How textbooks serve as the media to develop students’ higher order thinking skills: A comparison between Indonesian and Laotian mathematics textbooks

Abstract

The results of the Programme for International Student Assessment and the Trend in International Mathematics and Science Studies revealed that many students in developing countries had unsatisfactory results in terms of their mathematical literacy and higher order thinking skills. Considering Indonesia and Laos are both developing countries, it is important to compare their education to get a better understanding about the similarities and differences in students’ performances. In this study, this comparison was narrowed down to mathematics textbooks. Analyzing textbooks was chosen because textbooks are an essential factor influencing students’ mathematics achievement. Therefore, content analysis was used to compare the Indonesian and Laotian mathematics textbooks. The units of analysis were mathematics tasks in the textbooks, whereas the analysis framework was based on Bloom’s Taxonomy. The results of textbook analysis shown that in general Indonesian mathematics textbook provided more tasks addressing higher order thinking skills (HOTS) than the Laotian mathematics textbook did. With respect to lower order thinking skills, the Laotian mathematics textbook appeared to rely more on memorization and less on understanding and applying when compared to the Indonesian mathematics textbook. With respect to HOTS, lower frequency and percentages for analyzing and creating was found in the Laotian mathematics textbooks.