Evaluating the best-practice criteria of higher-order thinking skills for design and technology courses

Abstract

A more systematic and better Higher-Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) approach would allow teachers to offer their best effort in order to produce students with higher-order thinking skills. Successful nurturing of HOTS requires the student’s initiative to change from normal thinking to a critical way of thinking. Educational transformation aimed at cultivating HOTS is in line with contemporary situations because teachers also encounter students who are far different today compared to a decade or so before. The implementation of HOTS among teachers should be intensive and continuous via various methods to ensure the teacher’s capability to teach and learn is always improving. Failure to implement a good HOTS would weaken the objective of the Malaysia Education Development Plan 2013-2025 (PPPM 2013-2025) aimed at producing students who are highly productive and skilled in using information technology and communication. Hence, this paper intended to comprehensively identify the criteria for best-practice for HOTS in the Design and Technology course as well as evaluate the criteria by using the Delphi Method. This method comprised three interview sessions with a panel of 15 experts whose function was to determine the criteria obtained from literature sources. These criteria were then used as components to develop an instrument to measure teachers’ experience when carrying out HOTS during the teaching and learning sessions.