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Purpose - This research focuses on ESL teachers’ strategies to foster higher-order thinking skills to teach writing to weak ESL learners in two selected secondary schools in Malaysia. ESL teachers’ strategies to foster higher-order thinking skills to teach writing to weak ESL learners were captured and encapsulated to enable the ESL learners to understand and master higher order thinking to improve their writing. Methodology – A qualitative descriptive case study design was employed in the study. The sample was based on a snowball sampling and 4 ESL teachers were selected from two different secondary schools in Malaysia. The main data collection method was classroom observation while thematic analysis was used for data analysis. Each teacher was observed twice. Classroom observation forms and video recordings were used as a main source in data collection. Findings – Findings showed that ESL teachers selected strategies to foster higher-order thinking skills to teach writing including the general procedures in implementing higher-order thinking skills for teaching writing and major considerations at each stage of the implementation. ESL teachers exposed learners to the general procedures of the higher-order thinking skills which were explaining and helping students to understand what higher-order thinking is, leading students to connect to concepts in writing, helping students to infer through real-life situations, using more graphic organizers and teaching problem-solving skills. Significance – The findings can be used to guide decisions on higher-order thinking skills training for ESL teachers, educators and curriculum developers regarding the thinking skills strategies to be mastered in teaching writing.

This study aims to establish the effectiveness of 5E inquiry learning model to enhance the science achievement among Malaysian Year 5 Indian students. Accordingly, the teaching sequence using the context of energy change was structured in such a way that it follows the characteristics of each phase in the 5E inquiry learning model, namely engage, explore, explain, elaborate (expand), and evaluate. The conventional approach, by contrast, was characterised by the teacher-centred teaching. The research design employed was that of a quasi-experiment non-equivalent pretestposttest control group design. A total of 40 students (19 girls and 21 boys) in the experimental group and 40 students (28 girls and 12 boys) in the control group deriving from a rural Tamil National-type Primary School in Selangor participated in the study. The science achievement was measured by means of an author-developed 20-multiple-choice-item test of which the items were drawn from the past standardised national examinations. Given that the content validity was established by means of the test specification table and that the items were drawn from the past standardised national examinations, its validity was safely assumed. The pretest was administered before the intervention while the posttest was administered after the one-week intervention. The findings indicate that the analysis of the pretest and posttest data using Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) yielded an F of 593.35 which is significant (p = .000 < .01), signifying that the adjusted mean obtained by the experimental group (90.32) is statistically significantly higher than the adjusted mean obtained by the control group (52.53). The results are discussed in terms of how the key findings relate to other studies and implications for future research are delineated.

The effectiveness of the 5E Inquiry Learning Model as compared to the teacher-centred traditional method on science achievement in electricity was examined in this study. The quasi-experimental pretest-posttest control group research design was utilized. A total of 65 students (33 and 32 students in the experimental and the control groups, respectively) from two Year 5 intact classes in Malaysia participated in this study. A test comprising 54 dichotomously scored items with overall KR-20 reliability of 0.84 was used in the pretest and posttest. Given the significant difference in the pretest and posttest, it was presumed that the analysis could be done using the ANCOVA. However, on further analysis, the assumption for homogeneity of the regression slope was violated and ANCOVA could not be performed. Instead, the covariate was categorized into two equally-spaced categories (i.e., low and average achievers) and further t-test supported the equivalency of the experimental and control groups. When analyzed using the t-test, the two groups differed significantly in the posttest means across the two categories of students. These findings unequivocally indicate the effectiveness of employing the 5E Inquiry Learning Model in enhancing students’ science achievement among the low and average achieving students.

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This study aims to determine whether there are significant differences in the acquisition of basic science process skills by gender, school location and by grade levels among upper primary school students. Using an established 36-item Basic Science Process Skills test that assesses the skills of observing, communicating, classifying, measuring, predicting and inferring with appropriate reliability and validity, the instrument was administered to 220 respondents-80, 80 and 60 in Years 4, 5 and 6 respectively, drawn from two urban and two rural national primary schools in Perak. The data were analysed by gender and by location using an independent samples t-test, and by grade level using one-way ANOVA. The findings indicated that while there was no gender difference, significant differences in the basic science process skills were found between rural and urban students, favouring the latter, in terms of observing, communicating, classifying and inferring. The significant grade level differences were only observed between Year 4 and Year 6 students, favouring the latter, in terms of measuring, predicting and inferring. Possible reasons for the differences observed are discussed.

This study aimed to determine the effectiveness of a professional development program on the use of a STEM-based 5E Inquiry Learning Model in enhancing the learning of STEM-based Inquiry Learning Model among 78 in-and pre-service science teachers. The topic electric circuit was used as the context of the study. Given the aim and the exploratory nature of this study, a triangulation mixed-methods design was employed: One-group pretest-posttest design which involved a single group that was pre-tested, exposed to the STEM-based 5E Inquiry Learning Model, and post-tested. This was triangulated by the qualitative responses from the participants' reflections. The analysis of the quantitative dataset using the paired samples t-test indicated that the post-test mean score was statistically significantly higher than the pre-test mean score and that the effect size obtained was educationally significant. Further analyses by gender and participants' teacher status, indicated a non-significant difference, giving credence that this result was truly the outcome of the intervention (treatment) effect instead of any disguised effect. The analysis of qualitative data through a recursive process resulted in the crystallization of three overarching key themes: Enhanced knowledge on the content used, empowered pedagogical skills on STEM-based Inquiry Learning, and heightened classroom management skill on promoting collaboration in the classroom.

The aim of this study is to determine the effect of the 5E Inquiry Learning Model as compared to the conventional method in enhancing third-grade students’ science achievement using “magnet” as the learning material. A quasi-experimental pretest-posttest control group design was employed with the participation of 40 students from two intact Third-grade classes in a primary school in Kuala Kangsar. The experimental group was taught using the 5E Inquiry Learning Model which consists of 5 stages, namely Engagement, Exploration, Explanation, Expansion, & Evaluation, while the control group was taught using the teacher-centered conventional method. The science achievement in the learning of “Magnet” was measured using a researcher-developed test consisting of 12 multiple-choice and 8 fill-in-the-blank items. The test has sufficient validity and KR-20 reliability. Analysis of the pretest data indicates that there was no statistically significant difference (t = 1.66, p > .05) in the pretest means between the experimental and control groups. Accordingly, an independent samples t-test was used to compare students’ achievement in the posttest. The analysis of the posttest data indicates that the posttest mean in science achievement (16.05) among the group of students who had followed through the 5E Inquiry Learning Model is statistically significantly higher (t = 4.75, p < .001) than the corresponding mean (13.15) among the group of students in the control group. Therefore, it can be concluded that the 5E Inquiry Learning Model enhances the learning of science in terms of achievement among the primary students.