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Higher-order thinking skills (HOTS) are a vital aspect in the transformation of the education system in Malaysia. However, thinking skills are less effectively implemented in the Malaysian education system, leading to a lack of Higher- Order Thinking (HOT) skills among Malaysian pupils. One of the factors contributing to this problem is the teaching approach used by teachers during teaching and learning sessions in the classroom. The presence of students with a variety of learning styles, interests, and levels of ability in a classroom has been a challenge for teachers to undertake teaching and learning activities and subsequently the established teaching and learning objectives. According to the 2022 International Student Assessment Programme Report (PISA), Malaysia is ranked 53rd out of 81 participating countries, which is the lowest ranking when compared to other countries. This is the result of the student's inability to answer assessment questions that require high-level thinking skills. The same situation also occurred where Malaysia’s performance in the Trend in International Mathematical and Scientific Studies (TIMSS) programme in 2019 showed that Malaysia was ranked 26th out of 39 participating countries. (TIMSS 2019). Differentiated Pedagogy (DP) is proposed as a solution, as it meets the learning needs and backgrounds of students who are different from the abilities aspect. The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of different pedagogy methods on the improvement of higher-order thinking skills within 5th-year primary school pupils in science subjects. The study was conducted using an experimental method by implementing differentiated pedagogical learning on a sample of 40 pupils selected purposefully from a school in the Meradong district. The sample of this study was divided by class, which was Year 5 of St. Thomas (n = 20) was used as a control group taught using conventional teaching methods, and Year 5 of St. Matthew (n = 20) was assigned to an experimental group taught using Differentiated Pedagogy method. The sample was given a high-level thinking skills test to determine the performance of pupils before and thereafter the implementation of differentiated pedagogy in learning the unit of 'Matter'. The results of this study indicated an improvement in higher-order thinking skills (HOTs) application in the treatment group that was taught utilizing differentiated pedagogy compared to that of the control group. This study suggests the use of this differentiated pedagogy in other schools as well as in other subjects.
Abdullah et al. (Thu,) studied this question.