Effect of Concept Attainment Model (CAM) Based Teaching on Prospective Teachers’ Higher Order Thinking Skills

Abstract

Concept attainment is a method of learning a new concept by contrasting and comparing certain aspects of the concept. In order to effectively use higher order thinking skills to improve the performance, there was a dire need for teachers to re-evaluate their teaching strategies and lay more responsibility on prospective teachers to learn and understand concepts of research. The researcher studied the effect of concept attainment model (CAM) based teaching on prospective teachers’ higher order thinking skills. The objective of the study was to examine the effect of concept attainment model (CAM) based teaching on prospective teachers’ higher order thinking skills. The investigation was quantitative in nature. The researcher used a quasi-experimental approach with non-equivalent control groups design. The subject of this study were all prospective teachers of Master of Education, two year programme. There were 30 participants in each intact group. The researcher first developed a table of specification then multiple choice questions (MCQs) test based on higher order thinking. There were 30 items present in the achievement test. After data collection from 16 weeks of intervention, the researcher used the paired sample t-test and independent samples t-test to examine the data gathered from pre-tests and post-tests pertaining to CAM and conventional methods. The results indicated that the achievement level of higher order thinking skills of the prospective teachers who received Concept Attainment Model (CAM) based teaching was higher than those who received conventional instruction methods.