Higher Order Thinking Skills, Structured of Observed

Learning Outcomes and Mathematical Productivity

of Grade 9 Students

Anamary G. Bacudo

Chapter 1

Introduction to the Study

Chapter 1 is composed of five (5) parts namely: (1)

Background and Theoretical Framework of the Study, (2)

Statement of the Problem and the Hypotheses, (3)

Significance of the Study, (4) Definition of Terms, and (5)

Delimitation of the Study.

Part One, Background and Theoretical Framework of the

Study, provides the introduction, justified the need for

investigation, discusses the importance of selecting the

problem and presents the theoretical framework, which serves

as the frame of reference of the study.

Part Two, Statement of the Problem and the Hypotheses,

presents the general as well as the specific problems the

study seeks to answer. It also presents the hypotheses to be

tested.
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Part Three, Significance of the Study, states the

essence and importance of the study and its positive

benefits to the recipients.

Part Four, Definition of Terms, defines the important

terms used in the study conceptually and operationally.

Part Five, Delimitation of the Study, sets the scope of

the research in terms of participants, research design,

sampling procedure, and data gathering instruments, research

variables as well as its categories and statistical tools

employed in the analysis of the data.

Background and Theoretical Framework of the Study

The Philippines, for the first time in 2018, took in

the programme for the International Student Assessment

(PISA). The assessment measures 15-year-olds’ability to use

their higher-order thinking skills (HOTS) in Reading,

Mathematics and Science to meet real-life challenges. Of the

79 countries that participated in the PISA, the Philippines

ranked last in Reading and second last in Mathematics and

Science. These results suggest that most Filipino students

are not ready for life after school.

These areas of learners’ poor performance were

interestingly identified in an analysis of teachers’

performance in the Teacher Development Needs Study (TDNS,

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2014). One of the salient results of the TNDS was many

teachers did not engage in higher order thinking

irrespective of their particular discipline. Moreover, the

poor assessment results for Filipino learners, therefore,

necessitate a reform initiative directed at supporting the

strengthening of teachers’ subject knowledge and pedagogy to

improve learners’ performance. To assist in this reform

initiative, the National Educators Academy of the

Philippines (NEAP) and the Research Center for Teachers

Quality (RCTQ) collaborate to develop Higher Order Thinking

Skills (HOTS)- Professional Learning Packages (PLPs) in

Mathematics, Science, and English/Reading for teachers in

grades 7, and 8, and grades 9 and 10.

The HOTS-PLPs are anchored to the Structured of the

Observed Learning Outcome (SOLO) Framework as it describes

the increasing sophistication (the increasing quality) of

responses in handling certain tasks/questions relevant to a

particular activity or domain. In particular, the SOLO

levels provide concepts of teaching and learning that every

teacher needs to acquire and use accurately and consistently

to improve the learner’s thinking and understanding from

simple to complex (National Educators Academy of the

Philippines,2023).
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The Structured of Observed Learning Outcomes (SOLO)

Taxonomy was devised by John Biggs and Kevin Collis in the

1970s and 1980s. It is a model of learning that describes

levels of thinking that can be observed and that can become

increasingly more complex and difficult. Its original

application was in the identification of the sophistication

of a learner’s thinking.

SOLO Taxonomy consist of four key levels:

1. The unistructural level describes outcomes that require

the learner to identify or describe a single fact or

idea.

2. The multistructural level describes outcomes where the

learner identifies, lists or describes several relevant

facys or ideas but has made no connection between them.

3. The relational level includes outcomes where the

learner has made connections between several relevant

facts.

4. The extended abstract level includes outcomes where the

learner has made connections between facts or ideas

(relational) and has then linked it to some other

concept or theory.(http://www.eric.ed.gov/journal)

Bloom’s Taxonomy was created in 1956 under the leadership

of educational psychologist Dr. Benjamin Bloom in order to

promote higher forms of thinking in education, such as

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analysing and evaluating concepts, processes, procedures,

and principles, rather than just remembering facts (rote

learning). It is most often used when designing educational,

training, and learning processes. The cognitive domain

involves knowledge and the development of intellectual

skills (Bloom, 1956).

The ability to problem-solve and think critically

is highly regarded as an essential skill in the 21st century

knowledge economy. The use of higher cognitive questions is

theorized to advance students’ cognitive abilities beyond

the memorization of content. Higher cognitive questioning

has been reported as a teaching strategy that promotes

students’ abilities to perform proficiently on higher order

and problem-solving tasks and to use higher order thinking

to a greater degree in their responses (Kramarski &

Mizrachi, 2006) Cited by Brillo, 2018.

This study focuses on the relationship among the higher

order thinking skills as the independent variable and

structured of observe learning outcomes and mathematical

productivity of junior high school students as dependent

variables as shown by the conceptual framework below.

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Independent Variable Dependent Variable

Structured of
Observed Learning
Outcomes
Higher Order
Thinking Skills

Mathematical
Productivity

Figure 1. Higher Order Thinking Skills as influenced by the

Structured of Observed Learning Outcomes and Mathematical

Productivity of Grade 9 Students of Dulangan National High

School.

Statement of the Problem and Hypotheses

The purpose of this study was to determine the

relationship among higher order thinking skills, structured

of observed learning outcomes and mathematical productivity

of grade 9 students.

Specifically, this study aimed to answer the following

questions:

1. What is the level of Higher Order Thinking Skills?

2. What is the Structured of Observed Learning

Outcomes?
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3. What is the mathematical productivity of the

respondents?

4. Are there significant relationship among the

variables such as Higher Order Thinking Skills, Structured

of Observed Learning Outcomes and mathematical productivity?

Based on the aforementioned statement problems, the

following hypotheses will be tested:

1. There is no significant difference in the level of

Higher Order Thinking Skills, Structured of Observed

Learning Outcomes among the level of Mathematical

Productivity of Junior High School Students of Dulangan

National High School students.

2. There are no significant relationships among the

Higher Order Thinking Skills, Structured of Observed

Learning Outcomes and Mathematical Productivity of Junior

High School students.

Significance of the Study

The results of this study may be beneficial to the

students, teachers, principals, parents, and future

researchers.

Students. The results of this study will help the

students to be able to determine their level of higher order

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thinking skills. Students will also receive information from

this study about their mathematical productivity and the

structured observable learning outcomes. This will also

provide insights on the kind of activities they need to

engage to improve their critical thinking ability.

Mathematics Teachers. Through this study, math teachers

will be able to evaluate their teaching methods and

activities, as well as whether or not they can aid in

students' development of higher order thinking skills based

on the structured of observed learning outcomes and

establish a connection between these skills and students'

mathematical productivity. They could use the findings to

decide if they need to amend their teaching strategies or

provide activities and alternatives that can improve

mathematical productivity among students as affected by

their higher order thinking skills. The study will assist

them in assessing their degree of proficiency in helping

students develop critical thinking abilities, which are

thought to be essential to ensuring students' academic

achievement.

Principals and Math Supervisors. Results of the study

will provide them with important information on the

significance and applicability of the knowledge that

students have learned as well as how to apply that knowledge

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through exercises that test critical thinking skills. Their

awareness can put them under pressure to offer educational

possibilities that would enhance the oversight of teaching.

The results will also be used as a reference to develop

educational initiatives and programs that are thought to be

required to help students develop higher order thinking

skills in order to increase their productivity in math

classes. This will also form the foundation for teacher

workshops on improving students' critical thinking skills

through the provision of tools and teaching materials that

improve mathematical productivity.

Parents. The study's findings will help parents

understand that their children need their help to perform

better in school. They can then work with the math teachers

to help their children perform better in this subject. Upon

learning about their students' higher order thinking skills

based on a structured set of observed learning outcomes that

lead to their mathematical productivity, teachers will be

encouraged to sign their students up for advanced courses

and enrichment activities during the summer break.

Future Researchers. This study can provide baseline

data to other researchers regarding the relationship between

students' mathematical productivity and higher order

thinking skills, structured learning outcomes, and observed

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learning outcomes. The study's findings will act as a

foundation or manual for further research into potential

interventions that might be able to help with the issues the

students are facing. This will help them come up with fresh

ideas and perspectives for studies that will benefit the

entire community in addition to the respondents. When they

brainstorm new research topics related to this study, it

will also help them develop their critical and creative

thinking skills. They might profit from the methodology that

is applied and the conclusions that serve as a foundation

for additional study.

Definition of Terms

The following were the conceptual and operational

meanings of the terms used in the study.

Higher Order Thinking Skills – refers to knowledge or

perception of a situation or fact; concern about and well-

informed interest in a particular situation or development.

(https://www.merriamwebster.com/dictionary/awareness,

retrieved: May 14, 2023).

In this study, “Higher Order Thinking Skills” referred

to the scores obtained by the Grade 9 Students in

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26-items researcher’s made test. The researcher made 26-item

objective type of test. The mean score obtained from the

level of higher order thinking skill test was arbitrarily

categorized as: very high (21.0 – 26.0), high (16.0 – 20.0),

moderate (11.0 – 15.0), low (6.0 – 10.0), and very low (0.0

– 5.0).

Structured of Observed Learning Outcomes(SOLO)– is a

means of classifying learning outcomes in terms of their

complexity, enabling us to assess students’ work in terms of

its quality not of how many bits of this and of that they

have got right. https://www.johnbiggs.com.au/academic/solo-

taxonomy/

In this study, “Structured of Observed Learning

Outcomes” referred to the scores obtained by the respondents

in a 30-item researcher-made Effectiveness of TIP test. The

mean score obtained from the Effectiveness of TIP test was

arbitrarily classified as: always (46.41 – 58.00), often

(34.81 – 46.40), sometimes (23.21 – 34.80), seldom (11.61 –

23.20) and never (0.00 – 11.60).

Mathematical Productivity - Productivity is a measure

of how efficiently a person completes a task.

In this study, “Mathematical Productivity” referred to

the scores obtained by the respondents in a 26-item

researcher-made performance task test. The mean score

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obtained from the mathematical productivity test was

arbitrarily classified as: always (21.0 – 26.0), often (16.0

– 20.0), sometimes (11.0 – 15.0), seldom (6.0 – 10.0) and

never (0.00 – 5.0).

Delimitation of the Study

The survey-correlational type of research will be use

in this study to determine the relationship among the higher

order thinking skills, the structured of observed learning

outcomes and mathematical productivity of grade 9 students.

The respondents of the study were the one hundred

forty-two (142) Grade 9 students of Dulangan National High

School academic year 2023-2024, Dulangan, Pilar, Capiz.

Data in this study were gathered using the 26-items

researcher’s made test to measure the level of students’

higher order thinking skills, the structured of observed

learning outcomes level and to measure the mathematical

productivity of the students. The researcher made 26-item

test from grade 9. The questionnaire was validated by three

mathematics teachers and panel of experts. After the content

validation the questionnaire was pilot tested to ten (20)

students who were not participants in the study. The result

of the pilot testing showed that majority of the students

got high score. This means that the instrument was valid.
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The independent variable covered in this study is the

higher order thinking skills. The dependent variables is

structured of observed learning outcomes and the students’

mathematical productivity.

The statistical tools that were used in data analyses

were frequency count, percentage, mean, standard deviation,

One-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), and Pearson r. All

inferential tests were set at 0.05 alpha level of

significance.

Chapter 2

Review of Related Literature

This chapter is made up of three (4) parts, namely: (1)

Higher Order Thinking Skills, (2) Structured of Observed

Learning Outcomes, (4) Mathematical Productivity and (3)

Synthesis.
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The First Part, Higher Order Thinking Skills,

discusses different literatures on HOTS.

The Second Part, Structured of Observed Learning

Outcomes, tells about relevant literature and studies

related to the SOLO Framework.

The Third Part, Mathematical Productivity, discusses

different literatures on the mathematical productivity of

Junior High School students.

The Fourth Part, the Synthesis, sums up the literature

reviewed in this study.

Higher Order Thinking Skills

Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) is the ability to

think critically, logically, reflectively, metacognitively,

and creatively which is a higher order thinking ability.

This ability plays a role in making students critical in

receiving various types of information (Perez et al., 2018).

HOTs also require other higher abilities, such as the

ability to think creatively. The ability to think creatively

is important for prospective teacher students facing the

Industrial 4.0 era (Kin & Kareem, 2019). The category of

higher-order thinking according to Brookhart (2010: 14-15)

includes several aspects namely: 1) Analysis, evaluation,

creation, 2) Logical reasoning or logical reasoning, 3)

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Decisions and critical thinking, 4) Solving problems, 5)

Creativity and creative thinking.

Realizing the urgency of 21st-century skills, the

Department of Education includes these skills in the

classroom-learning context through the implementation of the

latest curriculum (Ahmad, 2014). The 21st-century skills are

stated in several new educational policies, and one of the

most crucial policies is the implementation of Higher Order

Thinking Skills (HOTS) – based learning.

Furthermore, (Yee et al., 2011) suggest that HOTS are

teachable and learnable, and all students have the right to

learn and apply this thinking to solving problems. Hence,

the development of this skill is not just expedient for

developing high cognitive capacities but also responsible

for the development of an all-around individual. By this, it

means that the individual develops an all-around capacity,

thus enabling a competitive student's thought system,

development in their intellect, and a means to help students

avoid errors in thinking, making it a very important skill

to develop by the teachers to the students.

Critical thinking skills are information processes that

enable a person to evaluate and justify information to

develop an argument or solve a problem (ACARA,2012,2013b;

Kong, 2015). Examples of critical thinking skills include

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comparing, contrasting, categorizing, analyzing and

evaluating (ACARA,2012,2013b; Kong, 2015; Tunca, 2015).

These higher-order thinking skills are integral to students

working mathematically (BOS NSW, 2012), as students

interpret and justify their decisions based on logical

thought and actions (BOS NSW,2012; Yuliani & Saragih,2015).

Cited by Arsaga et.al 2018.

However, through mathematical reasoning, learners are

able to develop logical thinking skills and develop their

ability to think abstractly in a proof oriented setting.

Also, it enables students develop talents for creative

thinking and problem solving. Likewise, it improves the

quality and communication in mathematics. This includes

improving reading techniques, reading comprehension, and

oral communication in mathematics. And lastly, mathematical

reasoning is important since it let students understand

better the nature of mathematics and its language

(Sundstorm, 2017),cited by Agnas et.al 2018.

Structured of Observed Learning Outcomes

The SOLO modes of functioning are not fixed or

invariant. This means a newly acquired mode does not subsume

the previous modes, as they can come into play when needed.
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Individuals can therefore use several modes at a time for a

specific task and each mode continues to develop (Pegg,

1992). The SOLO model explains how students’ responses to

tasks increase in structure, complexity, and abstraction,

showing the progress of understanding from being an

incompetent learner to an expert. When students understand

the SOLO model, they have ownership of their learning and

feel more confident in their learning journey, which helps

them to become masters of their knowledge (Hook, 2016).

Rather than relying on the teachers’ feedback, they can

assess their own progress in learning and determine what to

learn next

According to (Damopoli, 2020) Structured of Observed

Learning Outcomes is a way that describes how learner’s

understanding build from easy to difficult while learning

different task or subjects. The Structured of observed

learning outcomes (SOLO) can be used to enhance the quality

of learning within the classroom teaching and provide a

systematic way of developing deep understanding. Student

learning can be guided in ways that promotes deep learning.

According to Stanny (2016) Chan et. al. (2002) classify

unistructural and multitructural levels, in the SOLO

taxonomy, as cognitively lower levels and relational and

extended abstract as cognitively higher levels.

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Mathematical Productivity

Mathematical or math ability is the ability to perform

mathematical task and to solve given mathematical problems

effectively. The parietal portex, the top/middle region of

the brain, plays a central role in our ability to process

numerical information or numerical cognition. Math ability

is combination of thinking and a logic sequential manner,

performing shortcuts while solving problems. Using different

ways and recalling previous concepts and generalization.

(https;//www.ncbi.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3729197/)

To compete in our 21st century global economy, it is

critical that students leave high school knoledgable and

proficient in Mathematics. Today’s graduates need to have

solid mathematics skills regardless of whether they enter

the workforce or continue into higher education

(USDOE,2008).

Maccini et al. (2007) cited by Brillo, pointed that the

poor performance of the students in mathematics is to their

difficulty with self-regulation skills during problem

solving, deficits in computational skills, and problems with

high-level mathematics that require reasoning skills. These

students often struggle when organizing information and tend

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to commit errors when attempting to solve problems involving

multiple procedures.

Mathematical ability involves effective thinking with

conceptual learning, students need to be taught to think

logically along with practicing the numerical problems but

on the contrary they do practice a problem, and then

repeatedly do the same kind of problems until that is hard-

wired in their brains (Pearse & Walton, 2011) cited by

Brillo (2018)

Problem solving skills help young people cope with

various challenges and demands in their lives and take

responsibility of their actions. Problem solving is

considered a coping strategy that increases general

competence and adaptation in the real world setting. Problem

solving is fundamental to education because educators are

interested in improving students’ ability to solve problems

(Ramos et al. 2013) cited by Brillo.

Synthesis

In educational environments, higher order thinking

skills can help students learn. It helps students learn a

subject more effectively, and teachers may create

instructional activities that call for the application of

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critical thinking, problem-solving, decision making and

evaluation. By doing this, they can encourage students to

develop higher order thinking abilities, which help them go

beyond the fundamentals and apply what they’ve learned in

more meaningful way.

By using the structured of Observed Learning Outcomes,

teachers can create learning experiences that are suited for

each students’ level of understanding and motivate them to

advance to deeper levels of knowledge.

It is believed that when the Higher Order Thinking

Skills of students is developed, and the Structured of

Observed Learning Outcomes improved, their mathematical

productivity can be enhanced which could result to academic

success among them.

Chapter 3

Research Design and Methodology

This chapter is divided into three parts: (1) Purpose

of the Study and Research Design, (2) Methods, and (3)

Statistical Data Analysis Procedure.

Part One, Purpose of the Study and Research Design,

restates the purpose of the study describes the research

design and enumerates the variables used in the study.

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Part Two, Method, describes the participants, the

data gathering instrument and the research procedure

employed in the study.

Part Three, Statistical Data Analysis Procedure,

discusses the procedure for scoring and statistical tools

used to test the hypotheses.

Purpose of the Study and Research Design

This study was conducted to determine the relationship

among the Higher Order Thinking Skills, the Structured of

Observed Learning Outcomes and mathematical productivity of

Grade 9 Students of Dulangan National High School, Dulangan,

Pilar, Capiz, Academic Year 2023-2024.

This study utilized the survey – correlational research

design. According to Brillo, as cited in Bulos (2020) survey

method obtains data to determine specific characteristics of

a group. The purpose of a survey is to get a general picture

of the characteristics of a study population at a particular

time. The use of the survey approach is appropriate for most

descriptive and correlational study.

Correlational study, on the other hand, investigates

the possibility of relationships between or among variables

(Brillo, 2018 cited in Bulos, 2020).

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In this study, the independent variable is the Higher

Order Thinking Skills while the dependent variables are the

Structured of Observed Learning Outcomes and Mathematical

Productivity.

The descriptive statistics used in the study were the

mean, and standard deviation. The inferential statistics

were One-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), and Pearson r.

The alpha level of significance was set at 0.05.

Method

Participants

The participants of this study were the one hundred

four (104) samples randomly selected from a population of

one hundred forty-two (142) Grade 9 students of Dulangan

National High School for the school year 2023-2024.

The participants were chosen using the random sampling.

Stratified random sampling is use by drawing the sample from

the population and then drawing separate random samples from

each stratum (Sullivan, 2008). The required number of

participants determines using the formula of Slovin.

Students are selected at random using the stratified

proportional sampling by means of drawing of lots. This

means that all the names of the students are written in

rolled slips of paper and placed in a box. From the box, the
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required number of respondents was picked, without looking,

and then drawn from the box and served as the participants

in the study. The proportional allocation formula is use to

get the appropriate sample size from various groups or

classes of the population involved in the study.

Table 1 below showed the sample size from each section.

A sample of twenty-sis (26) from Diamond, twenty-five (25)

from Jade, twenty-five (25) from Sapphire, and twenty-eight

(28) from Emerald.

Table 1

Proportional allocation of the sample size in each section

Dulangan National High School

Grade 9 Students
Section Population Size Sample Size
Diamond 36 26
Jade 34 25
Emerald 38 28

Sapphire 34 25

Total 142 104

Data - Gathering Instruments

Higher Order Thinking Skills Test. A 26-items

researcher’s made test was used to measure the level of

Higher Order Thinking Skills of Grade 9 students. The

researcher made 26-item objective type of test taken from

Grade 9.
 24

The questionnaire was validated by three mathematics

teachers and panel of experts. After the content validation

the questionnaire will be pilot tested to ten (10) students

who are not participants in the study. The result of the

pilot testing showed that majority of the students got high

score. This means that the instrument was valid.

The level of Higher Order Thinking Skills of the

students will be interpret using the scales of means given

below:

Scale Description

21.0 – 26.0 Very High

16.0 – 20.0 High
11.0 – 15.0 Moderate
6.0 – 10.0 Low
0 – 5.0 Very Low

Structured of Observed Learning Outcomes. A 26-items

researcher’s made test will be use to measure the SOLO level

of Grade 9 students. The researcher made 26-item test taken

from Grade 9 level.

The questionnaire will validate by three mathematics

teachers and panel of experts. After the content validation

the questionnaire was pilot tested to ten (10) students who

were not participants in the study. The result of the pilot

testing will show that majority of the students got high

score. This means that the instrument was valid.

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The SOLO level of the students will be interpret using

the scales of means given below:

Scale Description

21.0 – 26.0 Very High

16.0 – 20.0 High
11.0 – 15.0 Moderate
6.0 – 10.0 Low
0 – 5.0 Very Low

Mathematical Productivity. A 26-items researcher’s made

test was used to measure the mathematical productivity of

Grade 9 students. The researcher made 26-item test taken

from Grade 9.

The questionnaire will validate by three mathematics

teachers and panel of experts. After the content validation

the questionnaire will be pilot tested to ten (10) students

who are not participants in the study. The result of the

pilot testing will show that majority of the students got

high score. This means that the instrument was valid.

The mathematical productivity of the students was

interpreted using the scales of means given below:

Scale Description

21.0 – 26.0 Very High

16.0 – 20.0 High
11.0 – 15.0 Moderate
6.0 – 10.0 Low
0 – 5.0 Very Low
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Data – Gathering Procedures

Prior to the conduct of the study, the researcher

sought permission first from the principal to conduct the

study. Upon the approval of the letter, the researcher

personally distributed the Higher Order Thinking Skills,

Structured of Observed Learning Outcomes and Mathematical

Productivity test to the respondents to give them enough

time to give their responses. The students were not allowed

to bring the questionnaire as a home assignment.

The data obtained from the tests was processed,

encoded, and analyzed using the Statistical Package for

Social Sciences (SPSS).

Statistical Data Analysis Procedures

The following statistical tools employ in the analyses

of the data gathered.

Mean. This employs in determining the level of mastery

of mathematical rules and mathematical ability of Grade-9

students.

Standard Deviation. This test used to determine

homogeneity and heterogeneity of responses of students in

terms of mastery of mathematical rules, and mathematical

ability.
 27

One-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). This test was set

at 0.05, use to determine the significant differences among

mastery of mathematical rules, and mathematical ability of

Grade-9 students.

Pearson r. This test was set at .05 alpha level of

significance, use to determine the relationships among the

mastery of mathematical rules, and mathematical ability of

Grade-9 students.