Teachers should be equipped with HOTS first, says educationist

SHAH ALAM - The Education Ministry has to ensure teachers today are equipped with Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) in order to teach the skills to students in school.

The Centre for Teaching Thinking and Innovation (CenT-TI) director, Zahari Othman, said teachers in Malaysia lacked pedagogical knowledge.

"If we compare Malaysia and Singapore in terms of teaching method, we are still far behind since Singapore has continuous training for its teachers.

"We lack teaching methods as we don’t have proper training in pedagogy," he said.

Zahari, who is also a fellow at the Institute of Mathematical Science in the Faculty of Science at Universiti Malaya, said the ministry should take the step forward to re-train all teachers to be equipped with the HOTS skill in order to impart it to their students.

The current teachers were trained by the district education office (PPD), which doesn’t have the proper knowledge and teachings of HOTS.

"Thus, the Education Ministry should hire experts with HOTS to teach teachers so that they will be equipped and qualified to teach our students," he said.

Commenting further, Zahari said that with HOTS, students would have extra leverage later as they enter adulthood and the working world.

He said thinking-based learning is crucial; however, its importance is not given by the ministry.

"For example, high-order thinking skills will help students not only analyse problems but also identify the root cause of the problems.

"Imagine if we applied HOTS; students would be known as thinkers and creative students," he added.

Zahari suggested that in order to deliver effective HOTS skills to students, it should be done together with other subjects.