KUALA LUMPUR - It is not surprising that in this era of "How many A’s did your child score?”, parents tend to prioritise their children’s academic achievements right from Year One.
If their children perform poorly, most parents would assume they are inattentive in class.
One mother, a government employee who did not want to be named, found out there were other reasons as well.
She said she became angry when her son, a Year One pupil, got zero marks for his mathematics paper.
"I thought he didn’t study but when I took a look at the question paper, my anger disappeared and I felt sorry for him,” she said.
Pointing to one of the questions, she said it came with images of several apples, bananas and oranges and the pupils were asked to name their favourite fruit and specify the quantity shown in the picture.
"But my son loves grapes (not the fruits indicated), so he left the answer space blank!," she said.
Interestingly, the questions on her son’s maths paper are aligned with higher-order thinking skills (HOTS), a focal point of the primary school curriculum.
Many parents and stakeholders, in fact, have expressed concern over subjecting pupils in Level One, comprising Year One to Three, to HOTS as they feel the first three years of school should be devoted to mastery of the 3Rs (reading, writing and arithmetic).
One mother, Nur Hidayu Chi Hasin, 40, ranted on Facebook that her eight-year-old child’s Bahasa Melayu test papers include questions that require them to find the explicit and implicit meanings of a given statement.
"Even I find it difficult to understand such a question. How can my eight-year-old understand it?” she said, urging the Education Ministry (MOE) to review the curriculum for Level One.
She said her child has now lost interest in learning, more so because he has yet to be proficient in the 3Rs.
FOSTER HIGH-LEVEL THINKING
In 2013, MOE introduced HOTS to replace the Critical and Creative Thinking Skills implemented since 1994.
HOTS aim to foster high-level thinking in children from an early age to meet the demands of contemporary education. Such skills also equip children with the ability to solve problems and be more innovative and creative.
MOE has also incorporated HOTS into the preschool curriculum. According to a kindergarten teacher who wanted to be identified as Cikgu Sue, Malaysia’s early childhood education is based on MOE’s National Preschool Standard Curriculum, which is designed to encourage children to think outside the box.
"To some extent, the children are exposed to HOTS. For example, in early science learning, when teaching body parts, the children are asked why humans need a nose and they need to explain its uses in daily life apart from its sense of smell. This process requires them to think critically and creatively," she explained.
Congress of Teaching Unions in Education Services secretary-general Mohd Azizee Hasan, meanwhile, opined that it is too early to expose Level One pupils to HOTS-based teaching and learning.
This is because most Level One children have not mastered the 3Rs well, thus making it difficult for them to understand and analyse questions that require high-level thinking.
The current batch of pupils in Level One, in particular, is affected by the integration of HOTS because as preschoolers they attended online classes due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
"And, as soon as they enter school at Level One, they find themselves exposed to HOTS. They will certainly feel pressured as they are still struggling to write and spell... so, how do you expect them to handle HOTS questions?," said Azizee in an interview.
He added the congress views this matter seriously as it has received numerous complaints from parents and also teachers.
He said the level of understanding varies among pupils, depending on various factors such as their intelligence quotient, background and learning environment.
He also suggested that the application of HOTS start at Level Two (Year Four to Six), saying this will give enough time for Level One pupils to master the 3Rs.
EARLY EXPOSURE
An expert in developmental psychology (children and adolescents) at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Dr Abdul Rahman Ahmad Badayai concurred, saying Level One pupils are only capable of solving simple problems and making straightforward decisions because their thinking ability is not at an abstract level like adults.
"The incorporation of abstract elements in the teaching and learning process is not suitable for children who are in the cognitive developmental stage (the process of growth in mental abilities such as interpreting, learning and understanding).
"However, their cognitive development also depends on their early exposure during the preschool stage. Given the diverse range of preschool curricula implemented in Malaysia, the children’s capabilities differ as well depending on which preschool institution they went to," he said.
Abdul Rahman added that the cognitive development of Level One pupils also heavily relies on the socialisation aspect at home and in their surroundings.
"For example, if parents want their children to only follow their instructions and restrain them from asking questions or arguing, the likelihood of them (children) developing higher-order thinking skills in all aspects of life is very low," he said.
To help with their cognitive development as well as enable them to make simple decisions and solve problems effectively, children should be encouraged to interact with adults at an early age, he said.
He also said it is a "big mistake" to expect children to develop HOTS purely through the formal teaching and learning process at school.
"Cognitive development, in fact, must occur simultaneously across these three social layers - namely, the institution of school, family and community," he said, warning more challenges will arise if children not proficient in the 3Rs are not assisted and their progress in acquiring HOTS is not monitored comprehensively.
REINTRODUCE LINUS
Universiti Malaya Faculty of Education senior lecturer Associate Prof Dr Husaina Banu Kenayathulla is of the opinion that if knowledge and HOTS elements need to be continued to be instilled, they have to be tailored to the children’s level of thinking and the school curriculum.
She said given the current education needs, students should possess high-level thinking skills as emphasised in Bloom’s taxonomy, revised by Anderson and Krathwohl in 2001. The revised version has 'create' at the top of the hierarchy, followed by 'evaluate', 'analyse', 'apply', 'understand' and 'remember'.
"In my opinion, teachers must first understand the real meaning of HOTS. High-level thinking skills must be applied in classroom teaching, particularly through activities involving visuals, digital games, environment and others.
"For example, to instil financial literacy, preschool children can be exposed to games that involve shopping and spending. This activity can be followed up by questions that lead to higher-order thinking in making spending decisions," she said.
Husaina also said teachers should be provided with the necessary training and guidance to enable them to impart HOTS-oriented teaching and learning more effectively.
"Teachers must also be given autonomy, not to determine which students are suitable for participating in HOTS but the autonomy to decide the appropriate level of HOTS for their students," she added.
Meanwhile, Azizee, who is also the Malaysian Muslim Teachers Association president, hoped the Literacy and Numeracy Screening Programme (LINUS), implemented by MOE previously, be reintroduced with a fresh perspective that aligns with the current education requirements and standards.
According to him, LINUS was able to produce pupils proficient in the 3Rs but was discontinued in 2019 and subsequently replaced by a literacy system developed by individual schools.
"If we were to look at Malaysia’s 2022 PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) scores, there was a significant decline (in terms of 3R proficiency). This could be due to the closure of schools during the pandemic," he said.
(PISA, administered by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, assesses the knowledge and skills of 15-year-old students in mathematics, reading and science, among other things.) - BERNAMA