Effect of the Practical activities on Students’ Higher-Order Thinking: An effective Use of Science Laboratories at Secondary Level

Abstract

The present study is to investigate the effect of practical activities, performed in science laboratory for teaching the subject of physics, on the development of higher-order thinking skills (HOT) among secondary school students. The instruction of the contents of the target subject, according to hands-on approach; and in line with a minds-on approach (Oliveira, H. and Bonito, J., 2023), needs to be integrated with practical work, for effective and effective transfer on learners. Simultaneously, higher-order thinking being dependent variable, on the theoretical basis, is assumed to be developed through laboratory based instructional activities. For the purpose of empirical evidence, keeping in view the systematic review of the literature, as well as the theoretical assumptions should be integrated for the effective teaching of the physics as a branch of science at secondary level. Hence the present experimental study even having certain limitations, i.e., access, permission and feasibility, a sample of 9th-grade science, 10 students from a Government Girls High School, AJK was selected as convenient sample. The study followed ABAB single-subject research design having suitability to small sample size with no comparison group. The experiment was repeated twice on same subjects, where they were taught different contents twice at the A, and B repeated phases. Accordingly, two related tests on HOT skills, comprising 30 items were applied four times at the initial and end of the both phases, to collect data on measuring variables. Results revealed significant improvement in students’ HOT skills, while taught through lab-based activities, as compared to a commonplace content-based teaching in prevailing classrooms. The results showed the pragmatic pedagogical value of the learners’ laboratorial experiences, for the enhanced students’ cognitive engagement, resulted in their scientific thinking at higher level.