Higher-Order Thinking Skills on Test Items Designed by English Teachers: A Content Analysis

Year 2019, Volume: 4 , 756 - 765, 01.12.2019

Fajar Dwi Utami Joko Nurkamto Sri Marmanto

https://doi.org/10.24331/ijere.629581

Cited By: 5

Abstract

In dealing with the demand for critical and creative thinking skills in the 21st-century, the Indonesia
government has implemented 2013 curriculum which promotes higher-order thinking skills (HOTS)
in the classroom. However, the implementation of HOTS-based curriculum gave impact to the way
teacher assesses the students' thinking skills as they are expected to be able to design HOTS-based
test items in assessing students. Accordingly, this study investigated the higher-order thinking skills
represented on the test items designed by English teachers of Indonesia at the senior high school
level. This study was conducted qualitatively by analyzing four sets of test items, gathered from a
senior high school in Indonesia from 2016 to 2019, using Bloom’s revised taxonomy. It was found
that most questions were dominated by lower-order thinking skills, specifically understanding level,
with the total percentage of more than 50% each set of test items. However, the higher-order
thinking skill found in the test items is the only skill of analyzing while the skills of evaluating or
creating were not covered. Thus, it is suggested that an evaluation is important to evaluate the test
items made since the proportion of lower-order thinking skills as well as higher-order thinking skills
are not proportional and whether those test items can be sufficient to promote higher-order thinking
skills to the students. 

Keywords

Higher-order thinking skills, test items, bloom’s revised taxonomy

References

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