Higher Order Thinking in Islamic Education: The Case of Malaysian New Educational Development Plan

Abstract

One of the continuous challenges faced by the contemporary Muslims is their ability to accommodate the understanding of the religion of Islam with the ever-changing context of the modern world. In order to do so, there is a great need for the Muslims to understand the sources of religion, particularly the Qur’an and hadith, through a higher framework of thinking. This can only happen if the curriculum for the Islamic education is inclusive of the higher order thinking instruments. The pertinent question which arises is what are the elements of the higher order thinking needed in understanding religious matters? This paper analyses the Transformation Plan embarked by Malaysian government which places higher order thinking as an instrumental element in improving the overall educational system including Islamic Education. In also identifies the challenges that occur in implementing this plan. More specifically, it examines the parallelism between the taxonomy used in assessing higher order thinking in the West and the content of Islamic Education. Finally it proposes some adjustments in enhancing the application of higher order thinking in the field of Islamic education.