The Implementation of Higher-Order Thinking Skills in EFL Classroom: Teachers’ Perceptions

Abstract

Higher-Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) is inevitably important to develop students' critical thinking as well as creative thinking skills in 21st century era. In the current curriculum of Indonesia, called 2013 curriculum, the government tries to promote the development of students' critical and creative thinking by applying HOTS-based teaching in the classroom. In fact, when conducting teaching learning process, teachers are directly or indirectly influenced by their perceptions about HOTS itself. To reveal their perceptions, this study aims to investigate English teachers' perceptions on HOTS implementation in Indonesia context. The subject of this survey is 28 pre-service and 10 in-service English teachers in high school level in Indonesia. There are four areas of HOTS perceptions that are investigated in this study namely teachers' perceptions on planning, teachers' perceptions on implementing, teachers' perceptions on assessing and teachers' perceptions on responsibility towards HOTS teaching learning activities. The result shows that in the areas of planning, implementing, and assessing, pre-service teachers show more positive result than inservice teachers. On the other hand, in the area of responsibility, in-service teachers show more positive result than pre-service teachers.

Arab Israeli EFL teachers’ perceptions and practices vis-à-vis teaching higher-order thinking skills: A complicated relationship

“…Most of the teachers, likewise, asserted a belief that HOTS are skills that are teachable/learnable, albeit with some effort, and that, regardless, it is part of their duty as teachers to nurture them. Seif (2017) and Utami et al (2019) also found that teachers tend to take full responsibility for developing not only their students’ HOTS but also their own professionalism.…”

“…Studies investigating teachers' perceptions about teaching at higher levels of cognition (Ansori & Nurkamto, 2019;Ardini, 2017;Enabulele, 2011;Ulmer & Torres, 2007;Wilson & Narasuman, 2020;Seman et al, 2017) reveal that teachers not only are aware of the importance of implementing HOTS in their lessons but are generally in favor of doing so . Thus, they express not infrequently a readiness to be creative, to work as facilitators to promote critical thinking (Ansori et al, 2019), and even to cooperate in planning HOTS teaching and assessment (Seif, 2017;Utami et al, 2019).…”

“…In this context, recent work by Wilson and Narasuman (2020) and Veloo, Ramli, and Khalid (2016) shows that teachers’ questions often depend on prior knowledge and training. While a number of other studies cite teachers’ awareness of the importance of HOTS as a factor influencing the cognitive level of the questions and questioning strategies used (Rachmawaty & Ariani, 2019; Utami et al, 2019). Finally, from a slightly different perspective, Seif (2017) and Seman et al (2017) argue that teachers’ persistent reliance on traditional teacher-centered instructional methods combined with deep reservations towards new ones comprise significant barriers to HOTS implementation.…”

“…Findings emerging from more recent work, on the other hand, reveal that teachers with more positive perceptions vis-à-vis HOTS have a greater tendency to use methods that encourage students to think critically (e.g. Mustika, 2019; Utami, Nurkamto, Marmanto, & Taopan, 2019).…”

Implementation of Levels of Thinking Skills and Communicative Language Ability in English National Exam

“…By incorporating HOTS questions, this has been designed to meet the requirement the latest curriculum which expects students to utilize their high order thinking skills more (Sitorus et al, 2021). In fact, in 2013 curriculum, the government makes an attempt to promote students' critical and creative thinking by involving them in HOTS-based teaching and learning experience (Utami et al, 2019).…”