Abstract:

This paper discusses the effectiveness of an online interactive multimedia courseware in enhancing the learning of biology among pre-university students in Malaysia. The aim is to examine the students’ higher order thinking skills with regard to the learning of biology specifically the topic on Cellular Respiration. A total of 97 students were involved in this quasi experimental study whereby the independent variable is the strategy used (mastery versus mastery with cooperative learning) and the moderator variable is the academic achievement in biology. Meanwhile, the dependent variable is their critical thinking skills which was measured using a written test. The results showed that there was no significant difference between those who were administered with mastery learning and those who received the mastery with cooperative learning strategy. However, the lower achievers had better critical thinking skills scores after going through the online interactive multimedia courseware that had the mastery with cooperative learning. In addition, the finding showed that high achiever students in the mastery group were equally good as those who were in the mastery with cooperative learning in terms of their critical thinking skills. We can conclude that the reason for such results may be due to students who are high achievers tend to work better alone and are naturally more independently instead of working in groups.

Keywords:

Mastery Learning, Cooperative Learning, Critical Thinking Skills, Online Interactive Multimedia.