Appraising Adequacy of Standard Based Curriculum 2006 and Allied Secondary School Mathematics Textbooks for Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) in the Punjab, Pakistan

Abstract

IIn Pakistan the curriculum was revised in 2005-06 and corresponding
textbooks for secondary school mathematics were developed and adopted
for session 2012-13. This study was conducted to analyze the adequacy
of the curriculum and the newly adopted textbooks in instilling the HOTS
in students. The research design used was descriptive in which data was
analyzed both by qualitative and quantitative methods. Web Alignment
Tool was used to assign Depth of knowledge (DOK) levels to the
prescribed students learning outcomes (SLOs) for secondary level
mathematics in Pakistan. The outcomes of the study show that the
curriculum is predominated by the SLOs of DOK level 1(204 out 280
SLOs). There is no SLO of DOK level 4. There are 70 SLOs of DOK
level 2 and only six SLOs of DOK level 3. The entire format of the
textbooks is monotonous as it mostly guides the students to learn an
algorithm to deal with any SLO. This is followed by an exercise of sums
to practice the learnt algorithm without any appropriate learning
experience. It is suggested to revise the respective curriculum by adopting
fewer, higher and deeper approach. For DOK level 2 and above,
appropriate learning experiences should be incorporated in the curriculum
and textbooks.