The Need for Creativity in Teaching Higher Order Thinking Skills in Biology

Abstract

The objectives of this study are to know the students' opinion on the difficulty level of the topic of Nutrition in the form four Biology and to identify the students' level of thinking skills in the topic. This study uses a quantitative study design through a survey approach. A questionnaire and a formative test were administered to 196 pure Science stream students in four secondary schools in Perak. Respondents were selected through group sampling method. It was found that the mean of difficulty level of the topic of Nutrition is 1.94 which shows the students’ opinion on this topic as a difficult topic. The findings of the formative test show that the students' higher order thinking skills in the topic of Nutrition are low because over 60% of the respondents fail to solve questions of high cognitive level in 7 out of 10 subtopics. The findings of the formative test are compatible with the students' opinion on the difficulty level of the topic of Nutrition. The overall findings show that students understand but cannot apply basic concepts in the whole topic of Nutrition. Hence, teachers need to be creative by integrating technology in their teaching aids to help students visualize and integrate microscopic concepts in a complex system.