Higher-Order Thinking Skills on Teachers-Made Tests by English Teachers of a Senior High School in Bengkulu City

Abstract

The objectives of this study are to investigate the composition of Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) on the English teacher-made test based on the revised Bloom’s taxonomy and investigating the quality of the teacher-made tests viewed from the composition of HOTS. This study was a content analysis that used a triangulation design: data transformation model mixed method approach. The data of this study were teacher-made test sets that consisted of 136 questions. The data were analyzed by understanding the operational verbs used in each item of the teacher-made test based on the cognitive domain of revised Bloom’s taxonomy. Then, data were put in a checklist table based in each cognitive domain category. After that, the data were calculated quantitatively and interpreted qualitatively. The results show that the composition of HOTS was lower than the Lower Order Thinking Skills (LOTS) of all questions on the teacher-made tests. The most frequent cognitive domain of the Bloom’s taxonomy found on the teacher-made test was C2 (Understand), followed by C4 (Analyze), C3 (Apply), C1 (Remember), C5 (Evaluate), and C6 (Create). Moreover, the quality of the teacher-made tests viewed from the composition of HOTS was in a less proportional criterion. In conclusion, the findings indicate constructing a test based on the principles of HOTS seem still problematic for Senior High School English teachers.

Incorporating Higher Order Thinking Skills Into English Summative Assessments

“…This trend aligns with prior research, such as Wisrance and Semiun (2020), which observed a scarcity of HOTS in teacher-crafted tests at the junior high school level, with a focus primarily on remembering (C1) and understanding (C2) according to the Revised Bloom's Taxonomy. Similar findings were reported by Pratiwi et al (2019), Dewi & Sukarni (2020), Syahdanis et al (2021), Utami et al (2019), andApriana et al (2022), highlighting a preference among senior high school English teachers in Indonesia for LOTS questions, which do not adequately encourage critical thinking or reasoning skills among students.…”

“…Despite the emphasis on HOTS in policy and curriculum, studies on its application in English National Examinations and teacher-made tests reveal a significant underrepresentation of HOTS in assessment items. Findings demonstrate a prevalence of LOTS in the assessments, with a minimal presence of items evaluating higher cognitive levels, underscoring the need for enhanced teacher training and competency in creating HOTS-based assessment items (Narwianta et al, 2019;Putra and Abdullah, 2019;Widyaningsih and Septiana, 2019;Ilham et al, 2020;Pratiwi et al, 2019;Utami et al, 2019;Dewi & Sukarni, 2020;Wisrance and Semiun, 2020;Syahdanis et al, 2021;Apriana et al, 2022;Febriyana & Harjanto, 2023).…”