significantly higher mean gain score compared to those in the INCA group. Based on the results of the study, (Ramirez & Ganaden, 2008) recommended that researchers (1) use more varied creative activities during instruction or authentic and/or alternative assessment; (2)replicate this study for a longer period to find out if the results will change; (3) use other qualitative research techniques to validate results from the quasi-experimental study; and (4) use intact classes as samples to reduce chances of students discussing their class activities with their peers who belong to the other group. Table 1: Summary of teaching approaches and strategy to enhance HOTS in Science Education No
Author
1
Weiss (2003)
2
Murphy, Bianchi, McCullagh, & Kerr, (2013)
3
Barak & Shakhman, (2008)
4
Rahman et al., (2011)
5
Hopson, Simms, & Knezek (2001) Madhuri, Kantamreddi, & Goteti (2012) Van Den Berg (2004)
6 7
Teaching approaches and strategies -Structured, challenging and collaborative Problem-Based Learning -Develops children‟s thinking skills evidenced (pictures, diagrams, multimedia, writing and orally) -Engaging children‟s interest and motivation using curious phenomena; -Giving children opportunities (as scientists) to repeat activities in order to make deeper observations; -Facilitating peer collaboration in developing hypotheses which are consistent with observations and in evaluating same; -Presenting data in several formats; -Fostering scientific concept development by linking their work in school with science outside (every day and scientific contexts) -Meta-strategic knowledge in the concept of higher-order thinking; -Utilization of instructional strategies related to this; -Beliefs about the students; -Teachers‟ self-perception of the issue discussed -Promotion of students‟ metacognitive skills will help develop self-directed learners -Technology as the tool that allowed the students to move beyond knowledge acquisition to knowledge application. -Inquiry-based pedagogy integrated with problem-based learning and real-life problems -Assessment in Outcome Based Education (OBE)
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8
Miri, David, & Uri, 2007)
9
Chin (2007)
10
Gokhale (1995)
11
Bramwell-Lalor & Rainford (2014) Salih (2010) Ramirez & Ganaden (2008)
12 13
-Dealing in class with real-world problems -Encouraging open-ended class discussions -Fostering inquiry-oriented experiments -Use questions discourse to scaffold student thinking and help students construct scientific knowledge. -Questioning approaches includes Socratic questioning, verbal jigsaw, semantic tapestry, and framing -Collaborative learning through discussion, clarification of ideas, and evaluation of others' ideas -Concept map; students showed significant gains in the use of their HOCS -Analogical task in accelerating the thinking skills -Creative activities emphasizing on information gathering, remembering, and organizing skills, focusing, integrating, evaluating, and analysing skills. Conclusion
Promoting students‟ higher order thinking skills (HOTS) is of the important aims of all educational studies and programs. Past research in science education has indicated that effective teaching strategies play a vital role in improving these skills among students. The concept of strategies in the field of education is not limited to determination methods and techniques of teaching only but should include the following considerations; the approach based on learning objectives, selecting methods and techniques of teaching based on the determined approach, preparation methods and teaching techniques based on the principles and theories of learning, the distribution of teaching time for each step is designed for optimum use of materials subject to the requirements of each of the methods and techniques of teaching, and class management according to the approach and strategies used. Reference Barahal, S. L. (2008). Thinking About Thinking: Preservice Teachers Strengthen Their Thinking Artfully. Phi Delta Kappan, 90(4), 298–302. Retrieved from http://www.kappanmagazine.org/content/90/4/298.abstract Barak, M., & Shakhman, L. (2008). Fostering higher-order thinking in science class: teachers‟ reflections. Teachers and Teaching, 14(3), 191–208. http://doi.org/10.1080/13540600802006079 Bramwell-Lalor, S., & Rainford, M. (2014). The Effects of Using Concept Mapping for Improving Advanced Level Biology Students‟ Lower- and Higher-Order Cognitive Skills. International Journal of Science Education, 36(5), 839–864. http://doi.org/10.1080/09500693.2013.829255 Brookhart, S. M. (2010). How to Assess Higher-Order Thinking Skills in Your Classroom. ASCD. Retrieved from http://www.ascd.org/Publications/Books/Overview/How-toAssess-Higher-Order-Thinking-Skills-in-YourClassroom.aspx Bruner, J. (1985). Child’s Talk: Learning to Use Language. Child Language Teaching and Therapy (Vol. 1). http://doi.org/10.1177/026565908500100113 Chin, C. (2007). Teacher questioning in science classrooms: Approaches that stimulate productive thinking. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 44(6), 815–843. http://doi.org/10.1002/tea.20171
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Davis, G. A. (2004). Objectives and Activities for Teaching Creative Thinking. In Creativity and giftednessEssential readings in gifted education (pp. 97–103). http://doi.org/10.1177/001698628903300208 Gilbert, J. K. (2007). On the Nature of “Context” in Chemical Education. International Journal of Science Education, 28(9), 957–976. http://doi.org/10.1080/00207160.2015.1067311 Gokhale, A. a. (1995). Collaborative Learning Enhances Critical Thinking. Journal of Technology Education, 7, 22–30. http://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-1428-6_910 Hopson, M. H., Simms, R. L., & Knezek, G. a. (2001). Using a Technology-Enriched Environment to Improve Higher-Order Thinking Skills. Journal of Research on Technology in EducationJournal of Research on Technology in Education (International Society for Technology in Education)., 34(2), 109–120. http://doi.org/10.1080/15391523.2001.10782338 Krathwohl, D. R. (2002). A Revision of Bloom‟s Taxonomy: An Overview. Theory Into Practice, 41(4), 212–218. http://doi.org/10.1207/s15430421tip4104 Kretchmar, R. S. (2008). The Increasing Utility of Elementary School Physical Education: A Mixed Blessing and Unique Challenge. The Elementary School Journal, 108, 161–170. http://doi.org/10.1086/529099 Madhuri, G. V, Kantamreddi, V. S. S. N., & Goteti, L. N. S. P. (2012). Promoting higher order thinking skills using inquiry-based learning. European Journal of Engineering Education, 37(2), 117–123. http://doi.org/10.1080/03043797.2012.661701 Miri, B., David, B. C., & Uri, Z. (2007). Purposely teaching for the promotion of higherorder thinking skills: A case of critical thinking. Research in Science Education, 37(4), 353–369. http://doi.org/10.1007/s11165-006-9029-2 Murphy, C., Bianchi, L., McCullagh, J., & Kerr, K. (2013). Scaling up higher order thinking skills and personal capabilities in primary science: Theory-into-policy-into-practice. Thinking Skills and Creativity, 10, 173–188. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.tsc.2013.06.005 Rahman, S., Abdullah, M. S., Yasin, R. M., Meerah, T. S. M., Halim, L., Amir, R., & Education, F. (2011). Student Learning Style and Preferences for the Promotion of Metacognitive Development Activities in Science Class, 14, 11–16. Ramirez, R. P. B., & Ganaden, M. S. (2008). Creative activities and students‟ higher order thinking skills. Education Quarterly, 66(December), 22–33. Salih, M. (2010). Developing thinking skills in Malaysian science students via an analogical task. Journal of Science and Mathematics Education in …, 33(1), 110–128. Retrieved from http://www.recsam.edu.my/R%26D_Journals/YEAR2010/june2010vol1/mariah(110128).pdf Sanders, W. L., & Horn, S. P. (1995). Educational Assessment Reassessed : The Usefulness of Standardized and Alternative Measures of Student Achievement as Indicators for the Assessment of Educational Outcomes. Education Policy Analysis Archives, 3(6), 1–15. Retrieved from http://epaa.asu.edu/ojs/index.php/epaa/article/view/649?lang=es Scott, P., & Mortimer, E. (2005). Meaning making in high school science classrooms: a framework for analysing meaning making interactions. In Research and the Quality of Science Education (Vol. 7, pp. 395–406). http://doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-3673-6 Van Den Berg, G. (2004). The Use of Assessment in the Development of Higher-Order Thinking Skills. Africa Education Review, 1(June 2015), 279–294. http://doi.org/10.1080/18146620408566285 Vandusen, L. M., & Worthen, B. R. (1995). Can Integrated Instructional Technology Transform the Classroom? Educational Leadership, 53(2), 28–33. Retrieved from ://WOS:A1995RX76300021
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Kicking out the Items: Discrimination index and Item Fit Analysis Approaches Adibah binti Abdul Latif1, Suheibah binti Sobaki1, Ibnatul Jalilah binti Yusof1, Nor Fadila binti Mohd Amin1
[email protected],
[email protected],
[email protected],
[email protected] 1 Faculty of Education, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Malaysia
Abstract The decision to place question into high order thinking category is not based entirely on its characteristics. Most importantly is the analysis of difficulty and discrimination levels that is used to verify the quality of the item. The aim of this study is to determine the difficulty level and discrimination index of Form One Mathematics subject in a mid-year test. Difficulty level and discrimination index were analyzed using Classical Test Theory (CTT) and Item Response Theory (IRT). Thirty students from one of the prestigious schools in Malaysia were selected as a sample. The instrument of the study was a Mathematic achievement test for midyear consisted of ten sections with a total of 49 items. Analysis of the difficulty level using both CTT and IRT showed the highest number of items are in the category of Lower Order Thinking Skills (LOTS). Index discrimination from CTT analysis showed 36 items need to be deleted; whereas, only 6 items had to be removed using IRT. According to the findings, teachers should have an item bank and the suitable items for the bank should be chosen based on the difficulty and item fit analyses. They must also learn methods to develop items and not just simply select them from the previous examination or existing exercise books. Besides, the development of the specification table must be completed before items are constructed, and the items cannot be chosen based on teacher assumptions. Keywords: Item analysis, item difficulty, item discrimination, item fit, Classical Test Theory, Item Response Theory Introduction One of the aims of the first wave of the Malaysian Education Development Plan in Malaysia Education Blueprint 2013-2025 is to improve the quality of education, subsequently increasing the efficiency of the education system. One of the ways to achieve the aim is by reforming the school examination systems. Examination reforms must be focused on higherorder thinking skills (Preliminary Report Malaysia Education Blueprint 2013-2025). Such reforms will not only change the teaching-learning processes but it will improve students learning outcomes. Based on Bloom Taxonomy‟s domain, higher-order thinking skills (HOTS) concentrating on four levels; application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation (Shamsina, 2013). HOTS items take place in the higher-levels of the hierarchy of cognitive processing which are the ability of students to apply the knowledge, skills in reasoning, problem-solving, decision making, innovative and creative (Bahagian Pembangunan Kurikulum, Kementerian Pendidikan Malaysia, 2013). However, teachers often find it difficult to develop good HOTS items to be implemented in the classroom. This is due to lack of training, conflicting measurement theories and often confuse which methods to be used in developing good items (Carolina, 2010). Consequently, teacher will resort to easier ways to develop HOTS items (Shamsina, 2013); neglecting the characteristics of good items.
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One of the ways to help teachers in developing a test is by referring to the items bank. However, developing the items bank require a set of complicated procedures as well. Thus, it is very crucial for teachers to assure that all items kept in the banks are high quality items. High quality means that the items was developed using the appropriate procedures, has high reliability and validity (Hasni, 2014). In order to classify items as good HOTS items or as bad HOTS items, there are two measurement framework that have been used widely to analyze their psychometric characteristics; Classical Test Theory (CTT) and Item Response Theory (IRT). According to Siti Rahaya (2008), both CTT and IRT are used to identify errors in an instrument, either a questionnaire or a test. One of the CTT disadvantages is it concerned with total scores. The ability of a student depends on the numbers of item answered correctly and quality of an item is based on item difficulty index (p) and item discrimination index (D) (Bhasah, 2007). CTT considered each item has exactly the same mark, regardless of whether it is an easy item or a difficult item. Thus, student who has a higher mark will considered as high ability student, while student who has lower mark will considered as low ability students. CTT is descriptive and its approach is limited as it depends on the characteristics of the individuals who take the test (Idowu et al, 2011; Sick, 2008; Adedoyin & Adedoyin, 2013). Referred as “circular dependency” by Fan (1998), item difficulty in CTT is based on the percentage of students who responded to the item correctly and student‟s ability is based on how many items they responded correctly. In CTT, item reliability is the primary indicator of test quality (Sick, 2008). However, reliability in CTT depends on the total test scores obtained by students, neglecting the level of items difficulty and students‟ latent ability (Gholam & Sara, 2009). In contrast to CTT, IRT ranks students based on the underlying trait rather than on the total test scores. According to McAlpine (2002) students should be ranked appropriately regardless of which items that they chose to answer. IRT attempts to model the relationship between a student‟s latent ability and probability of the student correctly responding to an item (Duong, 2004). According to Hambleton & Swaminathan (1995), ability parameters estimated in IRT are not test dependent while items statistics estimated in IRT are not group dependent. Unlike CTT which focus on a test as a whole, IRT focuses on each item and each individual who takes the test. This study intended to compare items‟ difficulty level, items‟ discrimination level, and item fit using CTT and one of IRT‟s simplest frameworks, Rasch Measurement Model. Rasch Measurement Model Analysis In Rasch Measurement model,the probability that a student willcorrectly answering questions whose difficulty is known for each item is given by the equation below. (
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( ) ( ) Where ( ) is the probability of student with ability responses ( ) to the i-th item correctly and is the level of difficulty value of the i-th item. From this equation, it can be concluded that (i) the easier the item, the higher probability that the students will answer that item correctly. (ii) High ability students will have higher probability answering an item correctly compare to students with lower ability.
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Rasch Item Fit Analysis The range of acceptable Mean Square (MNSQ) is shown in Table 1. Linacre (2002) suggested that item that has MNSQ value outside the acceptable range 0.4 < y < 1.5 needs to be omitted or revised. Items that are unfit will affect the analysis; subsequently affect the reliability and validity of the instrument. Other than MNSQ, Azrilah et al (2013) suggested that items that have negative Point Measure Correlation (PMC) do not measure what it supposed to measure and should be omitted. Table 1: Infit MNSQ Range Scale
Infit MNSQ (Observed / expected)
0.4