Effectiveness of Matlab-based Learning and Thinking Styles (InternalExternal) on Students' Higher Order Thinking Skills

Abstract

Renewal efforts in learning basic electricity and electronics in vocational high
schools need to be carried out in order to find the right formula in learning as a
new tool to improve students' higher-order thinking skills (HOTS). HOTS are in
three dimensions of knowledge, namely conceptual, procedural, and
metacognition, which intersect with cognitive levels C4 (analyse), C5 (evaluate),
and C6 (create). This research is a quasi-experimental, nonequivalent control
group design by applying Matlab application-based learning in the experimental
class and comparing it with direct learning in the control class to see differences in
students' higher-order thinking skills. In addition, it also looks at the interaction
effect between the type of learning applied and the moderator variable, namely the
thinking style of students (internal and external), on students' HOTS in three
dimensions of knowledge (conceptual, procedural, and metacognition). The
participants, or experimental subjects, in this study were class X students with
audio-video engineering expertise (TAV). Class X TAV 1 was selected as the
experimental class with 34 students, while class X TAV 2 became the control
group with 32 students. The results obtained showed the effect of matrix-based
learning better than direct learning on students' HOTS in the dimensions of
conceptual knowledge, procedural knowledge, and metacognition, and there was
no interaction between the type of learning applied and the students' thinking style.
Matlab-based learning and thinking styles had a strong influence separately on
students' HOTS in the three knowledge dimensions.