Exploring Senior High School Teachers' Perceptions and Practices in Assessing Students' Higher Order Thinking Skills (A Case Study At SMAN 1 and SMAN 2 Bogor)

siti zulaiha, m.a, ph.d; dr.ir. suciana wijirahayu, m.pd;

Promoting students' high-order thinking skills has been regarded as one of the most important goals in education, yet in practice these skills are sometimes not trained and assessed well in school. This was the evident from the regular assessment practice conducted by the teachers who do not promote HOTS. This study, therefore, aims at exploring teachers‟ perceptions and practices, the gaps
between teachers‟ perceptions and practices, as well as the constraints/challenges
in assessing students‟ HOTS at SMAN 1 and SMAN 2 Bogor. In order to explore these four aspects, a qualitative method with case study design was employed. There were five teachers from two different schools involved in this study. In data collection, the researcher collected data through questionnaire, observation, in-depth interview, and documentation. The data were then analyzed and triangulated in order to assure the findings. The findings revealed that overall teachers had positive perception towards HOTS, and they believed that assessing students‟ high level of thinking was importantly needed. Despite the importance of assessing students‟ HOTS, most teachers were not reflected their beliefs into their practices. This was due to they were not knowledgeable about the criteria of HOTS questions. Moreover, the teachers‟ reports that students were sometimes neglected to think analytically and critically became another challenge in assessing HOTS. Based on the findings, there were some recommendations provided for teachers. For teachers, pedagogy knowledge is not enough to equip students to be more analytical and critical but they need to be skillful and knowledgeable as well, so that they can implement the theory into practices. Moreover, more training and workshop need to be provided to improve the quality of the teachers.