THINKING SKILLS BACKGROUND

1. Thinking skills are important for everyone to meet the present challenges of the 21st century. At the same time thinking skills are needed in our daily life as well as in education. 
2. Teachers in school or at home carrying out teaching and learning (WFH) during this pandemic should provide learners with the tools of thinking. It is not enough to disseminate as much knowledge to our learners by asking them to memorise and remember what they have learnt. However, in developing learners intellectual capabilities, teachers need to provide the tools of thinking.
3. The tools of thinking are critical and creative thinking skills which can be use in making decisions, solving problems, planning, or making innovations and inventions. These thinking skills should be taught in accordance with the moral, spiritual and social values.
4. Teachers should not only giving learners activities for them to perform but must teach and emphasise the process of thinking skillfully as well as to ensure that they are also aware of the thinking skills used.
5. The outcome of PISA 2009 has left a significant impact to Malaysia Ministry of Education (MOE) in improving the current national education. Thus, in 2011, the MOE has launched Malaysia Education Blueprint which emphasizes Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS). 

 WHY THINKING SKILLS?

• Thinking has relationship to mental process. The relationship of thinking skills are mental, cognitive and strategic processes which we utilise when solving problems and making decisions.
• Thinking skills include theorizing, predicting, evaluating, memory recalling and organizing thought. Everyone has this skills but not everyone knows how to use them effectively.
• Thinking skills enable everyone to process information, recall facts and apply knowledge to various situations. At a higher level, these skills can involve problem-solving and analysis. They are both useful in education and can be applied in all subjects across the curriculum. 
• Thinking skills help in a better understanding of the language.
• Thinking skills are lifelong skills.
• Thinking skills will enable to produce Malaysian citizens who can think skillfully.

HIGHER ORDER THINKING SKILLS (HOTS) IN 21st CENTURY LEARNING  

• The  21st century  learning skills  emphasize  more on  the  development of  critical  and creative  thinking  skills. 

Critical thinking skill helps an individual to solve problems, whereas, creative thinking skill helps an individual to generate fresh and authentic ideas as well as to be able to think outside the box.                                                                    

2020 Apr 08 Accepted: | 2020 Mar 30 Revised: | 2020 Mar 16 Received: generate fresh and authentic ideas as well as to be able to think outside the box. 

• The Revised of Bloom’s Taxonomy which was first developed in 1956 classified thinking processes as shown in the table below:

HOW TO TEACH THINKING SKILLS?

There are five steps for teaching thinking skills. The steps are as below:

1. Determine learning objectives
2. Teach through questioning
3. Practice
4. Review, refine and improve
5. Provide learning feedback

 Some examples of activities that can be used in teaching thinking skills by using the above steps:

1. Problem Solving Question and answer
2. Brainstorming
3. Games, competitions and quizzes
4. Debates
5. Projects
6. Problem Solving Tasks

References: Adaptation from Pusat Pembangunan Kurikulum (PBK) , KPM

International Journal of Psychosocial Rehabilitation, Vol. 24, Issue 05, 2020 ISSN: 1475-7192