UNIVERSITI TEKNOLOGI MALAYSIA,

JOHOR BHARU.

Curriculum Foundatiom
(MPF 2413)

Individual Assignment
Choose one article from any educational media while focusing
on High Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) or Nation Building
write a review based on the curriculum perspectives. Your
review will be evaluated based on the article main points,
restatement of or expansions of ideas, statement of opinions and
writing style.

Name

: Suhaimi Bin Abd Wahid

Matric Number

: MP131269

I.C. Number

: 870920-23-5961

Lecturer

: Dr. Sanitah Bt Mohd Yusof

Developing Higher Level thinking by Barbara Limbach and Wendy Waugh.

Introduction
Higher order thinking skills or best known as HOTS, has been identified by the Malaysian
Ministry of Education as one of the key aspects that is integral in the current Malaysia
Educational Blueprint Plan 2013 2025. The following is the definition of HOTS according to
the Ministry of Education (2013b):
Higher Order Thinking Skills are the ability to apply the knowledge, skills
and values in reasonings and reflections to solve problems, make decisions,
ability to innovate and create something.
(Ministry of Education, 2013b).
The reasons for the Ministry of Education to have a particular interest in higher order thinking
skills is because there are evidents where Malaysian students are found to be lacking behind in
applying of higher order thinking skills in their learning according to the two recent
international assesemnts; Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) and Trends
in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) (Ministry of Education, 2013: 33a).
To improve the application of higher order thinking skills among the Malaysian students, the
Ministry of Education has outlined several steps in the Malaysia Educational Blueprint Plan
2013 2025 Ministry of Education, 2013: 33 37a). The first step is to revamp the curriculum
from the old KBSR and KBSM to the updated KSSR and KSSM. Next are the changes in
current practice of assesement where from central assessment oriented, it will change it into
school based assessment. The revamp of the assessment will also affect the national
examination, where 30% of the questions for UPSR and SPM will consist of higher order
thinking skills questions. Thirdly, are the changes of current teaching and learning practice in
the classroom through the implementation of i-THINK program (Innovative Thinking skills).
Lastly, the Ministry of Education will review the teacher training curriculum from time to time
inorder to ensure that pre-service teachers are adequately prepared to teach higher order
thinking skills required by students in the Malaysian classrooms.

The implementation of higher order thinking skills in our education systems is seen as a
positive movement by the ministry to uphold our education. For that reason, it is the role of the
teachers to ensure that the idea of higher order thinking skills will be implemented successfully
in schools. Therefore, teachers need to know how they can develop higher order thinking skills
among their students. This article written by Limbach and Waugh give a clear and thorough but
still easy to be implemented methods in fostering high level thinking among the students. The
methods propose by both Limbach and Waugh encompasses the following five steps:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Determine the learning objectives.

Teach through questioning.
Practice before assessement.
Review, refine and improve.
Provide feedback and assessment of learning.
(Limbach & Waugh, 2010)

Limbach and Waugh (2010) also claim that these methods are derived from the existing theory
in cognitive development, effective learning environments and outcome-based assessment.
This review, will look upon the five steps and give critical analysis on it.

1. Determine the learning objectives.

Limbach and Waugh (2010) start the article with the emphasis on a carefully designed lesson
obejective as the pinnicale step in ensuring the success of fostering higher level thinking
among the students. For teachers, what they should incorporate in their lesson objective, lesson
activities and assessments is the chance to enable the students to carry out and display evidence
of high order thinking. Limbach and Waugh (2010) futher put forward the use of the Blooms
Revised Taxanomy as a medium for teachers to outline a well-planned objective in their lesson
and it is hope that it will carter the aforementioned issue. This is because through the use of the
Blooms Revised Taxanomy teachers will be able to determine and arrange lessons to go well
with the students thinking at any level (Anderson & Krathwol, 2001 in Limbach & Waugh,
2010).
The following diagram will explain in details the continuous level of the Blooms Revised
Taxanomy:
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Diagram 1: Continuous level of the Blooms Revised Taxanomy

(Taken from Murray, 2012).
Through the use of the Blooms Revised Taxanomy it is hoped that teachers will be able to
create lessons where standards and educational goals, objectives, product, and activities are
able to support each other. At the end, the abovementioned ideas will align in a working
scheme and there also will be a perfect fit between how the lesson was carried and the learning
objective of the day.
As an educator, I cannot stress more the importance for teachers to have a thoroughly thought
out lesson or learning objective. I believe that learning objective is the main element in the
teaching and learning process in determining the effectiveness of the lesson and whether or not
the lesson is successful in giving impact to the students. Having stated that, I would like to
highlight the current practice in the Malaysian classroom where learning objectives are seldom
shared with the students. I believe that this current practice hinders the students potential in
understanding the lesson. This is congruents with Shields (2011) where she stipulates that
teacher should share the lesson objectives at the beginning of each lesson, so that children have
an explicit awareness of what it is they are going to learn. Hattie (2008, in Shields, 2011)
support this claim through his research where it shows that there is an increment up to 27
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percent on the students' performance and achievement in the lesson if the teacher share the
learning or lesson objective with them. I trust that if such high order thinking learning
objectives are shared with the students the possibilities are endless and at the end it will
benefited them the most in the long term; especially in fostering higher level thinking.

2. Teach through questioning.

In the article, Limbach and Waugh (2010) point out the use of questioning in teaching and
learning process as the second step in fostering higher level thinking. This is because both of
them believe that through effective questionings students thinking will be challenged and at
the same time giving them the familiarity and skills with higher level questions (Limbach &
Waugh, 2010). Other than that, with the correct method of questionings teachers will be able to
grasp the students attention in the teaching and learning process.
Theijsmeijer (2009, in Limbach & Waugh, 2010) postulates that for teachers to incorporate
higher order thinking skills in the questionings, they can make use of the convergent and
divergent methods. Theijsmeijer (2009, in Limbach & Waugh, 2010) further elucidates that
convergent questions is focusing the students to give specific correct answer while divergent
questions will make them to give various correct answers. The relationship between methods
of questionings and Blooms Revised Taxanomy is explains in the following diagram.
Methods of Questioning
Divergent Questions

Convergent Questions

Blooms Revised Taxanomy

Creating
Evaluating
Analysing
Applying
Understanding
Remembering

Higher Order
Thinking
Lower Order
Thinking

Diagram 2: Convergent and divergent questions relation with

Blooms Revised Taxanomy
(Adapted from Theijsmeijer, 2009 in Limbach & Waugh, 2010)
I share the same view as Limbach and Waugh in regards to the idea of using questioning
methods in the teaching and learning process to develop higher order thinking skills among
students. I also agree that it is important for teachers to have the following questioning skills to
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ensure that they will be able to make full use of the questioning methods in the classroom in
order to build up higher level thinking. The questioning skills required for the teachers are the
ability to give simple and straight to the point questions, able to say the questions differently,
able to elicit further responses from the students, employ various techniques when questioning
the students, able to redirect response or questions, give feedback and reinforcement without
repeating the answer, and lastly able to broaden the questions to all students (Teaching
Strategies, 2003 in Limbach & Waugh, 2010).
However, I want to particularly focus on the ability for teachers to give the opportunity for
students to think and scrupulously building up their thoughts before answering questions from
the teacher. This is in line with Wragg and Brown (2001: 41) that stipulate that if you want
pupils to think before giving their answer, then you need to give them the time to do so. A
study by Wragg and Brown (2001) futher shows that there if the wait-time is increased after the
teachers pose questions to the students, there is also an increased in the high cognitive or
higher thinking level among the students. Moreover, I do believe that when teacher wanted to
create or pose questions to the students verbally or in the examination papers they can use the
Action Verbs for Blooms Taxonomy as guidance (see Appendix 1).

3. Practice before assessement.

Practice before assessments is seen by Limbach and Waugh (2010) as an active learning
process that can evoke students to become critical thinkers. This is because through active
learning teachers can engage students with argument and reasoning process, give opinions, and
analysis and critique evidence using primary and secondary resources which is in line with the
higher order thinking skills in the Blooms Revised Taxanomy (Limbach & Waugh, 2010).
This at the end will make the students to think clearly on the things that they are doing and
learning which also enable them to maintain the knowledge acquired longer (Fink, 2003 in
Limbach & Waugh, 2010).
As the the saying goes, practice makes perfect. The same goes when it comes to fostering
higher order thinking skills in the classroom. I strongly believe that learning cannot take place
when students are only sitting in class listening to teachers, memorizing what the teachers give
to them, and spitting out answers in the examination. Students must talk about what they are
learning, write about it, relate it to past experiences, apply it to their daily lives or in simpler
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way; they must make what they learn as a great part of themselves in order to become higher
thinking students (Chickering & Gamson, 1987, in Bonwell, 1995:3).
The following are examples of active learning activities that can be employed in the classroom
to promote higher thinking skills:

Round table exercise: write a response to a question, and then pass it to

the person on your left until all in the group have had the opportunity
to respond. Responses can also be passed between groups.
Have students form groups of three or four. Introduce a problem
related to todays content. Ask groups to solve the problem.
In groups, students write one or two good multiple choices questions
and present these questions to the class. Discuss the questions.
Students keep a journal, taking a few minutes to write down their
feelings and thoughts regarding various topics.
After the teacher has done with the presentation stage of the lessons, in
pairs, students disccuss what they have understood from the teachers
explanation.
During the lesson, stop for a while and have students engage in a short
write up ("What do you think and/or feel about what has been said?")
(Adapted from Bonwell, 1995: 13 16)

4. Review, refine and improve.

The fourth step; review, refine and improve, encourages teachers to look upon their teaching
and learning practices and beliefs so that it is harmonious with the higher level thinking idea.
Limbach and Waugh (2010) view this step as a way for teachers to gain more insight about
their teaching by getting views and feedbacks from the students. Ultimately, it give the
opportunity for the teachers to know if the students needed more help, is there a need for the
teacher to teach the topic again and area for improvement in the lesson. Other than that, with
the valuable information gained from the students, teachers can see whether the higher level
thinking is taking place in the lesson (Limbach & Waugh, 2010). From that, teachers can revise
and refine their current practice so that in the future they will be improving their teaching.
Ways to gain feedbacks from the students proposed by Limbach and Waugh (2010) are through
close classroom observation where teachers monitor the teaching and learning process and also
the students have their own teaching diaries that they use to describe the lesson activities. The
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benefits that students can gain from this step are that they will be able to monitor their own
learning subsequently understand that the need to change their study skills (Limbach & Waugh,
2010).
The idea of gaining information from the students and improving the lesson is very intriguing
for me. This is because, I also believe that it is important for teachers to have the initiative to
look into their own practice and improve it. However, for Malaysian teachers the two methods
of gaining feedbacks proposed above are deem as taxing and time consuming. In general, most
Malaysian classrooms are consisting of 25 to 40 students and some exceed that number.
Therefore, it is rather time consuming and impossible for a teacher to carefully monitor all of
the students and also read and analyse all the diary entries written by the pupils.
Consequently, there is a need for teachers to use a rather systematic, simple and less time
consuming method in gaining feedback from the students. Thus, I would like to recommend
the use of simple feedback form. The example of the aforementioned feedback form can be
seen in Appendix 2. The feedback form should ask students on what they think about the
lesson, how they want the lesson to be, and how the teacher can improve the lesson (Hassard,
2009). Teachers can ask students to fill in the form for about 5 minutes at the end of their
lesson. The simple and short feedback form is more practicle if compared with the long and
tedious close classroom observation and reading the students diaries.

5. Provide feedback and assessment of learning.

Other than gaining feedback from the students, Limbach and Waugh (2010) also point out that
teachers should give feedback and assessment of learning to students in order to foster higher
thinking skills. Both of them further add that in giving feedbacks and learning assessments,
teachers should make sure that students know how they will be assessed by explaining to them
the standards used in doing the assessments (Limbach & Waugh, 2010). When this is achieved,
then teachers can assess and evaluate their students and continue to provide constructive and
appropriate feedback (Limbach & Waugh, 2010). This notion of giving good feedbacks also
should be a constant practice in the classroom and not a one-off effort from the teachers.
Through this practice teachers can improve the quality of learning and performance in the
classroom and at the same time helps students monitor their own strengths and weaknesses
(Sadler, 1989 in Souter, 2009).
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To move futher in this idea, we should really undertand the meaning of feedback and
assessment of learning. The meaning of feedback and assessment of learning is summarised as
following:
Feedback is conceptualized as information provided by a teacher regarding
given aspects of a students performance or understanding or in other word,
feedback is information about how successfully something has been or is
being done. Feedback helps teachers in regards to making instructional
decisions based upon student progress. Overal, teacher feedback is a
communication device that informs students on how to improve their
performance in relationship to specific learning criteria.
(Hattie & Timperley, 2007; Ramaprasad, 1983, in Souter, 2009).
I believe that feedback and learning assessment given to students is a good way to foster higher
order thinking among them. However, in reality students rarely receive good and impactful
feedback from their teachers. This shocking reality is due to lack of training among teachers in
aforementioned matter. Souter (2009) claims that for most the lack of training in this field
resulted with students misunderstand their teachers feedback because they received poor
feedbacks that are not well thought of, not clear and rather confusing. Teachers are also
confined with the current assessment grading system that does not gave clear opportunity to
teachers in addressing feedbacks to students effectively (Kluger & DiNisi, 1996; Wiggins,
1993 in Souter, 2009).
In the Malaysian schools, the common practice of feedback given to students is in the form of
report card which only administred after each examinations or tests. The report card method
can be view as a one-off method that only gives the grades achieved by students but not really
an effective learning assessment. As such, the predicament above should be address and I
believe that teachers should give quality feedback in the written form. This can be done by
teachers all the time and not only limited for after examinations or tests only. Black and
William (1998, in Souter, 2009) support the idea of written feedback because there is
considerable evidence that providing feedback in the form of written comments is more
effective than providing mere grades in enhancing the students performances. Nevertheless, to
address the time consuming issue, teachers should bear in mind that they are not oblige to give
feedbacks all the times. They should choose wisely on when and how they will give feedback
to the students so that the issue of this step becomes a burden to the teachers will not rise.

Conclusion
All in all, the five steps propose by Limbach and Waugh (2010) above are a good starts for
teachers to employ higher order thinking skills in their classrooms. It might be hard at the
beginning for teachers to adopt these steps in their classroom but with proper tranning,
planning and support such goals is not impossible to be achieved. Malaysian teachers should
bear in mind that the paradigm of using higher order thinking skills in the classroom is the
current 21st century teaching methods that being utilised around the world. To stick to the old
teaching and learning practices without considering the use of higher order thinking skills will
only hinder our students out of their staggering potentials and ultimately making them left out
in the global race. It is hope that through the introduction of higher order thinking skills in the
Malaysian education system, it will enable us to prepare our students to become the future
human capitals with international standard.

REFERENCE
Bonwell, C. C. (1995) Active Learning: Creating Excitement in the Classroom. Retrieved
from
https://www.ydae.purdue.edu/lct/HBCU/documents/Active_Learning_Creating_Excite
ment_in_the_Classroom.pdf
Hassard, J. (2009) The Art of Teaching Science: Chapter 7 - Designing Science Units and
Courses of Study Agenda Strategies and Projects. Retrieved from
http://artofteachingscience.org/text/ch7as.html
Limbach, B. & Waugh, W. (2010). Developing Higher Level Thinking. Journal of
Instructional Pedagogies Journal. Published by the Academic & Business Research
Institute, Vol. 3
Ministry of Education (2013a) Pelan Pembangunan Pendidikan Malaysia 2013 2025
[Malaysian Educational Blueprint Plan 2013 -2025]. Retrieved from
http://www.moe.gov.my/v/pelan-pembangunan-pendidikan-malaysia-2013-2025
Ministry of Education (2013b). Program Kemahiran Berfikir Aras Tinggi: Konsep KBAT
[Higher Order Thinking Skills Program: HOTS Concept]. [PowerPoint slides]
Retrieved from http://asiskl.org/v4/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/1.-KONSEP-KBATdan-i-THINK.pdf
Murray, J. (2012). The Big 6 Helps Students Achieve Standards. Retrieved from
http://big6.com/pages/lessons/articles/the-big6trade-helps-students-achieve-standardsby-janet-murray.php
Shields, M. (2011) Learning Objectives: The Heart of Every Lesson. Retrieved from
http://www.teachers.net/wong/MAR11/
Souter, D. H. (2009). The Nature of Feedback Provided to Elementary Students by Teachers
In Schools Where Grading and Reporting are Standards-Based (Unpublished doctoral
dissertation). Georgia State University, Atlanta.
TeachThought (2013). Blooms Taxonomy Verbs For Critical Thinking. Retrieved from
http://www.teachthought.com/learning/249-blooms-taxonomy-verbs-for-criticalthinking/
Wragg, E.C. and G. Brown (2001) Questioning in the Primary School. London:
Routledge/Falmer.

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Appendix 1 Action Words from Blooms Taxanomy in Building Questions.

(Taken from TeachThought, 2013)

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Appendix 2 Example of Students Feedback Form

Day : ......................................................

Date: ...........................................

Name : .................................................................................................................................
Class: ..................................................

Subject : ...........................................................

1. How satisfied were you with today lesson?

Very satisfied.
Satisfied
Unsatisfied.
Very unsatisfied.
2. What could the teacher have done to increase your satisfaction?
........................................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................................
3. What have you learnt today?
........................................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................................
4. What do you want to learn more?
........................................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................................
5. What is your favourite activity? Why?
........................................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................................
6. What is your least favourite activity? Why?
........................................................................................................................................
........................................................................................................................................

(Adapted from Hassard, 2009)

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