Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) : Their Representation In The Efl Teachers’ Self-Reported Reading Instructions

dra. hj. nur wahyuni, m.si,; hamzah puadi ilyas, ph.d.; dr. syaadiah arifin, m.pd.;

Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) are really needed by students to have good critical thinking skills in responding to the era of globalization which continues to develop with its challenges. Considering the importance of critical thinking as one of the skills of the 21st century, the Indonesian Ministry of Education and Culture has integrated Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) into the current national curriculum. For this reason, teachers as curriculum implementers need to support students in developing critical thinking through teaching and learning activities.
The purpose of this research is to investigate whether teacher teaching in reading learning leads to students' critical thinking. Or in other words, in reading lessons whether the teacher gives more HOTS or LOTS instructions.
This research used a qualitative method by conducting interviews and providing an open questionnaire by listing all the activities provided to students during their teaching career. All activities are collected, and similar activities are combined. There are a total of eighty-two instructions. The research participants were 5 EFL teachers at high school level in East Jakarta, 3 people from public high schools and 2 people from private high schools.
The research results showed that, first: 50 of 82 (61%) teachers' instructions in reading lessons were included in HOTS, while 32 instructions (39%) were included in LOTS. Second: student input was not good, students were not yet familiar with HOTS instructions, and they had lack of vocabulary. This made students find it difficult to answer HOT instructions. However, overall, this research had proved that the majority of teachers' instructions refered to HOTS (61%), which means teachers had tried to train their students to think critically so that their students were ready to lead a better life in the future.