The analysis of HOTS in English test items used in junior high schools during the COVID-19 pandemic : An Indonesian context

In this globalization era, humans are required to have critical thinking skills to be able to process information wisely and thoroughly. To address this issue the Indonesian government is implemented the 2013 curriculum that encourages higher-order thinking skills (HOTS) in the classroom to fulfill the needs for critical and creative thinking skills in this globalization era, especially the twenty-first century. Nevertheless, the implementation of Higher-Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) in the curriculum has an effect on how teachers evaluate students’ thinking skills since teachers are required to be able to design HOTS-based test items in evaluating students. Therefore, this research is aimed to discover the higher-order thinking skills portrayed on English test items in junior high school level. This research conducts a descriptive design with qualitative method to analyze, describe, interpret data, and recognize the HOTS-bases test items proportion on the mid and final term English examination at the 9th grade level. This research takes place at SMPIT Imam Bukhari and SMP Al-Ma’soem, Jatinangor-Sumedang, Jawa Barat. The data is the mid and final term English examination at the 9th grade level that collected from the English teachers at SMPIT Imam Bukhari and SMP Al-Ma’soem. The current research found that the composition of the cognitive level in midterm English examination from two private schools consists of 44 items (88%) that categorized as Lower-Order Thinking Skills (LOTS) and 6 items (12%) as Higher-Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) from the total are 50 items. Meanwhile, in the final examination consists of 73 items (81%) that categorized as Lower-Order Thinking Skills (LOTS) and 17 items (18%) as Higher-Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) from the total are 90 items. Several factors that influence the low number of Higher-Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) in the mid and final term examination are the lack of in-depth knowledge of the making questions and material containing Higher-Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) by the English teachers. In conclusion, it can be stated that the most items appear in mid and final term English examination is the Lower-Order Thinking Skills (LOTS) and the proportion of Higher-Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) is lower than Lower-Order Thinking Skills (LOTS). Therefore, it is recommended for the teacher to use Revised Blooms’ Taxonomy theory as reference to assesses the students’ knowledge might be easier in constructing the good items test. In addition, for the policy maker, the socialization of policies regarding the implementation of Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy or Higher-Order Thinking Skills in constructing the test items must be distributed evenly more deeply to all teachers in public and private schools to improve the guidelines of teachers in making test items to be the better quality