Scope for higher order thinking through mathematics instructions

Abstract

Learning theories that evolved from the behaviourist, cognitivist and the constructivist paradigm, when applied in mathematics classroom with appropriate teaching strategies, lead to lower and higher order thinking skills in students. In the present study, the investigator developed an Instructional package for the mathematics topic „Real numbers‟ of the class IX level. The package was mainly structured with constructivist strategies like generalization, visualization and estimation along with cognitivist teaching strategies for concept clarity. It was implemented by the investigator on class IX students of the GSHSEB school, India. The same topic was taught to a statistically equated Control group by the conventional method. T-test was used to compare the pretest and the posttest scores for each of the levels – comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis and evaluation for the Control and the Experimental group. A significant difference in the mean for all the levels except for the evaluation level, was observed in the Experimental group.