ANALYSIS OF THE APPLICATION OF INSTRUCTIONAL ACTIVITIES FOR PROMOTING HIGHER ORDER THINKING OF GRADUATE STUDENTS AT KFUEIT

Abstract

The use of latest tools, techniques, and activities for the enhancement of students’ learning can lead to the quality of teaching. According to the demands of 21st century direct and conventional instructional methods and activities are unable to promote higher-order thinking of students especially at higher education level. The study entitled, “Analysis of the application of instructional activities for promoting higher order thinking of graduate students at KFUEIT” aimed to: 1) To find out the usage of instructional activities for promoting higher order thinking of graduate students 2) To identify the challenges that university teachers face in promoting higher order thinking of graduate students 3) To identify the challenges that graduate students face in developing higher order thinking. The study was descriptive and survey techniques were used and. Quan-qual method of research was adopted for the current study. Population of the study was all the head of departments (HoDs), university teachers and graduate students of all the departments of KFUEIT. The multistage randomized cluster sampling method was applied for the study. The total sample of the study was four hundred and sixteen (416) which was comprised of sixteen (16) HoDs, eighty (80) university teachers and forty (320) graduate students. A questionnaire on five-point Likert scale (1 Not at all, 2 Rarely, 3 Occasionally, 4 Frequently, 5 Always) was developed having 20 close ended statements and one open ended question. The major findings of the study were the the mean and standard deviation of responses of HoDs, university teachers and graduate students were (81.94, 8.96), (82.16, 7.78) and (77.17, 15.35) respectively and degree of freedom ranges from 2 to 413 and sig value p = 0.010 is < a= 0.05. Major challenges pointed out by university teachers and graduate students were, trend of rote learning, lack of awareness of HOTs and limited training about the utilization of higher order thinking based instructional activities. Major recommendations of the study were the higher order thinking based instructional methods, strategies and activities should be included in the course contents. It is further recommended that a Continuous Professional Development Program (CPDP) should be launched for university teachers.