The use of blended learning as an attempt to improve students’ higher order thinking skills

Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) of students in Indonesia still low with a score of 361.4 placed Indonesia at the 40th rank of 41 countries. This research aims to find out the effectiveness of the implementation of a blended learning model for teacher candidates in terms of their HOTS compared to those who learned via conventional instruction. This study applied mixed-method research with an explanatory design. The subject of research was the first-year students of the State University of Malang, 38 students as an experimental class and 38 students as a control class. The results showed no significant differences in HOTS between teacher candidates that learned by blended learning model and teacher candidates that learned by conventional learning model. According to statistical results, the HOTS of teacher candidates that learned by blended learning model was not higher than that of teacher candidates that learned by conventional learning model. According to qualitative results, blended learning on SIPEJAR is beneficial to teacher candidates to analyze, synthesize, and evaluation of electricity problems. According to the interview result, the first teacher candidates feel strange with blended learning, but the candidate can solve the analysis, synthesis, and evaluation problems using SIPEJAR.