The Competency Based Approach and Biology Students’ Higher Order Thinking Skills in Secondary Technical Schools in The Buea Sub Division of The South West Region of Cameroon.

Abstract

This study investigated the extent to which the Competency Based Approach affects higher order thinking skills in Biology in Secondary Technical School Students’ in the Buea subdivision of the South West Region of Cameroon. Three research hypotheses were formulated to test the effect of the competency-based approach on students' ability to analyze, synthesize and predict. The quasi-experimental design was used and 120 Form five students were selected purposively. The experimental group was taught using student-centered methods with remediation (Competency Based Approach) while the control group was taught using the traditional lecture method only. An Achievement Test (AT) with items to measure competences in the fourth, fifth and sixth levels of the Cognitive domain of Bloom's Taxonomy of Educational Objectives, formulated by the researcher and validated by experts in the field of Biology was used to measure Higher Order Thinking Skills. Data were analyzed using mean scores, standard deviation and t-test to test the hypotheses stated at p ≤ 0.05 level of significance. The results revealed that the experimental group significantly acquired HOTs more than the control group. Recommendations were made.