Developing Thinking Skills in Malaysian Science Students Via An Analogical Task

Developing Thinking Skills in Malaysian Science Students Via An Analogical Task

Maria Salih

Faculty of Science and Technology,

Sultan Idris University of Education

Malaysia

Abstract

Teaching thinking skills to students is often associated with a thinking strategy or a specific thinking technique. The strategy or technique may refer to a series of steps that is systematically drawn up to ensure that the teaching of thinking skills takes place effectively. In the case of Malaysia, a conceptual framework of Thinking Skill Thinking Strategy (TSTS) was constructed by the Curriculum Development Centre to infuse thinking in students. The TSTS framework (Malaysia, Curriculum Development Centre, 2001) found in the Science Curriculum Specification acts as a guide for teachers to teach the skills during the teaching and learning process. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the potential of an analogical task in accelerating the thinking skills of Malaysian students in the teaching and learning of an abstract biology concept. The analogical task given to 99 biology students seemed to enhance the various thinking skills depicted in the TSTS framework. As the students strive to generate their respective analogies, their reasoning capabilities, creative and critical thinking skills as well as their thinking strategies developed significantly.

Keywords: Thinking skills; Thinking strategy; Science; Analogical task; Curriculum; Teaching and learning
Download