Learner Engagement in a Business Simulation Game: Impact on Higher-Order Thinking Skills

Higher-order thinking skills (HOTS) are reliable predictors of success in school and the workplace. A typical technique for encouraging higher-order thinking is to use instructional design interventions that engage learners in simple cognitive activities. Business simulation game (BSG) is one of the types of interactive learning environments that can increase HOTS. In addition, student engagement and attitude toward technology use are considered strong influences on HOTS. The study explored the effect of using a BSG on HOTS and student engagement. It examined the influence of attitude toward the use of a BSG on HOTS and student engagement. The results of the t-test analysis showed that learning activities using BSG had a positive effect on HOTS and student engagement. Additionally, PLS-SEM analysis results indicated that immersion, interaction, and intention to use the game influence student engagement. Furthermore, student engagement significantly influenced HOTS. The findings indicate that students must demonstrate that they are engaging actively in a course to improve HOTS and that a BSG can be a valuable and effective tool for promoting engagement. Moreover, the COVID-19 pandemic caused limitations in sampling and representativeness of respondents. Future research should involve a bigger sample size and students who have attended related courses. © The Author(s) 2022.

Adaptation of a Research-based Teaching-Learning Format with Approaches of Online Learning in the STEM Field

Research-based learning (RBL) familiarizes students with the academic research process at an early stage and at the same time offers them the opportunity to actively shape their own learning process. Working on their own research problems allows students to go through the entire research cycle, which promotes not only subject and methodological competencies but also the students' self-competencies. The handling of subject-specific and didactic challenges of this form of teaching-learning has been discussed many times in the past. New challenges for research-based learning now arise from the shift of teaching and learning to virtual space associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper focuses on the adaptation of a research-based teaching-learning format to the demands of e-learning in the course Interaction Science with Artificial Intelligence. We evaluated the adapted teaching-learning format with 18 students in a master's program in STEM. The students stated an increase in professional competence in the areas of programming, data preparation and data visualization. Our results suggest that peer group and direct interaction via synchronous communication channels are important structural frameworks for research-based learning in an online learning context. From our results, we can derive initial implications for online-based RBL in the field of computational education. © 2022 IEEE.

The Interactive Digital Storytelling Assignment in Online Teaching and Learning

With the current demand for online teaching and learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Digital Storytelling (DST) has arisen as a practical tool that keeps both teachers and students positively and actively engaged in the teaching and learning process. DST is effective in enhancing students’ literacy, communication skills and, most notably, thinking skills. The integration of thinking skills and DST is essential in the teaching and learning process to activate students’ higher-order thinking skills. This chapter aims to serve as a helpful guide, especially for teachers, to apply DST in teaching and learning by understanding its approaches, strategies, and techniques. A summary of selected studies is presented in this chapter to show how DST is utilized globally in various educational settings. In addition, a 12-step process is introduced to guide teachers’ adoption of the DST project as a classroom activity with their students. This process outlines the analysis, design, development, implementation, and evaluation phases. With DST, students are allowed to think and apply their knowledge and skills to a new learning context. The implication of this paper is to tap into and revitalize students’ creative thought process and ‘thinking outside the box’ capability, which will enable them to devise new ways to carry out tasks and solve problems in challenging times. © 2022 by Nova Science Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved.

It's time to rethink teaching! Bloom's pyramid of higher order thinking skills revisited

This chapter discusses the status of teaching and learning during COVID-19 with a focus on the challenge courageously accepted by the education sector to not interrupt the learning-teaching process, based on the great technological support provided to primary, secondary, and tertiary education. Significantly, this chapter calls for a new era of post-covID-19 education! It focuses on inviting educators and education institutions' leaders to "Rethink Education" and adopt Blended Learning-Teaching Approach. This approach integrates the learning and teaching technologies into the physical classroom settings while incorporating improvements based on education stakeholders' perspectives about their children's learning. More importantly, this chapter makes a revisit to the "Pyramid" of Bloom's Higher Order Thinking Skills and suggest changing it to a "Ladder" that comprises learners' engagement in a "Learning Challenge" in every step of this "Ladder." It also suggests changing the "Remembering" and "Understanding" levels into "Find" and "Explain" stages respectively. © KONINKLIJKE BRILL NV, LEIDEN, 2022.

Post-COVID e-learning in Bahrain: Where are we in meeting the educational reform objective of sustainable development?

This chapter reports on a research study that investigated the question, "How has progress toward sustainable development in the Kingdom of Bahrain been impacted by the covID-19 transition to e-learning?" The study was qualitative in nature in the form of a small-scale inquiry of a specific case, where aspects of e-learning in higher education institutions in the post-covID Bahrain were analyzed. An Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) model was used to frame the analysis. The results of the study indicated that progress toward the achievement of the sustainable development objective in Bahrain has been slightly expedited by the transition to e-learning. There were several persistent barriers, which were in need of addressing. Such examples include the absence of an overarching e-learning strategy aligned with the requirements for achieving sustainable development, and the lack of capacity-building opportunities targeting e-course instructional design that incorporates ESD components. Such instructional design includes higher-order thinking skills (HOTS) integration, interdisciplinary critical reflections, and knowledge transfer. © KONINKLIJKE BRILL NV, LEIDEN, 2022.

VIRAL: The Effectiveness of Virtual Lab Teaching in Developing Higher Order Thinking Skills

Virtual Innovation & Research Acceleration Lab (VIRAL) is an ongoing teaching pedagogy project between SRM Institute of Science & Technology, Ramapuram Campus, Chennai and MIT Square, London. In the higher education sector, the year 2020 posed new obstacles. All three waves of the COVID-19 pandemic necessitated a shift in the mentality of educators, teachers, and students from all over the world. The concerns and obstacles associated with higher educational institutions' rapid and abrupt transition from face-to-face learning to technology-assisted virtual learning. This study examines the effectiveness of Virtual Innovation & Research Acceleration Labs (VIRAL) teaching in developing Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) among engineering students. The researchers employed a Quasi-Experimental method. The sample consisted of 98 Engineering students who have regular laboratory classes as part of their curriculum. A group consisting of 49 students was selected as a control group and another group was selected as an experimental group randomly. The result of the study indicates that the experimental group has a greater mean of higher-order thinking skills than the control group. Thus it is concluded that the virtual lab teaching method for research and innovation has a significant positive effect in enhancing higher thinking skills in engineering. The study also has implications for facilitation in the higher order of inquiry processes and improvement of slow learners.

Higher-Order Thinking Skills of High School and College Students on Flood Mitigation

Background and objective: Numerous flood disaster events encourage mitigation efforts. One of the efforts is education to high school and college students through a project-based learning (PjBL) model during COVID-19. The PjBL innovation can be developed by teachers with a formulation that integrates it with learning media and higher-order thinking skills (HOTS) as the measured parameter. Methods: The research goal is to analyze high school and college students’ HOTS, learning media, and the PjBL model. Learning method employed in the research is descriptive. The HOTS instrument was developed according to Anderson's taxonomy to measure the ability of high school and college students. Results: The research results indicated that the HOTS score of the high school and college students was very low at 28.29 and 46.01, respectively. The research results suggested an improvement of the HOTS by developing a learning medium to enhance students’ HOTS. In addition, the results of the study also showed that the role of teachers and lecturers was very important in facilitating the use of learning media. Conclusion: Teachers and lecturers in this context must be able to facilitate the formation of loving behavior towards the environment. The learning media will be a content supplement for the primary, secondary, and higher education in learning flood concepts. Based on the results, the conclusion is that high school and college students’ HOTS score is in a low category and all aspects of learning media can be integrated with PjBL. © 2022 by the Society for People, Plants, and Environment.

Web-Based Engineering Design Activity in Biology: An Assessment on the Demonstration of Higher-Order Thinking Skills

Senior High School (SHS) STEM curriculum in the Philippines is on its infancy stages which lacks technology-related and engineering-oriented courses. Along with the challenges in education sector brought by the COVID-19 pandemic and ineffective teaching of 21st century higher-order thinking skills in a Philippine setting, this study aims to utilize an engineering design activity to introduce engineering principles using technological tools and assess the presence or absence of higher-order thinking skills in the design solutions using an engineering design rubric. A design activity was developed by the researcher. The average and total scores of each group as evaluated by the subject teacher, students and researcher using the engineering design rubric to measure the demonstration of higher-order thinking skills in the outputs were analyzed. Based on the components assessed, problem-solving skills and critical thinking were demonstrated on the design solutions at competent and sophisticated level of performance. This shows that incorporating collaborative engineering design activities in an online setting allow the students to exhibit higher-order thinking skills. © 2021 29th International Conference on Computers in Education Conference, ICCE 2021 - Proceedings. All rights reserved

Development Blended Web Mobile Learning Model on COVID-19 Pandemic

Education Design Research (EDR) focuses on producing a Blended Web Mobile Learning (BWML) to increase the students' HOTs of senior high school. The BWML model in each phase is supported by using the MoLearn application (web and mobile version). The results indicate that the BWML model is proven to be valid, practical and effective in improving HOTs of senior high school students. Research implication such as: (1) The BWML model can be used as an alternative to digital-based learning, (2) The BWML model can be a reference for developing a hybrid learning model in COVID-19 pandemic, (3) The research result can be used as empirical data that web and mobile integration in learning has proven successful.

Enhancing Students' High-Order Thinking Skills through STEM-Blended Learning on Kepler's Law During Covid-19 Outbreak

This study aimed to examines the effectiveness of the implementation of STEM-Blended learning to enhance high school students' high-level thinking skills on Kepler law concept during covid-19 outbreak. The method used in this study is a quasi-experimental method. This study used two class groups including the experimental class and the control class. This study was conducted at one of high schools in Indonesia. The students' higher-order thinking skills for the experimental class was included in the medium category with a percentage of achievement of 75%. However, in the control class, it was included in the medium category with a rate of 61%. The results showed that there were significant differences between experimental and control classes with the value .0015 < 0.05, meaning that the implementation of STEM-Blended learning is effective to enhance high school students' high-level thinking skills on Kepler law concept. This findings will be usefull for the development of STEM Education during Covid-19 outbreak.

Taking critical thinking, creativity and grit online.

Technology has the potential to facilitate the development of higher-order thinking skills in learning. There has been a rush towards online learning by education systems during COVID-19; this can therefore be seen as an opportunity to develop students' higher-order thinking skills. In this short report we show how critical thinking and creativity can be developed in an online context, as well as highlighting the importance of grit. We also suggest the importance of heuristic evaluation in the design of online systems to support twenty-first century learning.