Is immersing blended-problem-based learning fostering students’ higher-order thinking skills?

This paper describes the implementation of Problem-Based Learning with Blended Learning (PBL-wBL) in Acid-Base Chemistry. It highlights the approach’s contribution to students’ higher-order thinking Skills (HOTS). This study involved two groups of public secondary school students from East Java, Indonesia. The experimental group experienced PBL-wBL, while the comparison group experienced the Direct Instructional Teaching Method (DITM). The improvement of students’ HOTS after teaching interventions was analyzed using the analysis of variance (ANOVA) and t-test. Descriptive analysis is also employed to provide additional explanations of the data. Our result indicates that students with PBL-wBL demonstrated a slightly higher increase in HOTS ability than those with DITM. Our finding implies that immersing PBL with other approaches is more complex. It may need cautious planning and sufficient resources to gain an expected impact.