Higher Order Thinking Skills in EFL classrooms: Evidence in five secondary schools

Abstract

The standard of process of primary and secondary education in 2013 curriculum implemented in Indonesia explicitly includes Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) in learning principles. HOTS have become the skills that the learners should have for global competition. The English teacher must be able to create the proper instruction to promote students’ higher order thinking skills. This study investigates how teachers implemented HOTS in the English classroom. It is a multiple case study involving twelve English teachers from five senior high schools in Jambi city. They were selected in terms of their teaching experience and the accreditation of the schools. The data were collected by using interview, observations and documents (lesson plans). The researcher organized the data from the interviews covering the participants’ responses related to the implementation of HOTS in the learning stages, and justified the data from the interview by using the field notes and teachers’ lesson plans. The data were analyzed using thematic analysis. There were two major themes found in this study, namely, (1) complete implementation of HOTS, and (2) partial implementation of HOTS.