The Effect of Scenario-Epistemic Game on Higher Order Thinking Skills among High School Chemistry Students in Malaysia

Abstract

This paper described the effort to raise students’ higher order thinking skills (HOTs) in chemistry learning by using game-based learning. The study attempted to use scenarioepistemic game (SE game) in socio-collaborative learning environment to improve HOTs among high school chemistry students in Malaysia. The SE game was a knowledge game that centred on professional practices relevant to critical thinking in a real world scenario. Furthermore, the paper provided a brief design of SE game according to its framework which was a combination of SKIVE elements and Ruth Clark’s scenariobased model. Meanwhile, socio-collaborative learning environment was used to engender greater knowledge acquisition and HOTs. There were 23 chemistry students who participated in this study for a period of six-weeks. They were required to play the SE game and solve four learning tasks in socio-collaborative learning environment. The instruments used to identify students’ HOTs achievement were socio-collaborative discussion scripts, pre-test and post-test. The socio-collaborative discussion scripts were used to evaluate respondents’ prompts and responses, which represented their thinking level. They contributed 61.4% of their discussion statements in the lower level of responses (Remember and Understand) and constructed 38.6% of HOTs statements during collaboration process. Furthermore, the findings in pre-test and post-test showed that there was 21.7% improvement in Apply level, 78.3% improvement in Analysis level, 43.5% improvement in Evaluate level and 65.2% in Create level. All in all, this study provided as a new contribution to learning approach in education domain where the SE game in socio-collaborative learning environment had a significant impact on HOTs in chemistry.