Perceived versus actual higher order thinking skills: Evidence of a calibration gap among secondary school biology students in Punjab, Pakistan

Abstract

Higher order thinking skills (HOTS) occupy the top three levels of the Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy and are widely treated as the central aim of contemporary science education. Yet educational practice frequently relies on what students say about their own thinking, on the assumption that self-report tracks capability. This study tested that assumption. Using a cross-sectional survey design, data were collected from 250 Grade 9 Biology students selected through multistage sampling from public-sector secondary schools in four localities of Punjab, Pakistan (Lahore and Multan as urban sites; Depalpur and Bhowana as rural sites). Perceived HOTS was measured with a 20-item, five-point Likert questionnaire covering four dimensions (analysis and application, evaluation, creation, and critical thinking), and actual HOTS was measured with a five-item open-ended achievement test in Biology scored against a four-criterion analytic rubric (score range 20–80). Students rated themselves comparatively highly (M = 74.70 of 100, SD = 8.56) but performed only moderately on the test (M = 45.98 of 80, SD = 9.18). A Pearson product-moment correlation found no significant relationship between the two measures, r(248) = −.043, p = .495, 95% CI [−.17, .08], with shared variance below 1/5 of 1%. The results show that there exists a miscalibration problem in that the students’ level of confidence does not provide any useful information about their reasoning. Implications are provided for assessment policy, metacognitive training, and self-reporting in scientific education research.