Effect Of Problem Solving Teaching Method On Higher Order Thinking Skills Of Prospective Teachers In Mathematics

Mathematics is recognized as the “Queen of Subjects.” It is taught as a required subject in Pakistan from primary through secondary school; however, it is also regarded as a monotonous and dull subject by pupils. There are numerous causes for this, but the primary one is the teacher’s teaching technique.

The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of the Problem Solving Teaching Method on the enhancement of Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTs) among prospective teachers at the BS level who study mathematics at the university level. The major objectives of the present study included finding the effect of the Problem Solving Teaching Method on the elements of higher order thinking skills of Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy, namely analyzing, evaluating, and creating.

This study employed a pre-test-post-test true experimental (double control group) design. The target population for the study consisted of 85 prospective teachers from the Department of Education, International Islamic University Islamabad. The students were from the BS Education group of the fifth semester. For data collection, course contents of mathematics, including theoretical geometry, practical geometry, and word problems of BS Education in the fifth semester, were selected.

Data were analyzed using pre-test, post-test, Levene’s test, ANOVA, t-test, post hoc analysis, mean, and standard deviation. The major results of the study showed that the Problem Solving Teaching Method performed better than the conventional method. The experimental group’s achievement scores were significantly higher than those of control group-I and control group-II.

The scores of control group-I and control group-II were close to one another, which showed that extraneous variables did not affect the intervention. The major findings showed a significant effect of this method on the development of higher order thinking skills.

From the findings, it may be concluded that the problem-solving method not only develops the ability of problem solving but can also be used for the development of higher order thinking skills of Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy. It is recommended, on the basis of the findings, that teachers may be provided training in this method so that they can use it to develop higher order thinking skills among students.