Idris Aman

Eliciting Elements of Higher Order Thinking Skills in the Higher Secondary Examination Question Structure in Japan and Malaysia

This study was aimed at eliciting the elements of Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) in Japan through the Senta Shiken (センター試験, henceforth, SS) examination paper, which is a standardised summative examination at the end of Japanese students’ schooling. The Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (Malaysian Certificate of Education, henceforth, SPM) was also used to compare the structure of examination questions in these two countries. This paper discusses the findings in the experimental session that was carried out in order to identify the experience of students in answering the two forms of examination questions. A total of 3 questions of the Physics subject from the same topic in SPM and SS were selected to be answered by the respondents that comprised of 11 students (3 females and 8 males). The problem-solving process was performed on the computer using the mouse by the respondents and was recorded in the JING application. An interview session was also carried out after the respondents had completed the experimental session in order to help the analysis of the students’ experience when answering the SPM and SS examination questions. Results of the study show that the structure of the SS questions in Japan can encourage students to think more critically compared to the structure of the SPM questions. It is hoped that the findings of this study can provide guidance to the education sector in Malaysia.