S. NAIR ET AL.
views of children’s thinking skills and problem solving skills is
significantly higher than that of the rural parents. However,
there is no significant difference in the teachers’ views on that
matter. Generally, teachers from urban and rural schools per-
ceive their pupils’ ability in thinking skills and problem solving
skills to be at an average level. On the other hand, parents from
urban schools perceive their children’s ability in thinking skills
and problem solving skills to be at a higher level. The parents
from rural areas perceive children’s thinking skills and problem
solving skills to be at an av er a ge level.
The findings also revealed various methods employed by
teachers and parents to enhance pupils’ thinking skills and
problem solving skills. The findings show that parents should
engage their children in thinking skills and problem solving
skills in their daily activities such as while traveling, watching
TV, taking dinner and before going to sleep. Parents’ guidance
and motivation are important to enhance those skills among
children.
Parents also must make sure that children are given balanced
diet and supplements. Some parents think that it is beneficial to
give their children balanced diets and supplements to enhance
their thinking skills and problem solving skills. Parents should
discuss with their children and encourage them to eat healthy
food such as fruits and salads (Cheney, Favell, Harrison, Hurst,
& Yates; 2010) because healthy foods are important for chil-
dren’s cognitive development. Besides that, parents should also
engage their children on hands on activities such as training the
children to do household chores, shopping at the supermarket,
doing marketing at the wet market, doing the budget and help-
ing parents in their business. Such training enrich children’s
experiences in solving problems and make them more compe-
tent at their thinking skills and problem solving skills.
Some teachers commented that some parents are too exami-
nation oriented to the extent that they only think of giving tui-
tion to their children and drive them to get straight A’s. They
even stop their children from watching TV and only want them
to be book worms. These parents should help and guide their
children to be balanced individuals. Parents should also allow
their children to watch good TV programs and discuss the posi-
tive and negative aspects of the program to enhance their
thinking skills.
With regards to teachers’ suggestions at enhancing pupils
thinking skills and problem solving skills, some teachers com-
mented that they are too busy and find it difficult to infuse
thinking skills and problem solving skills in their classroom
lessons. It is important for the teachers to be competent at vari-
ous skills to help pupils in their thinking skills and problem
solving skills. The ministry of education should conduct courses
for the in service teachers on ways to infuse thinking skills
among pupils of different abilities. This is important, so that
teachers do not neglect the weaker pupils and only concentrate
on the good ones while teaching. The finding from the focus
group interviews also show that teachers should use different
kinds of material to accommodate the diversity of the pupils,
such as using different worksheets for pupils of different levels.
Teachers should encourage active participation of pupils in
co-curricular activities, such as camping, competitions and
learning to give first aid. These activities give a lot of space for
pupils to enhance their thinking skills and problem solving
skills.
Another integral part of developing thinking skills and prob-
lem solving skills is by organizing educational trips for pupils
such as visits to museums, historical places, factories and holi-
day resorts. Teachers should organize such visits to broaden
pupils’ knowledge and thinking skills. Teachers should always
encourage and motivate pupils to think in creative ways and
solve problems.
Some parents mentioned that some teachers are not doing
enough to promote thinking skills and problem solving skills
among pupils. They think that teachers should be more com-
mitted to enhancing pupils’ thinking skills and problem solving
skills. One of the ways is by engaging pupils in “Project Based
Learning” in schools. Through “Project Based Learning” pu-
pils learn a lot of things such as being independent, sharing,
learning to think and solving their own problems. It is hoped
that the findings of this study will give some insight to parents,
teachers and the ministry of education on how to enhance pu-
pils’ thinking skills and problem solving skills.
This study was conducted among parents and teachers from
four primary schools in the state of Kedah situated in the
Northern Zone of Malaysia. I would like to suggest future re-
search to be carried out among parents and teachers from more
primary schools in Malaysia. Similar research can also be car-
ried out among parents and teachers in the secondary schools.
This research did not involve pupils in the focus group inter-
view; it is hoped that future research will include pupils in the
focus group interview so that we can get more information from
the pupils on the activities carried out by teachers in the class-
rooms and suggestions from pupils to enhance their thinking
skills and problem solving skills.
This case study highlighted that parents and teachers play an
important role in developing pupils’ thinking skills and pro-
blem solving skills. However, most of the teachers are having
problems to infuse thinking skills and problem solving skills
among weak pupils because of the time constraint. Consequently,
certain amount of time to practice thinking skills and problem
solving skills through activities should be included in class-
room teaching. Creative education not only isolated to good
pupils but also to weak pupils as well. Developing creative
thinking among the pupils is all depending on the creativity of
their teacher in guiding the pupils to generate new and noble
ideas, and various ways of solving problems.
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