HOTS Among Factors Contributing To Malaysia's Higher 2015 PISA Score

PUTRAJAYA (Malaysia), Dec 7 (Bernama) -- The Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) initiative is the major push which has helped Malaysia register higher scores in the 2015 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). In announcing the 2015 PISA results on Tuesday, Education deputy director-general Dr Amin Senin said Malaysia recorded better scores in all three PISA domains, namely scientific literacy, reading literacy and mathematical literacy. For scientific literacy, he said Malaysia recorded an improvement by scoring 443 points, which was an increase of 23 points from the 2012 PISA score. For reading literacy, he said the score was 431 points which was up by 33 points, while for mathematical literacy the score was 446 points, up by 25 points. "The 2015 PISA score also revealed that over 60 percent of students are able to apply their knowledge and skills in real life situations and are prepared to participate fully in the society," he said. PISA is an international assessment and comparative study programme organised by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) to test the competencies of 15-year-olds in reading, scientific and mathematical knowledge. Apart from HOTS, Amin said improvement strategies that contributed to 2015 PISA encouraging achievement were the science and mathematics resource material development, roundtable discussions with experts, science and mathematics awareness campaigns for school principals, heads of science and mathematics subjects and Institute of Teacher Education (IPG) officers and lecturers. The 2015 PISA assessment and survey was conducted from April 20 to May 8 last year involving 72 countries. In the 2015 PISA survey a total of 230 schools nationwide involving 9,660 students, 5,750 teachers and 230 administrators were selected as samples. Malaysia had participated in the 2009 and 2010 PISA rounds known as 2009+ PISA and 2012 PISA which had triggered educational transformation through initiatives as translated in the Malaysia Education Blueprint 2013-2025. (photoBERNAMA) --BERNAMA