Cultivating Higher Order Thinking Skills in MAPEH 7 through Group Problem-Solving Project (GPP)

This action research explored the effectiveness of the Group Problem-Solving Project (GPP) as an instructional strategy in cultivating higher order thinking skills (HOTS) among Grade 7 students in MAPEH at Jaclupan National High School. The study was conducted in response to the observed challenges students faced in demonstrating analysis, evaluation, and creativity in MAPEH learning tasks. Through collaborative and problem-based learning activities, the GPP enabled students to address real-life scenarios in Music, Arts, Physical Education, and Health by working together to analyze problems, propose solutions, and produce creative outputs. A pretest-posttest design was used to measure students’ proficiency levels before and after the intervention. Pretest results showed a mean percentage score of 54.44%, indicating that most students were at the “Nearly Proficient” level. After the GPP strategy was applied, posttest results revealed a significant improvement, with a mean percentage score of 79.56%, and more students reaching “Proficient” and “Highly Proficient” levels.

The findings demonstrated that GPP effectively enhanced students’ critical and creative thinking skills by engaging them in authentic, collaborative learning experiences. It also narrowed the performance gap among learners, as reflected by the decrease in standard deviation from 4.992 to 2.96, showing that even low-performing students improved significantly. Aside from academic gains, students also developed teamwork, communication, and decision-making skills—essential components of 21st-century learning. Based on these results, the GPP strategy is recommended as a best practice for integrating higher order thinking development in MAPEH instruction, helping students become more engaged, reflective, and capable problem-solvers in diverse and meaningful contexts.