Chapter 2: Literature Review
2.4. High Order Thinking Skills
2.4.3. HOTS in mathematics
A study which focused on developing high order thinking skills among first-year calculus students [Maharaj and Wagh, 2016], was conducted in South Africa and India. The study adopted Brookhart’s idea to identify the three core abilities that should be targeted. Those abilities are transfer of knowledge and skills across sections, critical thinking and problem solving. Hence from those abilities expected learning outcomes for the development of HOTS were documented. The resulted learning outcomes were used to structure sample tasks. The findings of the study indicated that there was significant lack of HOTS abilities from the students who were previously exposed to the concepts that the sample tasks were based on [Maharaj and Wagh, 2016].
In 2017 research was conducted to investigate the relationship between HOTS and mathematics students’ performance [Tanujaya et al, 2017]. The study adopted a correlation research method on 41 mathematics students. It was found that there is a strong linear relationship between HOTS and student’s academic achievement. Students with high level of HOTS are expected to outperform in mathematics. That study suggested that HOTS appraisals can be used in new students’ selection process as an indicator whether to accept or reject a student. Also, to improve academic performance of mathematics students, HOTS should be enhanced in students. One way to enhance HOTS, the study proposed revision of textbooks.
As the concept of HOTS emerged in many countries’ mathematics education, it gained respect to such an extent that in Indonesia HOTS problems were used as a national examination. That national examination is called Ujian Nasional in Indonesia, commonly abbreviated as UN or UNAS [Ariyanto, 2019]. It’s a standard evaluation system of primary and secondary education in Indonesia. The use of HOTS in UN prompted some scholars to be concerned about HOTS problems’ levels and their characteristics. In that regard, a study was conducted to investigate the construction of HOTS problems levels and their characteristics. The results of that study were validated by investigator triangulation that involved two experts. By combination of cognitive level of trade in international mathematics and science study (TIMSS) and process of Bloom’s taxonomy, the resulted levels of HOTS problems were four and each level has its own unique characteristic. The study further suggests that the results can be used as a guide by teachers to improve HOTS on students [Ariyanto, 2019]. An adaption of the four levels of HOTS problems and their characteristics is presented in Table 2.2.
Page | 20 Meryansumayeka et al (2019) endeavoured to describe mathematical problems that are categorized as HOTS problems. They used a descriptive qualitative approach, and the subjects were junior high school students in Palembang city. The study revealed that mathematical problems that belong to HOTS category are the ones that have instruction for evaluation, analysis, and creativity. Classifications of this HOTS related problem is based on Bloom's cognitive taxonomy. Presented in Figure 2.3 is an adoption of classification of HOTS related problem and four levels of HOTS problems [Meryansumayeka et al, 2019 and Ariyanto, 2019].
With the worldwide pandemic Covid-19, there was introduction of e-learning in most parts of the world in different schools and universities [Alsoud and Harasis, 2021]. A study was conducted in Ngawi Regency, East Java to describe HOTS of students using e-learning [Setyowati, 2021]. Data was collected using a HOTS development structured test which involved seven subjects, one of the subjects was mathematics. The results showed that students’ scores ranged from 30 to 96.7. Within the period
Figure 2.3: Mathematics HOTS problems categories.
Page | 21 Figure 2.4: Contributing factors or elements towards students’ MHOTS.
of eight months after e-learning was implemented due to the pandemic, only half of the sampled population were found to have acquired the expected abilities [Setyowati, 2021].
Minarni and Napitupulu (2020) state that making students to comprehend mathematical higher-order thinking skills (MHOTS) is very challenging. However, this ability (MHOTS) is very vital for students as they move to higher levels of their studies, careers, and life in general especially in these days of industrial revolution. Some scholars suggest that one of the factors that affect students’ thinking abilities is the learning context. Hence, they executed a study aiming to investigate the contribution of constructivism-based learning approaches and mathematical prior knowledge (MPK) to students achieving MHOTS [Minarni and Napitupulu, 2020]. The population of the study was primary junior high school (PJHS) students in Medan, Deli Serdang, Binjai, and Padang Sidempuan in the Province of North Sumatera, and Banda Aceh in the Province of Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam. Univariate and multivariate analysis was used as a statistical tool to analyze the contribution of treatment towards mathematical high order thinking skills (MHOTS) achievement, while t-Students was used as a statistical tool to determine the significant improvement of MHOTS (Glass & Hopkins, 1996). All
Page | 22 analyses used a 0.05 level of significance. The role of the learning approach was elaborated through linking MHOTS achievements with the steps of the learning approach applied in the classroom based on the output of the regression analysis. The study found the elements that contributed to the increase of students’ MHOTS. One of them was the contribution of constructivism-based learning to MHOTS, in the range of 18% to 57%, and the rest are presented in Figure 2.4. In addition, there were many more studies concerning HOTS and mathematics, accessible in the space of publication [Nursalam et al, 2018; Maslihah et al, 2019; Hadi and Zaidah, 2020 and Makmuri, 2020].