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.