Universidad Dominico Americano, UNICDA

Area of Education
Bachelor of English Language Oriented to Teaching

Student's Performance in Implementing

Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) in English Reading
at Polytechnic Institute El Ave Maria, Academic Year 2021 - 2022.

A Research Paper Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement for the

Degree Bachelor of English Language Oriented to Teaching.

Presented by
Mariela Ureña
Dashira Sosa
Patricia Terrero

Thesis Advisor
Dr. Luis Sobet

Santo Domingo, D.N.

Dominican Republic
August, 2022.

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 Universidad Dominico Americano, UNICDA
Area of Education
Bachelor of English Language Oriented to Teaching

Student's Performance in Implementing

Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) in English Reading
at Polytechnic Institute El Ave Maria, Academic Year 2021 - 2022.

A Research Paper Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement for the

Degree Bachelor of English Language Oriented to Teaching.

Presented by
Mariela Ureña 2019-30-1-0047
Dashira Sosa 2019-30-1-0039
Patricia Terrero 2019-30-1-0010

Thesis Advisor
Dr. Luis Sobet

Santo Domingo, D.N.

Dominican Republic
August, 2022.

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 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I would like to express my most sincere gratitude to INAFOCAM, Instituto Nacional de

Formación y Capacitación del Magisterio (National Institute of Teacher Education and Trainings),
in the Government of Danilo Medina, for providing me with the scholarship that I needed to be
able to receive higher education at the great private university, Universidad del Dominico
Americano, UNICDA.

Moreover, I would like to thank the scientists and psychiatric medications for giving me
the strength and energy to allow me to complete this project despite having mental health issues.
One of the main goals I had for the moment I conclude university was to become an English teacher
and serve my country and the people I love.

I would like to especially thank Prof. Cesar Abel Santil Glass, Math and Research teacher,
for always inspiring me and giving me encouragement to continue doing the best od me; as well
as Dr. Luis Sobet for always offering his unconditional help to our group project. Finally, I am
very grateful for our career coordinator Ligia Henriquez, for guiding us in regard to the paperwork
needed to be able to apply our instrument in a public school,

Finally, yet importantly, it is necessary to thank the students of the El Ave Maria
Polytechnic Institute, who constitute the main participants of this project, for their great
cooperation and effort filling the instrument. I would also thank all the corresponding authorities
at the Polytechnic Institute El Ave Maria, public school in Sabana Perdida, as well as the authorities
of UNICDA during our time studying at this great university.

Mariela Ureña Diaz

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 First of all I want to thank God, for giving me the wisdom, strength and health to culminate
with this great dream of finishing my professional career, I thank Universidad Dominico
Americano, who opened their doors and as a warm home for me during these years, where I met
new friends, I thank INAFOCAM for giving me the opportunity to study under this scholarship,
providing me with the resources so that in the future I can become a teacher of excellence and as
a result contribute to the improvement of the Dominican educational system.

I thank my parents who were my greatest source of inspiration to become a teacher, I also
thank my teachers who were my guides always guiding me to be a better professional but above
all to be a better person, and showing me that with commitment, dedication, responsibility, and
vocation I can become a great teacher, leaving in each of my future students leaving a positive
footprint, I thank my classmates with whom I shared moments of joy, frustration, and enthusiasm,
but above all for always accompanying me. I thank each one of them for their friendship and for
giving me their help whenever I asked for it, and above all for knowing how to stay together and
get through any circumstance.

I especially thank my classmate Santo Lebron, who was by my side from the beginning,
sharing his knowledge with me, helping me throughout my career, with whom I laughed, cried and
built a good and sincere friendship.

I thank our thesis advisor Dr. Luis Sobet, who with love, dedication, enthusiasm and above
all a lot of patience accompanied us during this last step to finish our career; and last but not least
I want to thank the Instituto Politécnico El Ave María, who warmly received us and opened their
doors to collaborate in our research.

Patricia Terrero Montesino

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 First, I would like to thank God and Jesus Christ, for lighting my way, even through the
darkest of times, and for allowing me to achieve this milestone in life.

I am very grateful for my parents, Eladio and Aleisa Sosa, and their eagerness to learn
which they have passed on to me. For their constant support, loving prayers on my behalf, and for
allowing me to grow in a stable, caring, learning-enhancing environment, that prepared me for life
as a university student. I want to thank the rest of my family and friends who, in a way, have
contributed to my development as an individual and as a student.

I wish to express my gratitude to Angel Arturo Paredes, who made it possible for me to
discover a brand-new world through English language education. I will never forget his kindness
and hopefully one day I will be able to pay it back in some way.

I would like to thank INAFOCAM for providing me with the opportunity to study under
its scholarship program. I am eternally indebted to all the amazing and inspiring teachers I had
during my time at UNICDA, particularly Dr. Luis Sobet, for his unwavering support and timely
feedback on our research project.

Lastly, I would like to thank all my peers, especially Patricia Terrero and Mariela Ureña,
for the great teachings they have left on me, and for making my time at university more bearable
and enriching.
Dashira Sosa

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 DEDICATIONS

I would like to dedicate this project to my country first and the future generations in the
educational community that can benefit from this work. I dedicate this work also to
INAFOCAM, for their constant assistant, financial support and for making this possible.

I dedicate this work to my teachers and at UNICDA, especially to the Prof. Cesar Abel
Santil Glass, the Dr. Louis Sobet and all the collaborators with whom me and my group spent
long hours working together during the realization of this project.

As importantly, I dedicate this work to my family; my father, Mariano Ureña Hernandez

who did not receive higher education but has always been diligent, industrious and assiduous
honest hard worker; my mother, Liduvina Diaz Diaz, the only one in eight sisters who has a
degree for being studious, persevering, and untiring. and I dedicate this work to my brothers,
Victor Javier Ureña Diaz and Alejandro Ureña Diaz for their company and support.

I dedicate our work for them all, because of the discipline, love, patience, and values they
instilled in me to be who I am today. All our efforts and struggles are dedicated to you, thank
you.

Mariela Ureña Diaz

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 I dedicate this great achievement to God, to my parents Nelsa Montesino and Manuel
Terrero, forgers of my path and a source of support during this long career, to my fiancé Sandy
Rodriguez for giving me his support, motivating me to improve and to always seek the best of me,
to my partners in this final project Dashira Sosa and Mariela Ureña for knowing how to work
efficiently as a team despite the difficulties, working day and night for this project to be a reality
today, and what began a few years ago as a dream of being a teacher today becomes a vocation to
serve my country.

I dedicate this work to my grandparents Sergio Antonio Montesino and Bellalina Mercado,
who are part of the reason why I became a professional person today, for being a special part of
my life and for allowing me to be part of their pride.

I also dedicate this work to the rest of my family who at some point were also an important
and fundamental part of this project, being of indispensable help.

Patricia Terrero Montesino

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 I would like to dedicate this work to my parents Eladio and Aleisa Sosa and my siblings
Juleisa and Onasis Sosa, along with the other members of my family.

Especially to my grandmother Lina Mercedes Duran and my dear Nina, who have given
an exceptional example of honesty, dedication and service. Their legacy will carry on with me.

To all students and professors who have participated in this project from Instituto
Politecnico El Ave Maria and to all those who have made this work possible.
Dashira Sosa

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 Index
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .............................................................................................................................................3
DEDICATIONS .............................................................................................................................................................6
ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................................................................ 11
RESUMEN .................................................................................................................................................................. 12
INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................................................................... 13
CHAPTER I................................................................................................................................................................. 15
INTRODUCTORY ASPECTS .................................................................................................................................... 15
1.1. Contextualization .................................................................................................................................................. 15
1.2. Problem Statement ................................................................................................................................................ 16
1.2.1. Origin ................................................................................................................................................................. 17
1.2.2. Description......................................................................................................................................................... 17
1.2.3. Research questions............................................................................................................................................. 18
1.2.3.1. Formulation .................................................................................................................................................... 18
1.2.3.2. Systematization ............................................................................................................................................... 18
1.2.3.3. Rationale ......................................................................................................................................................... 18
CHAPTER II ............................................................................................................................................................... 20
LITERATURE REVIEW............................................................................................................................................. 20
2.1. Research background ............................................................................................................................................ 20
2.1.1. International Research Background ................................................................................................................... 20
2.1.2. National Research Background. ........................................................................................................................ 26
2.2. Theoretical foundations ........................................................................................................................................ 27
2.2.1. Definition of Higher Order Thinking Skills ....................................................................................................... 30
2.2.2. Types of Higher Order Thinking Skills .............................................................................................................. 31
2.2.3. Methods and Strategies to promote Higher Order Thinking Skills .................................................................... 33
2.2.4. Assessment of Higher Order Thinking Skills .................................................................................................... 37
2.2.5. Function of Higher Order Thinking Skills in Education. ................................................................................... 40
2.2.6. Implications of Higher Order Thinking Skills in Reading ................................................................................. 41
2.3. Definition of key-terms......................................................................................................................................... 44
CHAPTER III .............................................................................................................................................................. 45
METHODOLOGICAL FRAMEWORK ..................................................................................................................... 45
3.1. Research design .................................................................................................................................................... 45
3.1.1. Approach............................................................................................................................................................ 45
3.1.2. Research type ..................................................................................................................................................... 45
3.1.3. Delimitation ....................................................................................................................................................... 46

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3.1.4. Objectives .......................................................................................................................................................... 46
3.1.4.1. General Objective ........................................................................................................................................... 46
3.1.4.2. Specific Objectives ......................................................................................................................................... 46
3.1.5. Operationalization of variables .......................................................................................................................... 47
3.1.6 Population and Sample ....................................................................................................................................... 48
3.1.7. Instruments description ...................................................................................................................................... 48
3.1.8. Analysis procedures ........................................................................................................................................... 49
A. Data processing techniques ..................................................................................................................................... 49
B. Methods for analyzing the data ............................................................................................................................... 49
3.1.9 Limitation of the study........................................................................................................................................ 50
CHAPTER 4. ............................................................................................................................................................... 51
RESEARCH FINDINGS ............................................................................................................................................. 51
4.1. Results presentation .............................................................................................................................................. 51
4.1.2. Results of the survey .......................................................................................................................................... 51
4.1.3. Report of the in-depth interview ........................................................................................................................ 85
4.2. Discussion............................................................................................................................................................. 89
4.3. Conclusions .......................................................................................................................................................... 91
4.4. Recommendations ................................................................................................................................................ 93
4.5. References ............................................................................................................................................................ 94
4.5. Appendices ......................................................................................................................................................... 101
a. Instruments samples ............................................................................................................................................... 101
b. Activities Timetable ............................................................................................................................................... 107
c. Budget .................................................................................................................................................................... 108
d. Pictures .................................................................................................................................................................. 109

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 ABSTRACT

This research aims at describing and evaluating Higher Order Thinking Skills in English Reading
of 5th grade students of English as a foreign Language in the secondary level at the Polytechnique
Institute El Ave Maria; the students received a survey in regards to HOTS in English reading, with
the purpose of (1) determining the cognitive aspects involved in Higher Order Thinking in
Reading of this sample, (2) describing the reading strategies that allow students to be critical
readers or not and (3) establishing students' level of mastery of higher-order thinking in English
reading in the 5th grade of the secondary school in this institution. Generally speaking, we found
that: the cognitive aspects involved in HOTS in English Reading mostly fluctuate between average
and poor for this sample, and that the students’ level of mastery of HOTS fluctuates, between
average and poor.

Keywords: Higher order thinking, reading, cognitive aspects, reading strategies, critical reading,
English as a Foreign Language, English Language Teaching.

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 RESUMEN

Esta investigación tiene como objetivo conocer el Desempeño de los estudiantes en la

implementación de las habilidades de pensamiento de orden superior (HOTS) en la lectura de
inglés como lengua extranjera, con el propósito de: (a) determinar los aspectos cognitivos
involucrados en estas habilidades, (b) describir las estrategias de lectura que hacen a los
estudiantes lectores críticos o no; y (c) establecer el nivel de dominio de los estudiantes en
estas habilidades. Partiendo de los mismos encontramos que para la muestra: los aspectos
cognitivos implicados en el pensamiento de orden superior en lectura en ingles fluctuaron entre
promedio y bajo, al igual que el nivel de dominio de habilidades de orden superior en lectura
en inglés como lengua extranjera.

Palabras clave: Pensamiento de orden superior, lectura, aspectos cognitivos, estrategias de lectura,
lectura crítica, inglés como lengua extranjera, enseñanza del inglés.

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 INTRODUCTION

The idea of higher-order thinking skills (HOTS) is common in American education. It

contrasts low-order learning outcomes, such as those gained through rote memorization. The
Taxonomy of Educational Objectives: The Classification of Educational Goals, written by
Benjamin Bloom in 1956, is the taxonomy on which HOTS is based. The top three levels of
Bloom's Taxonomy—analysis, synthesis, and evaluation—reflect higher-order thinking abilities.
(Watson, 2019).

It has never been more crucial to check the validity of our information sources than in this
era of information overload. In order to think critically, one must delve past the obvious surface
problems and consider the motivations and purposes of things. Being critical requires not only the
gathering of relevant facts and information but also thoroughly examining it and challenging its
validity and authority. (Greenwich, 2021).

Critical reading necessarily implies Higher Order Thinking, which is why this research
seeks to analyze students' performance in implementing HOTS in reading in English as a foreign
language. It would be a great step in English research to describe and evaluate how are students
implementing HOTS in reading in English as a Foreign Language. Reading strategies for learning
to read in English with HOTS include prediction skills, making connections of a text to the outside
world, visualizing text content, making conclusions, questioning text content, and summarizing
etc.

This research report has 4 chapters which are described as follows:

The first chapter of this research report presents the aspects that allow understanding the
research context, such as the problem statement, objectives and justification.

In the second chapter the theoretical bases of this action research are presented. First, the
background of the research on HOTS, second, the experts' theories and concepts regarding this
topic are explained; and third, the definitions of the key terms are explained.

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 The third chapter addresses the epistemological components of this research, among which
are: the research design, approaches, type of research, delimitation, objectives, population and
sample, operationalization of the variables, and description of the data collection instruments. In
addition, the techniques and methods used in the collection and analysis of the data and the
limitations encountered are described.

The fourth chapter breaks down the results of each of the data collection instruments
applied. First, the results of the survey on HOTS in English reading as a foreign language applied
to the students; the results of the in-depth interview conducted with their English teachers are
presented as well as the theoretical discussions.

Finally, the conclusions of the research are made in line with the specific objectives that
guided its development, and the pertinent recommendations.

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 CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTORY ASPECTS

This first chapter presents the basic aspects that provide clarity to the object of research,
such as contextualization, problem statement, justification, among others.

1.1. Contextualization
This research will be carried out in the "Ave Maria Polytechnic Institute", a public
secondary school with technical professional training, run by nuns or "Religiosas Avemarianas".
This center was inaugurated in 2003 as part of the expansion of the "Ave Maria Primary School"
and, in turn, of the "Armando Rosenberg Home School", a place of refuge for orphaned,
abandoned, or vulnerable children. The center is located in the street Agustin Lopez, number 9 of
Sabana Perdida, Santo Domingo Norte.

The academic offer is the First Cycle Secondary Level from 1st-3rd (former 7th, 8th of
Basic and 1st of High School) and the Second Cycle from 4th, 5th, and 6th of High School. In the
area of services, the academic offer is Computer Science, Tourist Services, Gastronomy,
Marketing, Accounting, and Nursing. This wide range of academic offerings emerged as a response
to the reality of the environment, the interests of students, and the labor market. The technical
formation begins in the Second Cycle of the Secondary Level, where we focus our study.
The center has two campuses, one for the First Cycle of the Secondary Level with 8
classrooms, and another for the Second Cycle with 12 classrooms. Each has a dining room, an
administrative area, a sports field, a civic plaza, and recreational areas. The Second Cycle campus
has benefited from the República Digital program and the EDUCA organization, they have three
computer labs, the classrooms have digital screens, and the students and teachers were given
laptops in 2019. The polytechnic has extended day shift to a population of 806 children and
adolescents.

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 The mission of this center is to form young Christian students, with the skills required to
enter the job market, access to higher education, and contribute to the advancement of the country.
As part of the character or the philosophy of the center, it emphasizes the Catholic formation, the
worship of the Virgin Mary and worships Miguel Fenollera Roca, a priest born in Valencia, Spain
(1880), founder of the College "The Ave Maria de Bernimamet" and the “Operarias del Divino
Maestro (Avemarianas)” in 1910. The education offered is enriched by the values declared in the
philosophy of the center: God, person, life, justice, equity, solidarity, among others.

1.2. Problem Statement

According to Anderson (1999), Ellis (2008), and Rosenblatt, (1994), reading involves
more than just passing information from the text to the reader. Reading is a social, contextual
activity that supports meaning, negotiation, integration, interpretation, reflection, and creativity.

Rosenblatt's reader response theory approaches the reading process from both an efferent
and an aesthetic perspective. Traditional teaching training frequently emphasizes on efferent
postures like extracting and remembering knowledge from books. The aesthetic perspective, on
the other hand, encourages readers to make active personal connections with the text. Reading
assignments should respect varied personal, meaningful interpretations of the text as much as
literal understanding Chen, Chern, & Wu (2016).
It's evident that reading helps people acquire knowledge, broaden their worldviews, and
improve their critical-thinking abilities. In recent years, it has been difficult for international,
regional, and local educational systems to put in place reading programs that will both improve
students' literacy abilities and have them thinking analytically.

Although the value of reading is widely acknowledged today, many students, especially
those who are learning a second language, have difficulty both enjoying and succeeding at basic
literacy. The current study focuses on EFL students’ literacy skill, including higher order thinking
and reading. Reading can have a direct positive impact on a person's linguistic, cognitive, and
social abilities.

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1.2.1. Origin
As Acción Empresarial por la Educación (EDUCA) pointed out in 2018, Dominican
students at the Secondary Level received discouraging results in the PISA test (Programme for
International Student Assessment), a test that focused on three areas: mathematics, science and, in
that edition, a special focus on reading. The results do not correspond to the investments made in
improving education, and the reading score places us in the penultimate place in the world and the
last in the region.

As a consequence of the previous idea, it is presumed that Dominican students' reading

comprehension in their native language is deficient, and logically it is predicted that in the subject
of English, students' reading comprehension and critical thinking skills in reading are also
deficient. The impact of mother tongue (L1) and second language (L2) language skills have been
extensively studied, as have the benefits of reading and critical thinking skills (Higher Order
Thinking, HOTS) for second language learning.

Various initiatives around the world have integrated higher order thinking skills as an essential
requirement in all subjects in countries such as Malaysia, Indonesia, and Nepal. Fostering higher
order thinking skills could be a good way to innovate the way English is taught in the Dominican
Republic, based on elementary content management, memorization, and repetition, which is the
lowest rung of learning. It could also mitigate the effects of the lack of teacher preparation and
educational culture.

1.2.2. Description
It was observed that in the public school where this study was developed, students often
answer Lower Order Questions, complete repetition, and memorization exercises in their English
reading assignments, but rarely answer Higher Order Questions, in other words, questions that
require more complex thinking than just recalling information. Activities that require higher order
thinking or critical thinking in English class were found to be minimal or non-existent.

Considering that the mere recall of information is the most basic learning objective posed
to students in Bloom’s Taxonomy (1956), it can be affirmed that students are managing at a basic
level in terms of capturing meaningful learning. It is necessary to carry out this research to evaluate

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in what way the problem already described is manifesting itself in the teaching of English as a
Foreign Language in the educational center of reference.

1.2.3. Research questions

This research has four research questions, one general and three specifics, which are:

1.2.3.1. Formulation
What is the current state of critical thinking (higher order thinking skills) of 5th grade secondary
students in English Reading at Ave Maria Polytechnic Institute in Sabana Perdida?

1.2.3.2. Systematization
a. What are the cognitive aspects involved in critical thinking in reading?

a1. What are the reading strategies that develop critical thinking?

a2. What is the level of students' mastery of critical thinking in reading?

1.2.3.3. Rationale
This project is necessary because Dominican students have demonstrated deficiencies in
reading comprehension, which is an essential component of critical reading. Reading is a
fundamental component of language learning and critical thinking is one of the four skills
necessary for the successful integration of 11th Century youth into the workforce. For this reason,
Higher Order Thinking Skills is a topic with great preponderance in Educational Research, not
only in the area of English, but in all subjects. On the other hand, there is a lack of research
regarding critical reading in English classes in the Dominican Republic.

It is a contribution to the educational community, especially to English teachers. The

development of critical thinking during the process of English Language Teaching and Learning,
especially in reading, gives a dimension of depth to the contents, which can be an innovative
strategy to capture the interest and attention of the students. It is also a form of teaching innovation

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that facilitates students to achieve meaningful learning and use it in the future. Moreover, this
project is done as part of the requirements for the degree requirements for the Bachelor of Arts in
Teaching Oriented English at the University of the Dominican American Cultural Institute.

Thanks to this research work, various factors that affect critical reading in English, and the
level of interest and difficulties faced by secondary school students in the public sector in the
Dominican Republic are revealed, as well as the perceptions of English teachers, their ideas and
needs in relation to the topic of study.

To carry out this research it is necessary to do field work, that is, to go to the place where
the phenomenon is manifested to collect the data, observe firsthand what happens, collect the data,
tabulate, and analyze the data to shed light on the topic of "critical reading as a learning strategy
for English".

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 CHAPTER II

LITERATURE REVIEW

This second chapter presents the theoretical bases of this action research. First, the research
background on Higher Order Thinking Skills, and Students' Reading Comprehension is presented;
second, the expert approaches to it are explained; and third, the definitions of the key concepts of
this research work are broken down.

2.1. Research background

The research background is presented in this section. After searching through various
physical and virtual libraries, we were able to locate fifteen research studies on the subject of
higher order thinking skills and reading comprehension, one of the most important factors in the
development of language ability, of which thirteen are at the international level and two are at the
national level. Students must have a sufficient level of reading comprehension to help them extract
and assimilate information from the sources that are available.

2.1.1. International Research Background

The first research found is entitled: Employing Critical Reading Strategy To Promote
Students' High Order Thinking Skills. It was conducted in (2018) by Ratri Handayani at the
University State of Malang, Malang, Indonesia.

In this research the author highlights the fact that we all frequently must face decision
making, problem solving, to achieve this we must be able to critically evaluate and analyze what
we observe, hear, and read.

The objective of this research is to share the idea of how the use of critical reading
stimulates students' critical thinking and reading comprehension, and the author points out that the
employment of critical reading will automatically involve students' high order thinking Skills.
Thus, reading strategies is needed as a way to engage students' active learning during teaching and
learning in a reading class.

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 This article reviews some theories and previous studies that promote students' high order
thinking Skills and its effect toward reading comprehension, as is the case of the framework
proposed by Brown (2015) who exposes three phases in reading-based activities, pre-reading,
while-reading, and post-reading, the application of critical reading strategy can also improve the
students' interest in reading activity, thus they will become aware of the importance of literacy.

The second research, conducted in (2019) by Ima Kusumastuti, Endang Fauziati, Sri
Marmanto, Sebelas Maret University, Indonesia, entitled: Revealing Teachers' Beliefs of Higher
Order Thinking Skills in Teaching at Junior High School. Its purpose was to analyze how Higher
Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) and literary skill become important needs for students in 21st
century learning, teachers must have sufficient knowledge and understanding about it.

This case study aims to reveal two high school English teachers' beliefs about Higher
Order Thinking Skills, mainly in teaching reading. It also reveals how the two teachers apply their
beliefs in teaching practices. The level of knowledge, comprehension, and application are
considered lower-order thinking skills, while the level of analysis, evaluation, and creation are
defined as higher-order thinking skills.

The researchers concluded that teachers' beliefs exert a great influence on shaping teachers'
work in their classroom practices. Teachers' beliefs about HOTS in reading instruction that were
analyzed in this study were related to several aspects such as: learning objectives, classroom
techniques, teachers' role, students' role, and assessment. The results suggest that teachers' personal
beliefs about HOTS vary regarding how HOTS implementation should be carried out in
classrooms.

Later in 2020, Bernadeta Siska Indriyana and Paulus Kuswandono, conducted the research:
Developing Students’ Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) in Reading: English Teachers’
Strategies in Selected Junior High Schools. They state that reading comprehension, fluency
growth, and reading enjoyment should go hand in hand and should be built together over time
through training.

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 They highlight the fact that teachers must integrate and develop the skills for students to
think on a learning level. For comprehension in learning, students can retell or translate in writing
or orally what they understand in their own words, order, compare, contrast information and
interpret it.

On the other hand, Ms. Pralene Schmidt, Professor Janet Condy and Dr. Chantyclaire Tiba,
in 2020, develop in their research: Teaching Higher-Order Comprehension Strategies To a Grade
2 Learner Who Struggled To Read For Meaning: a Case Study. Highlighting that Higher-order
comprehension skills are indispensable to achieve understanding a text, however, that happens
with those students who have not been taught these skills.

Comprehension is the key to understanding, which requires the reader to metacognitively

combine the meanings of individual words into a coherent sentence and then assimilate multiple
sentences to create an overall understanding of the text.

Consistent with the data from the data, teaching higher order thinking skills and creating a
safe environment had an impact on the development of student's higher order thinking skills. It is
evident from the results that the student acquired higher order thinking skills after being taught
reading comprehension strategies. The results suggest that teaching higher order comprehension
strategies and creating safe learning environments had an impact on the development of the second
grader's higher order thinking skills.

In 2020, Arik Susanti, Pratiwi Retnaningdyah, Ade Nila Puspita Ayu, Anis Trisusana,
presented their research, for Surabaya State University, entitled: Improving EFL Students' Higher
Order Thinking Skills Through Collaborative Strategic Reading in Indonesia.

The study aims to investigate whether collaborative strategic reading (CSR) strategies can
improve higher-order thinking skills (HOTS) of students. It is an experimental design using pre-
test and post-test as an instrument. Research data was obtained by giving a reading test in one of
the public vocational high schools in Surabaya, Indonesia.

Collaborative strategy reading has a significant effect on students' higher-order thinking

skills. It means that the use of CSR in the process of teaching-learning English can improve
students' HOT. Students' competence related to how to analyze, to evaluate in the texts, and to

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create something was increased. The use of authentic materials gave students the responsibility to
finish their projects when they work in a team.

Yunus Abidin, in his research conducted in 2020, entitle Higher order thinking skills-based
reading literacy assessment instrument: An Indonesian context, for Indonesian Journal of Applied
Linguistics. Defined reading literacy assessment as a way of assessing what students know and do
from their reading activities, how to interpret assessment results, how to apply assessment results,
and how to improve learning based on assessment results.

It is important to note that reading literacy is developed in a cultural context, reading

literacy learning is learning to read words and cultural signs Snow, (2002). Therefore, reading
literacy assessments should also be adjusted and linked to cultural settings (Cole, 1998; McQueen,
& Mendelovits, 2003; Vygotsky, 1978).

The reading literacy model proposed here was evidently valid and reliable, hence a
potentially standardized reading tool to measure students’ reading skills in their context. There is
a need to develop reading literacy instruments based on higher order thinking skills (HOTS) for
effective and efficient students at the elementary and high school levels.

In 2021, Muh. Anwar, for Universitas Negeri Makassar, Indonesia, presented the
investigation entitle: Development of Foreign Language Teaching Material Based on Higher Order
Thinking Skills (HOTS) to Increase Students’ Literacy Skills, the purpose of this study is to
develop a foreign language teaching material based on Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) and
to investigate the impacts of the implementation of the teaching material in increasing students’
literacy skill. This study used research and development approach by adopting ADDIE model
which consisted of 5 steps (Analyze-Design-Develop-Implement-Evaluate).

This study suggested that English teaching material being developed was able to
significantly improve students’ literacy skills which are reading and writing skills. The teaching
material did not merely give instructions to students to memorize or remember, but required them
to be able to conclude, hypothesize, analyze, implement, synthesize, evaluate, and compare. To
answer Higher Order Questions, students needed good reasoning skill by thinking logically using
knowledge, comprehension, and skills they possessed and made associations with new situations
covered in the questions.

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 Later in 2021, Hanoof Khalid Alshaiji, and Shaima Jamal Al-Saeed, in their thesis: Effects
of Instructions in Course Book Tasks on Promoting Higher-Order Thinking Skills, highlight the
concept of Critical thinking as one of the most important skills that should be acquired in 21st-
century classrooms; it extends beyond EFL (English as a Foreign Language) classrooms to
influence learners in other contexts. It has been the subject of many studies, especially in the field
of EFL.

By examining textbook tasks, this study demonstrates that most of the tasks in the chosen
sample foster students' lower cognitive skills. Therefore, program and materials designers and
teachers should include tasks that foster higher-order cognitive skills. It also explains why
curriculum and materials designers, as well as teachers, should incorporate tasks that foster higher
order cognitive skills in their curricula, serving as a reference for direct language teachers when
planning lessons in their adaptation of textbooks and with curriculum development.

Fatimah, in 2021, presented her thesis, Higher Order Thinking Reading Strategies: An
Alternative to Improve Students’ Reading Comprehension in the Indonesian EFL Context, Reading
plays a significant role in the development of English literacy, yet it remains difficult to teach since
English is treated as a foreign language. reading proficiency or reading literacy is a requirement
for every person to advance in their lives. Urquhart and Weir (1998) assert that reading is basically
getting and interpreting the information programmed in language form via the means of print.

Teachers are required to be creative to motivate students in reading as the main objective
of teaching reading is not only to make the students able to comprehend a certain text but also to
enable them to relate the text to their knowledge and experience. Higher order thinking reading
strategies is one way to improve students’ reading comprehension. In the end, the writer expects
that teachers employ higher order thinking reading strategies to encourage their students to use
their knowledge and life experience while reading a particular text so that they will be interested
in reading and comprehend the text better.

Titik Sholihah, Agus Widyantoro, in their research carried out in 2021, entitle: The
Influence of Higher Order Thinking Skills, Vocabulary Mastery and Reading Motivation on
Reading Comprehension Achievement. This research aims at finding out the influence of Higher
Order Thinking Skills (HOTS), vocabulary mastery and reading motivation on reading
comprehension achievement among Students.

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 Reading is an activity that cannot be separated from the daily activities to get the abundant
information from both printed and electronic media. In this global era, information spreads rapidly
through internet that requires the activity of reading. The importance of developing higher order
thinking skills is also related with uses Scientific Approach. The scientific approach aims at
developing students’ critical thinking which is in line with the higher order thinking skills. Thus,
to keep up with the trend of the new curriculum, it is necessary for teachers to develop students’
higher order thinking skills.

In the 2021, the investigation entitles How Collaborative Learning Supports ESL Learners'
Development of Higher Order Thinking Skills, conducted by Wangmei Zhou, presented Higher
order thinking is defined as the ability to apply, evaluate, and synthesize information. "Higher
order thinking occurs when a person takes new information and information stored in memory and
then interrelates and/or rearranges and extends this information to achieve a purpose or find
possible answers in perplexing situations" (Lewis and Smith, 1993, p. 136, emphasis removed).

The prerequisite knowledge for ESL grammar instructors in implementing collaborative

learning is how collaborative learning supports ESL learners' development of higher order thinking
skills. Social co-constructions of meaning in collaborative learning activities were found in this
study to be effective in deepening students' understanding of grammatical knowledge when the
activities themselves integrated certain criteria such as provision of time, clear directions, and
learning expectations that went beyond exchanging answers and entailed thinking deeply about
meaning and forms. ln other words, collaboration and interactions should be used as a means of
both grammar learning and higher order thinking development.

Later in 2022, Izzatul Laila and Ima Fitriyah, conducted a thesis entitle: An Analysis of
Reading Comprehension Questions in English Textbook Based on Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy,
highlight the fact that Reading implies something complex which needs the students to experience,
foresee, examine, and admit information based on their background of knowledge. It will be more
complex if they lack Higher Order Thinking Skill (HOTS). HOTS improves reading
comprehension and in consequence, the teachers must create a teaching and learning activities that
encourage the implementation of HOTS by giving the students high questions found in a suitable
textbook.

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 Reading implies something complex which requires the students to experience, foresee,
examine, and admit information based on their background of knowledge. The purpose of those
actions is to reach the goal of reading i.e., finding main idea, supporting details, and etc. Reading
could be more complex if the students lack Higher Order Thinking Skill (HOTS).

In 2022, Irma Rahma Suwarma1, Sera Apriyani, in their thesis entitle: Explore Teachers'
Skills in Developing Lesson Plan and Assessment That Oriented on Higher Order Thinking Skills
(HOTS), for Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia, Indonesia, explained the fact that teachers are
dealing with the government policies in education. The government expects students to achieve
various competencies by applying HOTS or Higher-Level Thinking Skills. These competencies
are critical thinking, creative and innovative, communication skills, collaboration, and confidence.

Krathwohl (2002) revealed indicators to measure higher order thinking skills include: a.
analyzing; 1) analyzing incoming information and dividing or structuring information into smaller
parts to identify patterns or relationships. 2) Be able to recognize and distinguish the causes and
effects of a complex scenario. 3) Identify/formulate questions. b. Evaluating; 1) providing an
assessment of solutions, ideas, and methodologies using suitable criteria or existing standards to
ensure their effectiveness or value. 2) Creating hypotheses, criticizing, and testing. 3) Accept or
reject a statement based on predetermined criteria.

The activities element on lesson plan needs to be build up to trigger students’ higher order
thinking skills (HOTS). Teacher needs more practice on creating analysis, comparing, evaluating,
and generalizing activities through representative media such as video, pictures, or real object.

2.1.2. National Research Background.

On the other hand, at the national level, in 2017, Santa Yokasta Cabrera Perdomo, Olga
Lidia Martinez Leyet, in their thesis entitled: Development of Linguistic Competence in English
Language in Dominican Public Schools (translated from Spanish to English), according to them,
students have the opportunity to focus on their own learning process, creating awareness of their
own learning styles and through the development of appropriate strategies for production and
comprehension.

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 In addition, according to their research, some experts argue that children exposed to
multiple languages are more creative and develop better problem-solving skills. Speaking a second
language, even if only during the first years of a child's life, will help program the child's brain
circuits to make it easier to learn new languages in the future.

Highlighting the fact that in our country, the development of language skills in schools has
been supported by the implementation of the use of the standardized levels of the Common
European Framework of Reference for Languages, CEFR, however in some schools this concept
is unknown, which affects the learning of this language. The linguistic levels suggest the use of a
bank or repository of resources that can be implemented in both offline and online academic
grades, allowing activities that promote the development of the linguistic skills that the CEFR
explains: Listening Comprehension/Reading Comprehension/Oral Expression/Writing
Expression.

Siomara Peralta and Solanlly Martínez, in their doctoral thesis of 2018, entitled Incidence
of Reading and Writing on School Performance (translated from Spanish to English), highlight the
same fact that the author Grabe (2009) stated about the action of reading, defining it as a process
of interaction between the reader and the text and, in turn, between various processes that intervene
flexibly and simultaneously according to the requirements of the reading situation.

Therefore, reading combines processes of word recognition, textual structures and

typologies, comprehension, interpretation, inference, construction of meaning, critical evaluation,
use of previous knowledge or schematic knowledge resulting from experiences, social and cultural
environment.

2.2. Theoretical foundations

As a part of receptive skill in English language, reading is a critical life skill that every
society in our globalized world must possess Li & Clariana (2019). It is one of the main significant
elements to develop language ability. Furthermore, Nunan (2003) claimed that reading is an action
that merges information from the text and the reader’s background of knowledge to construct a
new meaning. The main purpose of reading is to comprehend the text. This activity usually done
by the use of newspaper, article, English textbook, and etc.

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 Reading is pivotal in the context of human life, especially nowadays with all the advanced
means of information and communication. Harras and Sulistianingsih (1997) state that reading is
a bridge for people to progress and succeed in both education and professional fields. They agree
that reading proficiency or reading literacy is a requirement for every person to advance in their
lives. (Urquhart and Weir, 1998) assert that reading is basically getting and interpreting the
information programmed in language form via the means of print. Furthermore, Grabe (2009)
suggests that reading involves many complex processes. This is line with Grabe and Stoller’s
statement (2019) that reading involves linguistics processing abilities that are quite instinctive in
their uses and combinations. In reading, readers use sense and imagination as well as observation
and memory. Accordingly, readers will not read a certain text enthusiastically if the topic of the
text is not interesting for them Fatimah (2021).

In terms of reading interest, Wahadaniah (1997) argues that people who are interested in
reading have strong attention and enjoyment while reading a text and eventually, benefit from their
reading activities. Reading interest means a high willingness or tendency towards reading activity
or it can be associated with the love for reading Dewi et al. (2020). Reading interest tends to
provide a pleasant anticipation followed by actions, which in turn gives greater pleasure Fatimah
(2021).

The process of reading in English in the foreign language native speaker context involves
complex variables. Teele (2004) argues that reading a text in English involves syntax, lexical
knowledge, and discourse that are interrelated to expand learners’ thinking skills and widen their
knowledge in the long run. Therefore, teaching reading does not only deal with how to teach
students to understand a particular text, but also how to link the value of the text to their life
experience and knowledge.

Teaching reading in the context of English as a foreign language (EFL) in the Dominican
Republic is incredibly difficult since the majority of students perceive reading in English to be
tedious and boring. When teachers assign reading assignments, pupils frequently refuse to do them
because they are apathetic and unmotivated. This fact is brought about by a number of factors, one
of which being the kids' poor reading habits. Dominican students typically have a low reading
habit and prefer to listen to their professors explain the information rather than reading it on their
own Fatimah (2021).

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 As a result, reading comprehension is generally low among Dominican students. Other
factors that contribute to students' poor reading skills include a limited vocabulary, a lack of
reading desire, a lack of previous knowledge, a lack of reading abilities, a lack of learning
resources, such as libraries, and a lack of parental support Fatimah (2021).

Furthermore, the change from an oral to a written culture is something that most
Dominicans are now going through. As a result, students still have a predisposition to learn more
through verbal communication than through independent reading. This occurs naturally since
Dominican parents are used to telling stories to their children rather than reading to them. More
than just reading instruction in schools, teachers must go outside the box to motivate their
students to read Fatimah (2021).

Low interest in reading is closely related to students’ literacy skills. It has been explained
before that literacy skills in language learning are defined as reading and writing skills of the
learners Anwar (2021). Trenkic & Warmington (2019), explained that literacy skills are basic skills
which must be considered in language learning because low literacy skills have negative influence
on the vocabulary mastery, speaking skill, and the results of language learning in general. One of
the important skills learners must possess to help them learn English, especially in writing and
reading, is higher-order thinking skills (HOTS).

HOTS is commonly associated with the cognitive levels found in Bloom’s taxonomy. This
taxonomy was created by Benjamin Bloom in 1956 Laila & Fitriyah (2022). Bloom et al. (1956)
defined six different levels in the cognitive domain: knowledge, comprehension, application,
analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. The cognitive domain is divided into two parts: LOTS which
contains knowledge, comprehension, and application, and HOTS which contains analysis,
synthesis, and evaluation.

Higher order thinking emerging from Bloom's Taxonomy helps educators gain insight into
student thinking and learning. Bloom's Taxonomy became known to the public with the publication
of Taxonomy of Education Objectives: The Classification of Educational Goals Bloom et al (1956)
and was further developed in 1990s by Lorin Anderson to meet the developing needs of twenty-
first century teachers and students Forehand (2010). In Bloom's Taxonomy, thinking skills are
categorized into remembering, understanding, applying, analyzing, evaluating, and creating. These
thinking skills are grouped into two categories: lower order thinking and higher order thinking

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Surgey (2012). Higher order thinking is defined as the ability to apply, evaluate, and synthesize
information. "Higher order thinking occurs when a person takes new information and information
stored in memory and then interrelates and/or rearranges and extends this information to achieve
a purpose or find possible answers in perplexing situations" (Lewis and Smith, 1993, p. 136,
emphasis removed). Learners develop their higher order thinking skills when they connect new
knowledge to their prior knowledge and decide what to store and what to abandon. Thus, higher
order thinking skills are necessary for successful and independent learning Zhou (2021).

2.2.1. Definition of Higher Order Thinking Skills

To begin with this section, it is important to make a distinction between High Order
Thinking Skills and Critical Thinking; even though they are quite often used as so, they are not
interchangeable concepts. In her article “Higher-Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) in Education”,
Watson (2019) states: “HOTS is based on various taxonomies of learning, particularly the one
created by Benjamin Bloom in his 1956 book, Taxonomy of Educational Objectives: The
Classification of Educational Goals. Higher-order thinking skills are reflected by the top three
levels in Bloom’s Taxonomy: analysis, synthesis, and evaluation”.

According to (Heong et al, 2012), HOTS is a skill that requires someone to be able to apply
and process the information that he has got to find the answer to questioning a new situation.
Moreover, Thomas & Thorne (2010) state that HOTS is a thinking process that is more than
remembering or retelling the information. HOTS is demanding people to process the information
by understanding, concluding, relating one information with the others, and using them to seek the
solution of their problem Jailani et al. (2017).

When someone has higher-order thinking skills, they will be able to process and analyze
all information that they have got and used them to find the solution to their problems. It is in line
with the primary purpose of education in the 21st Century that is to provide students with the
ability to think critically, to know what they do, and justify it based on their informed decision-
making Armstrong (2009).

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2.2.2. Types of Higher Order Thinking Skills

Opposed to the common misconception described in the former section; Critical Thinking
is actually a type of Higher Order Thinking Skill. In regards of it, Adriana & Zhanna (2011) wrote:

Critical thinking is comparatively a new method of thinking, teaching, and learning, but
the intellectual roots of critical thinking are as ancient as the teaching practice and vision of
Socrates 2500 years ago who discovered, by a method of probing questioning, that people could
not rationally justify their confident claims to knowledge. He demonstrated that a person may have
power and high position and yet be deeply confused and irrational. He established the importance
of asking deep questions that probe profoundly into thinking before me accept ideas as worthy to
belief. His method of questioning is now known as “Socratic Questioning” and is the best-known
critical thinking teaching strategy. In bis mode of questioning, Socrates high-lighted the need of
thinking for clarity and logical consistency.

Later Socrates’ practice was followed by the critical thinking of Plato, Aristotle, and the
Greek skeptics, all of whom emphasized that things are very different from what they appear to be
and that only trained mind is prepared to see through the way things look to us on the surface to
the way they really are beneath the surface (the deeper realities of life). In the Middle Ages, the
tradition of systematic critical thinking was embodied in the writings and teaching of such thinkers
as Thomas Aquinas who heightened our awareness not only of potential power or reasoning but
also of the need for reasoning to be systematically cultivated and “cross-examined”. In the
Renaissance (15th and 16th centuries), a flood of scholars in Europe began to think critically about
religion, art, society, human nature, law and freedom.

One of them was Francis Bacon, in England, who recognized that the mind cannot safely
be left to its natural tendencies. He laid the foundation for modern science with his emphasis on
the information-gathering processes. His book “The Advancement of Learning” could be
considered one the earliest texts in critical thinking. Some fifty years later in France, Descartes
wrote the book “Rules for the Direction or the Mind”, which can be called the second text in critical
thinking. He developed a method of critical thought based on the principle of systematic thought.
He argued that every part of thinking should be questioned, doubted and tested. In the same time
period Sir Thomas Moore developed a model of new social order, “Utopia”, in which every domain
of the present world was subject to critique.

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 The critical thinking of these Renaissance and post Renaissance scholars opened the way
for the emergence of science and for the development of democracy, human rights, and freedom
of thought. Another significant contribution to critical thinking was made by the thinker of the
French Enlightenment: Bayle, Montesquieu, Voltaire, and views had Diderot. They all valued
disciplined intellectual exchange in which all views had to be submitted to serious analysis and
critique. In the 19th century, critical thought was extended even further into the domain of human
social life by Comte and Spencer. Applied to language, it led to the field of Linguistics and many
deep proofs of the functions of symbols and language in human life. In the 20th century our
understanding of the power and nature of critical thinking has emerged in increasingly more
explicit formulations.

Critical thinking involves looking beyond the obvious surface issues, asking questions
about motivation and purpose. Being critical requires you to not only gather appropriate data and
information but to examine it carefully and question its reliability and authority All things
University of Greenwich (2021).

Others like Doyle (2018), believe that critical thinking is a competence which helps us
examine information in an objective way to construct reasoned judgment.

Another type of Higher Order Thinking Skill is metacognition; concerning this one Crowl
et al. (1997), said: The self-correcting nature of thinking is called “metacognition.” Metacognition
includes awareness of one’s thinking processes, self-monitoring, and application of known
heuristics and steps for thinking. One’s success with metacognition depends, in part, on a belief in
one’s ability to get smarter as well as the beliefs of others, such as teachers, in one’s ability.

Creativity, another type, involves divergent and convergent thinking to produce new ideas
Crowl et al. (1997). Its place in the network of higher order thinking skills was well articulated in
Pasteur’s observation that “chance favors only the prepared mind” because “only a trained mind
can make connections between unrelated events, recognize meaning in a serendipitous event,” and
produce a solution that is both novel and suitable (cited in Crowl et al., 1997, pp. 192–193).

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2.2.3. Methods and Strategies to promote Higher Order Thinking Skills

Applying HOTS enhancement methods and strategies is not an easy task, mostly because
students are not used to that type of learning process; related to this Anwar (2021), stated:

One of the causes why students are not familiarized with high order thinking is the use of
conventional methods in the learning process which is mostly teacher centered. As a result,
teachers’ role is highly dominant. Besides, some test results suggested that teachers conducted tests
to examine low cognitive abilities, such as remembering or memorizing. Ball & Garton (2005) and
Aksela (2005) said that low order thinking skills include remembering, memorizing, and little
understanding, while high order thinking skills cover problem solving skill in a higher level of a
basic thinking skill. Ball and Garton (2015) added that to solve problems well requires the abilities
to apply, analyze, synthesize, evaluate, generalize, compare, deduct, clarify information, conclude,
and make decisions. One of the methods to familiarize students with high order thinking is by
developing HOTS-based teaching materials. The results of the study suggested that English
teaching material being developed was able to significantly improve students’ literacy skills which
are reading and writing skills.

The teaching material did not merely give instructions to students to memorize or
remember, but required them to be able to conclude, hypothesize, analyze, implement, synthesize,
evaluate, and compare. To answer Higher Order Questions, students needed good reasoning skill
by thinking logically using knowledge, comprehension, and skills they possessed and made
associations with new situations covered in the questions. One of the advantages of the teaching
material being developed is that the assignments given to students were adjusted with the learning
condition in the classroom and outside the classroom related to daily life. The topics of the reading
passages or the topics developed by students into essays were contemporary and frequently
discussed by public so that they were able to attract the students’ interest.

Learning that is oriented to higher order thinking skills or HOTS, and at the same time
emphasizes the role of the teacher is not coherent, on the contrary, the teacher should stimulate a
lot of questions to encourage students' original thoughts, these questions include: 1) questions to
focus attention or study to be deepened, 2) questions to encourage students to think about finding
reasons or take an opinion position, 3) questions to clarify a concept with directions can formulate
a definition clearly through comparing, connecting and looking for differences between existing

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concepts, 4) questions to encourage the emergence of creative ideas and alternative through
imagination, 5) questions to encourage students to look for supporting data and facts as well as
evidence to make a decision or position, 6) questions to encourage students to develop their minds
further and more deeply, by trying to apply some information to various different cases and
conditions, so it has more arguments, 7) questions to develop the ability to apply rules or theories
which is more common in the case under study Ariyana et al (2018).

According to Seif (2012) there are three ways to implement HOTS in teaching and learning
activity such as: giving high questions to the students during reading lesson, asking the students to
make inference of what they have read, and teacher’s role. The most effective method among those
three is asking higher order questions to the students during reading lesson, while Lewis (2015)
claimed that this method facilitates the teachers to know the students’ level of thinking. This
method could be done by the teachers by giving the students HOTS questions made by themselves
or they can choose it from some textbooks Laila & Fitriyah (2022).

Dede (1990) suggested that higher order thinking skills are best acquired when learners
construct knowledge, rather than passively receive knowledge, and collaboratively interact with
their peers. Vygotsky (1978) conceptualized the idea that students can move beyond their current
level by engaging in collaborative learning activities with those who are more proficient in a
certain skill. Learners' understanding of specific knowledge can be strengthened with the
assistance of more proficient peers. In other words, social interactions contribute to learners'
comprehension and movement toward higher order thinking because they activate their existing
knowledge or construct new knowledge to subsume a new cognitive structure Zhou (2021). Ma
(2009) found that high quality social interactions in the collaborative learning activity, i.e.,
negotiation of meaning, testing tentative constructions, and applications of newly constructed
meaning, established a learning community in which higher order thinking skills were fostered.
Likewise, students in an ESL grammar class can enhance their grammar knowledge and foster
their higher order thinking development through social interactions in a collaborative learning
activity.

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 A rather easy and manageable resource that could be used for this purpose is the graphic
organizer. Fatima (2021) explains:

Graphic organizers are visual representation of knowledge that structures information by

arranging important aspects of a concept or topic into a pattern using labels. The main function of
graphic organizers is to help present information in concise ways that highlight the organization
and relationships of concepts Bromley, DeVitis & Modlo (1999). The organizers give the learners
another way to see the information. Some of the organizers allow for the information to be written
or drawn. Graphic organizers are a helpful way to organize information. In the book, The Use of
Graphic Organizers to Enhance Thinking Skills in the Learning of Economics, the Hong Kong
Curriculum Development Institute (2001) asserts that there are advantages of using graphic
organizers for students. Some of the advantages for students are to understand the concept of part
to whole, clarify and organize ideas, recognize, and assimilate different points of view,
comprehend texts, and improve memory. In addition, the use of graphic organizers is also useful
for teachers to make the lessons interactive, to motivate students, and to assess what students know.

There have been several studies investigating the importance of graphic organizers in
reading comprehension (e.g., Chen, 2016; Ciascai, 2009; Simmons, 1988). In Chen’s study (2016),
reading comprehension and vocabulary hypertext glosses as graphic organizers played a vital role
in improving reading comprehension and attaining vocabulary in the target language. Then, in the
study of Ciascai (2009), graphic organizers scaffolded students’ understanding of the content of
certain text by classifying and modeling ideas in the text. Interestingly, in Simmons, Griffin, and
Kameenui’s study (1988), EFL students who were introduced and trained to use graphic organizers
to comprehend certain texts outperformed the students who were not trained using graphic
organizers. All things considered, graphic organizers that require higher order thinking skills are
beneficial for students’ reading comprehension.

Zhou (2021) recommends:

With the goal of promoting students' grammar learning outcomes and higher order thinking
development, ESL grammar instructors should tailor collaborative learning activities based on
their students' English proficiency and interests. For a beginning level ESL grammar class, guided
questions should be included when they discuss grammar exercises within a group. For instance,
when asking students to choose the correct article for a sentence, grammar instructors are expected

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to provide some guided questions as follows: 1) What article do you choose for this sentence? 2)
Why did you choose that article (i.e., an) instead of other articles (i.e., a, the)? 3) What if I want to
create a sentence with “a” or “the”? Such guided questions scaffold students to apply, analyze, and
create the target grammatical knowledge.

It would not be hard to imagine the effectiveness of the collaborative learning activities if
their interests are also considered. In other words, the grammar exercise on articles (a, an, the) that
they need to deconstruct in the collaborative learning activity could be contextualized within a
topic of high interest to the students.

Such a collaborative learning activity provides students with the opportunity to apply,
analyze, and create the grammatical knowledge, which is beneficial to both their grammar learning
outcomes and their cognitive development.

Fatimah (2021), mentioned a very specific activity for combining reading and HOTS, that
is worth mentioning here:

In implementing higher order thinking reading strategies, English teachers need to

implement several teaching strategies. The first teaching strategy is Directed Reading and
Thinking Activity (DR-TA). In this strategy, a teacher walks his/her students through setting
purpose, making predictions, asking questions, and clarifying points in the text.

DR-TA begins with the students examining the title of the story or a section to be read.
From this information, they make predictions and set expectations regarding what the text is about.
Next, either the teacher reads the material out loud, or the students read sections, stopping at
designated points. Logical stopping points include subheadings, ends of chapters, or high points
of a story. At each stopping point, the teacher asks open ended questions that is designed to elicit
predictions or opinions about the text. The second teaching strategy is called Letter to Heart.
Teachers ask the students to write a letter about some facets of a book. The letter can be addressed
to the author, a historical figure, or a character in the book. It can be written either from the student's
perspectives or from that of another character.

Teachers should provide students with several articles on a specific topic that present two
sides of an issue. The third teaching strategy is Position Paper. In this case, students should read
an article and take notes on points made by both sides of arguments in the article. With a partner,

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one student should then pick a side and write a position paper defending his/her position with
factual evidence. Students can also participate in trials or debates on other related controversial
issues. The fourth teaching strategy is Role, Audience, Format, and Topic (RAFT).

In this teaching strategy, students can use any format they want—diary, letter, editorial, and
so forth—to answer the following questions from the perspective of a character they have read
about R, that is, for role (Who are you?), A is for audience (Who will read your work?), F is for
format (What type of writing will you do?), and T is for topic (What will you be writing about?).

2.2.4. Assessment of Higher Order Thinking Skills

Learning standards can be obtained through an appropriate assessment system. Any

initiative to develop good learning must begin with the development of an appropriate assessment
system, so that assessment can be used as a guide to the learning process Wormeli (2018). In order
to have meaning and benefit, all literacy assessments must provide some added value for teaching
and learning International Reading Association & National Council of Teachers of English [IRA
& NCTE] (2010).

One rating system that can be used is higher order thinking skills (HOTS). The
implementation of HOTS will have an impact on improving students’ thinking skills and
performance, thereby helping students improve understanding of content in the text Brookhart
(2010). Various international studies, such as TIMSS and PISA can be used as a reference to
determine the HOTS achievement of students. One of consideration in developing this program is
the demand that needed by the educator in schools. Teachers are dealing with the government
policies in education. The government expects students to achieve various competencies by
applying HOTS or Higher-Level Thinking Skills. These competencies are critical thinking,
creative and innovative, communication skills, collaboration, and confidence. The five things that
the government said that became the target of the character of students are attached to Indonesia
evaluation system in the national exam and are 21st century skills. In order to fulfil this demand,
teachers should understand and skillful in developing learning activities that can build HOTS
(Suwarna & Apriyani, 2022, p.106).

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Regarding assessment and HOTS King et all (1998) stated:

Valid assessment of higher order thinking skills requires that students be unfamiliar with
the questions or tasks they are asked to answer or perform and that they have sufficient prior
knowledge to enable them to use their higher order thinking skills in answering questions or
performing tasks. Psychological research suggests that skills taught in one domain can generalize
to others. Over long periods of time, individuals develop higher order skills (intellectual abilities)
that apply to the solutions of a broad of complex problems.

Abidin (2020) establishes in the article “Higher order thinking skills-based reading
literacy assessment instrument: An Indonesian context”: Based on the test structure developed by
PISA, reading questions should measure more reasoning, problem solving, argumentation, and
communication skills than questions that measure memory and comprehension abilities.
Furthermore, PISA questions also measure the level of students’ ability to solve problems that
require higher reasoning or HOT skills. In the 1980s many experts considered the importance of
standardized assessments with higher-level thinking skills indicators.

The discovery of the right solution to complex problems is obtained through a higher-level
thinking process. Naturally, teaching high-level thinking can help students to become skilled
students in their lives and help students improve their understanding of content with high-level
thinking Abidin (2020).

In their article “The Influence of Higher Order Skills, Vocabulary Mastery and Reading
Motivation on Reading Comprehension Achievement”, Sholihah & Widyantoro (2021), established
another connection between international tests and HOTS assessment:

The PISA English test types are in the form of reading which adopts the High Oder
Thinking Skills; the most three upper parts in Bloom’s Taxonomy. Higher Order Thinking Skills
are basically related to the critical thinking. The implementation of critical thinking in tests is on
measuring the higher order thinking skills which refer to Bloom’s Taxonomy C4, C5 and C6. To
communicate adequately, someone needs adequate vocabulary mastery, too. If communication
takes place via written language, vocabulary, therefore, becomes one of the important things to
comprehend certain text. Reading motivation is another consideration in reading activity. If the

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students do not motivate themselves to read to teaching instruction inside the classroom does not
work well.

The Higher Order Thinking Skills, vocabulary mastery and reading motivation are some
factors that influence reading comprehension achievement. The bounds among those three factors
are proven in this research, which had been carried out on the Grade IX students in State SMP in
Magelang Regency. This research does not only reveal the relationship but also uncover the
significant and positive influence among The Higher Order Thinking Skills, vocabulary mastery
and reading motivation on reading comprehension achievement through multiple regression
analysis.

The result of the partial correlation indicates the correlation coefficient (r) between Higher
Order Thinking Skills and reading comprehension achievement 0.686 with the p < 0.05. The partial
correlation between vocabulary mastery and reading comprehension achievement is 0.741 with
the value of p < 0.05 and the r value gained from the partial correlation between reading motivation
and reading comprehension achievement is 0.215 with the value < 0.05. These data show that there
are strong relationships among Higher Order Thinking Skills, vocabulary mastery on reading
comprehension achievement. On the other hand, the relationship between reading motivation and
reading comprehension achievement is not significant. Those positive and significant relationships
indicate that both independent variables and the dependent variable influence each other. It means
that if students have excellent Higher Order Thinking Skills, vocabulary mastery and reading
motivation, they will gain fine reading comprehension achievement as well. On the contrary, if
they have poor Higher Order Thinking Skills, vocabulary mastery and reading motivation, they
will gain low reading comprehension achievement, too.

Krathwohl (2002) revealed indicators to measure higher order thinking skills include:

a. Analyzing; 1) analyzing incoming information and dividing or structuring information into

smaller parts to identify patterns or relationships. 2) Be able to recognize and distinguish the causes
and effects of a complex scenario. 3) Identify/formulate questions.

b. Evaluating; 1) providing an assessment of solutions, ideas, and methodologies using suitable

criteria or existing standards to ensure their effectiveness or value. 2) Creating hypotheses,
criticizing, and testing. 3) Accept or reject a statement based on predetermined criteria.

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c. Creating; 1) generalizing an idea or perspective on something. 2) Design a way to solve the
problem. 3) Organizing elements or parts into a new structure that has never existed before.

On the other hand, assessing HOTS includes critical, logical, reflective, metacognitive, and
creative thinking. Those can be activated when individuals encounter unfamiliar problems
(Bhawani, 2012).

2.2.5. Function of Higher Order Thinking Skills in Education.

In addition to the formerly presented, Barak and Dori (2009) informed that numerous of
countries around the world indicate a transformation in its education system, when they switch
their learning system from the use of Lower Order Thinking Skills (LOTS) to the use of HOTS.
Related to HOTS, Surtantini (2019) declared that learning and teaching process at education field
must construct activities that encourage the students to develop their HOTS.

Learning HOTS does not only improve students learning process, which consequently
improves its results, but also helps them progress in their careers Facione, (2020). Willingham
(2007) stated that: [educators] have long noted that school attendance and even academic success
are no guarantee that a student will graduate an effective thinker in all situations. Education, as
Facione (2020) describes, may be pursued to gain a certificate; but there is liberal education, which
he defines as & learning to think for yourself on your own and in collaboration with others. He
further explains that liberal education is achieved with people who are not weak critical thinkers
no matter the educational degree they hold (p. 24).

HOTS are linked to critical pedagogy, which seeks social empowerment and social
transformation (Banegas & de Castro, 2016, p. 544). Incorporating those skills into EFL would
help in increasing social development. Conversely, the absence of those skills may lead to
devastating effects on society such as extremism and terrorism (Facione, 2020, p. 26).

"Higher order thinking occurs when a person takes new information and information stored
in memory and then interrelates and/or rearranges and extends this information to achieve a
purpose or find possible answers in perplexing situations" (Lewis and Smith, 1993, p. 136).
Learners develop their higher order thinking skills when they connect new knowledge to their prior
knowledge and decide what to store and what to abandon. Thus, higher order thinking skills are
necessary for successful and independent learning Zhou (2021).

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 As stakeholders of educational systems, teachers are urged to participate in social change
through the implementation of critical thinking skills into the educational setting. English language
teaching has primarily focused on critical thinking, particularly in the recent years. Therefore,
teachers are required to examine their teaching materials to ensure that they meet the needs of the
21st century Alshaiji & Al-Saeed (2021).

HOTS improve reading skills. Grabe (1991) states that synthesis and evaluation skills and
strategies are critical components of reading abilities (p. 283). A number of hypotheses addressed
the negative effect of instruction on poor comprehension Snow (2002). Reading comprehension is
achieved through the type of good tasks that promote HOTS and that subsequently help in the
production of good writing Alshaiji & Al-Saeed, (2021).

It is important to consider that language skills can be developed by HOTS. Speaking skills,
for instance, are improved through debate. HOTS can be developed while practicing speaking
skills through arguments (Toulmin argumentation) or discussions (Rogerian argumentation) Wood
& Miller (2014).

2.2.6. Implications of Higher Order Thinking Skills in Reading

Learning theories have seen the development of students’ higher order thinking skills a
quintessential educational goal for all students, as the absence of such skills in learning leads to
students’ difficulty in answering questions that are analytical, critical, creative, and problem-
solving Abidin & Rahma (2020).

In addition, the implementation of HOTS in reading lessons is significant Laila & Fitriyah
(2022) and has various implications on the overall learning outcome. This statement is supported
by Acosta (2010) who applied HOTS enhancement activities in his reading class. He found three
benefits of using HOTS: 1) it could activate student’s prior knowledge; 2) students could
implement their higher-level of thinking in other areas; 3) it could enhance the student’s interest
and participation in the class.

Some authors argue that combining the HOTS enhancement approach with collaborative
learning could be especially helpful in the ESL/EFL learning situations; this was the object of a
study performed by Zhou (2021), in which was shown that:
Learners in collaborative learning activities may succeed in co-constructing their

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 knowledge and move forward to the next level or fail to co-construct knowledge. This finding
can inform ESL grammar instructors and ESL program directors to balance their teaching
approaches. In other words, they should incorporate the teaching approaches of both
collaborative learning and individual learning to promote students' learning because social co-
constructions of knowledge are not guaranteed in all collaborative learning activities.
Providing ESL students, the opportunity to work collaboratively with group members along
with the opportunity to work individually can proximally enhance their grammar
learning outcomes and higher order thinking skills as well.

Regarding the correlation between reading and HOTS, Fatimah (2021) shared the
following in her article Higher order thinking reading strategies: An alternative to improve
students’ reading comprehension in the Indonesian EFL context:

Reading skills cover lower-order and higher-order thinking skills. Lower-order thinking
skills contain remembering names, places, and time in a particular text, whereas higher-order
thinking skills include comparing the content with real life, evaluating the arguments, and
contrasting the writer’s ideas with other writers. To understand the text comprehensively and
coherently, however, readers mainly use higher order thinking skills.

In this case, English teachers are required not only to ask their students to read the text, but
also to teach reading strategies that can support the students’ higher order thinking skills.
Furthermore, the strategies for learning to read in English with higher order thinking skills include
predicting skills (predicting), making connections from a text to the outside world (making the
connection), visualizing the text content (visualizing), making conclusions (inferring), questioning
the content of the text (questioning), and making a summary (summarizing).

In terms of predicting, English teachers can ask their students to determine the purpose of
reading and predicting issues in the text. The students need to interact their life experience related
to the text and the actual contents of the text and even revise predictions they have made Duke &
Pearson (2005). In making the connection, English teachers can ask the students to connect their
prior experience and knowledge to the text content. By comparing their experience and knowledge
with the text, the students are expected to understand the text effectively Teele (2004). In
visualizing, English teachers can ask the students to draw an imaginative concept of the reading

P a g e 42 | 109
content or creating a graphic organizer Adler & Doren (2011).

Then, in inferring, English teachers can ask the students to connect all elements of the
content of the readings and make conclusions. In this case, the students can draw pictures, graphs,
maps, and other ideas to make inferences Harvey & Goudvis (2000). In questioning, English
teachers can ask the students to construct the content of the text by making questions before, while,
and after reading. This activity can develop the students’; problem-solving skills when reading the
English text Harvey & Goudvis (2000). At last, in summarizing, English teachers can ask the
students to find out main points of the reading text. This strategy can enhance skills in identifying
main ideas, supporting ideas and other related ideas by using their own words Adler & Doren
(2001).

HOTS improve reading skills. Grabe (1991) states that synthesis and evaluation skills and
strategies are critical components of reading abilities (p. 283). A number of hypotheses addressed
the negative effect of instruction on poor comprehension (Snow, 2002). Reading comprehension
is achieved through the type of good tasks that promote HOTS and that subsequently help in the
production of good writing (Alshaiji & Al-Saeed, 2021).

In a study conducted by Anwar (2021), it was shown that the development of the HOTS-based
teaching material proved effective in significantly increasing students’ literacy skills, including
reading, and writing skills. The data collected from expert validators and students’ reading and
writing classes showed that the teaching material was effective and feasible to be implemented in
the process of English learning at universities. The current teaching material has several
advantages: 1) the current teaching materials allow students to be the center so that they have more
dominant roles than teachers; 2) students are familiarized with assignments that require them to be
able to draw conclusions, make hypotheses, implement, synthesize, evaluate, and compare;
remembering and memorizing are not the case anymore; and 3) students develop contemporary
and various topics so that they feel more interested in reading and writing. These advantages that
distinguish the currently developed teaching materials from other teaching materials impact
positively on students’ literacy skills.

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2.3. Definition of key-terms

The third part of the theoretical foundation presents a list of key concepts; these are the
main words that readers need to understand in order to understand this study and these words
also form the basis of this research. All definitions were obtained from the Oxford Learner's
Dictionary (2022).
1 Ability: the fact that somebody/something is able to do something.
2 Cognitive: connected with mental processes of understanding.
3 Collaborative: involving, or done by, several people or groups of people working
together.
4 Curriculum: the subjects that are included in a course of study or taught in a school,
college, etc.
5 Creativity: the use of skill and imagination to produce something new or to produce art.
6 Critical thinking: the process of analyzing information in order to make a logical decision
about the extent to which you believe something to be true or false.
7 English: the language, originally of England, now spoken in many other countries and
used as a language of international communication throughout the world.
8 English Language Teaching: the teaching of English to people for whom it is not the
first language.
9 Foreign: in or from a country that is not your own.
10 Higher: at a more advanced level; greater in rank or importance than others.

11 Knowledge: the information, understanding and skills that you gain through education or
experience.
12 Motivation: the reason why somebody does something or behaves in a particular way.
13 Problem-solving: the act of finding ways of dealing with problems.
14 Reading: the activity of somebody who reads.
15 Strategies: a plan that is intended to achieve a particular purpose.
16 Teaching: the ideas of a particular person or group, especially about politics, religion, or
society, that are taught to other people.
17 Thinking: ideas or opinions about something.
18 Understanding: the knowledge that somebody has about a particular subject or situation.

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 CHAPTER III

METHODOLOGICAL FRAMEWORK

This chapter deals with the epistemological components of this research, among which are:
the research design, approach, research type, delimitation, objectives, population and sample,
operationalization of variables, and the description of data collection instruments. In addition,
techniques and methods used in the processing and analysis of the data and the limitations
encountered are described.

3.1. Research design

The research design was determined by the type of research problem of the study. It
includes the techniques to be implemented for collecting and analyzing research, the method
applied for analyzing the collected data, among others.

3.1.1. Approach

The research method of this study is mixed because it combines quantitative and qualitative
approaches in the same study, with the latter having a greater preponderance. This allows the
phenomenon under investigation to be better understood. Researchers and funding organizations
are increasingly using and promoting mixed methods approaches because they can be helpful for
solving educational problems in more authentic and situated ways and can provide evidence that
appeals to a wide variety of stakeholders (Kimmons, 2022)

3.1.2. Research type

This study is descriptive because the variables present in the phenomenon under study were
not manipulated, but the phenomenon was observed, and information was collected from primary
sources to explain it. In addition, this study is cross-sectional because the data were collected in
the same period. As Haryanto Atmowardoyo found in his study “Research Methods in TEFL
Studies: Descriptive Research, Case Study, Error Analysis, and R & D”, the types of research
methodologies that may be useful in TEFL studies includes many types of methodologies such as

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case study, error analysis, descriptive research, and R & D. These four categories are among the
most often used techniques in TEFL studies today (Atmowardoyo, 2018).

3.1.3. Delimitation

Through this research, the necessary information was obtained regarding the performance
and perceptions of students in the implementation of higher order thinking skills (HOTS) in
reading in English possessed by the 5th grade students of the Middle Level of the Ave Maria
Polytechnic Institute, in the Second Semester of the School Year 2021-2022.

3.1.4. Objectives

This research has one general objective and three specific objectives, which are broken
down below:

3.1.4.1. General Objective

Evaluate students’ performance in implementing Higher Order Thinking Skills of 5th

grade students from the secondary level in English reading at the Ave Maria Polytechnic Institute
in Sabana Perdida.

3.1.4.2. Specific Objectives

 Determine the cognitive aspects involved in HOTS in English reading as a foreign language
of 5th graders at the Polytechnic Institute El Ave Maria.

 Describe reading strategies that develop HOTS in English reading as a foreign language of
5th graders at the Polytechnic Institute El Ave Maria.

 Establish the level of mastery of HOTS in English reading as a Foreign Language of 5th
graders at the Polytechnic Institute El Ave Maria.

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3.1.5. Operationalization of variables

Measurement Variables Definitions Indicators Instruments

Implementation of The higher order N/A -Multiple choice

Evaluate higher order reading thinking in reading questionnaire for
skills in English. can be defined as a students.
complex thinking that In-depth interview
(Independent) goes beyond the guide for English
memorization of teachers.
concepts or ideas.
Cognitive aspects Cognitive skills or (1) Ability to Multiple-choice
Determine involved in logical cognitive abilities are understand spoken questionnaire for
thinking skills known as the and written English. students
(Dependent 1) aptitudes of human
beings related to the (2)Level of lexical
processing of proficiency.
information, that is,
those that involve the (3)Discursive
use of memory, coherence.
attention, perception,
creativity and abstract (4)Discursive
or analogical cohesion.
thinking.
Describe Reading strategies Reading strategies are 5)Developmental Multiple-choice
that allow the actions that are levels of reading questionnaire for
development of actively carried out by comprehension. students.
logical thinking. the reader, before,
(Dependent 2) during and after (6)Reading
reading. These actions comprehension lexis
will allow him/her to resource
construct meaning to
the text, expand (7)Assimilation of
his/her competences learning.
and be more efficient.

Establish Students' level of The level of mastery (8)Academic Multiple-choice

mastery of higher- of the higher order performance questionnaire for
order reading skills. thinking competency students.
(Dependent 3) refers to the level of (9)Communicative
depth at which the autonomy
higher order thinking In-depth
competency has been (10)Mastery of interview guide
mastered, in language registers. for English
conjunction with the teachers.
outcome of the
assessment at the
level of depth (basic,
intermediate,
advanced).

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3.1.6 Population and Sample

The universe of this research was the total number of students and English teachers of 5th
grade (secondary school) encountered in the given week to apply the data collection instruments,
which was 130 active students and 2 English teachers. Here is the distribution:

5th Grade

Technical areas Number of students Number of English teachers

Computer science 26 1- Teacher A

Nursing 27 1- Teacher A

Tourism 8 1- Teacher B

Gastronomy 18 1- Teacher B

Accounting 18 1- Teacher B

Marketing 33 1- Teacher A

Total 2 - Teachers (A, B,).

Source: Administrative Office of the Polytechnic Institute El Ave Maria, the second semester of the 2021-2022 school year.

3.1.7. Instruments description

The data collection instruments used in this research are now described:

In order to collect the data for this research, two instruments were developed: a survey and
an interview guide for an in-depth interview directed to English teachers. Details of all of them are
given below:

a. Multiple choice questionnaire

It is made up of 25 questions regarding the cognitive aspects, learning attitudes, reading

strategies, and students’ self-assessment of Higher Order Thinking Skills in English reading.

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b. In-depth interview guide

This instrument has 13 open-ended questions about teachers' perceptions of students'

performance and attitudes toward critical reading in English. The interview was tape-recorded for
reporting purposes.

3.1.8. Analysis procedures

This section shows the procedures performed during the analysis of the collected data,
first describing the data processing techniques and then explaining the methods used for data
analysis.

A. Data processing techniques

To process the data yielded by the data collection instruments, two techniques highly suggested
for descriptive and explanatory research were used:

a.1 Reduction of information: it consists of eliminating repetitive or redundant data, in

order to facilitate the organization and systematization of the most relevant ones.

a.2 Classification of information: it deals with the organization of data according to

categories that arise, either by semantic similarity or logical correlation.

B. Methods for analyzing the data

The methods used to analyze the data collected were two of the most recommended methods
for scientific research:

b.1 Deductive Method: the expert approaches contained in the theoretical framework of
this research served to establish cause-effect relationships that allowed to explain in a well-
argued way the findings of this study.

b.2 Inductive method: the results of this research were related to those theoretical
approaches that coincide, which served to give them greater systemic validity.

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3.1.9 Limitations of the study

The completion of this research report faced several obstacles that hindered its but did not
affect its timely delivery. The first was that the letter of agreement to carry out the project was
rejected because it contained errors in the sender and had to be requested again. The second was
the short time available to implement the instrument, due to the close of the school year. The third
is that the students were dispersed doing activities at the end of the year, which made it impossible
to implement the instrument in some courses.

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 CHAPTER 4.

RESEARCH FINDINGS

This chapter breaks down the results of each data collection instrument applied. First, we
present the results of the survey on Higher Order Thinking performance in English reading applied
to the students; and the results of the in-depth interview conducted with their English teachers.

4.1. Results presentation

This section deals with the results of the student survey and the in-depth interviews with
the teachers.

4.1.2. Results of the survey

The following is the results of the survey on Higher Order Thinking performance in
English reading for the 5th grade of secondary school.

On the day of its application, the researchers monitored students closely. Students had 30
minutes in each class section to weigh their opinions and ensure that their answers were what they
wanted to convey. Researchers answered students' questions regarding the meaning of concepts
and expressions found in the survey. Here are the results:

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Graphic 1. Level of students’ listening skills in English.

6% 6%
13%

32%

43%

A- Excellent B- Very good C- Good D- Poor E- Very Poor

Source. Question 1 of the questionnaire applied to the students.

According to the answers of this question, 43% of the students believe they have a good

level of listening comprehension in English, followed by poor with 32%, then very good with 13%,

and lastly excellent and very poor with 6% of the students.

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Graphic 2. Level of students’ reading skills in English.

9% 4%

18%

24%

45%

A- Excellent B- Very good C- Good D- Poor E- Very Poor

Source. Question 2 of the questionnaire applied to the students.

According to the graph, 45% of the students believe they have good reading skills in

English, followed by poor skills with 24%, 18% believe they have very good skills, 9% believe

they have very poor skills, and finally, 4% believe they have excellent skills.

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Graphic 3. Level of students’ writing skills in English.

A- Excellent
6%
E- Very Poor
14%
B- Very good
17%

D- Poor
22%

C- Good
41%

A- Excellent B- Very good C- Good D- Poor E- Very Poor

Source. Question 3 of the questionnaire applied to the students.

According to the response to this question, 6% of the students agree that they have an

excellent level of English writing, followed by 14% with a very poor level, 17% who agree that

their level is very good, then 22% with a poor level, and the majority with 41% of the students

agree that their level of English writing is good.

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Graphic 4. Level of students’ speaking skills in English.

E- Very Poor A- Excellent

9% 5%

B- Very good
19%

D- Poor
25%

C- Good
42%

A- Excellent B- Very good C- Good D- Poor E- Very Poor

Source. Question 4 of the questionnaire applied to the students.

According to this graph, 42% of the students believe they have good speaking skills in

English, followed by poor skills with 25%, 19% believe they have very good skills, 9% believe

they have very poor skills, and finally, 5% believe they have excellent skills.

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 According to various research, there are substantial correlations among the four main

language processes or skills which are Listening, Speaking, Reading, and Writing, which means

that when students are improving one skill, they are also advancing their other language skills.

For the purpose of this study, a chi-square test of independence was performed to examine the

relationship between the receptive and productive skills of our students.

Graphic 4.1. Students’ self-assessment of receptive and productive skills.

Students self-assessment of receptive

and productive skills

SPEAKING 5% 18%
42%
25% 9%
WRITING 6% 17%
42%
22% 14%
READING 4% 18%
45%
6% 13% 24%
LISTENING 8%
43%
32%
5%

Performance

A- Excellent B- Good C- Fair D- Poor E- Very Poor

Source. Questions 1,2,3, and 4 of the questionnaire applied to the students.

A chi-square test of independence was performed to examine the relationship between

students’ self-evaluation in the four skills (speaking, writing, reading, and listening). It was found

that the relationship was not significant, X2 (12, N = 130) = 11.11, p = .519483. This suggests that

when students master one skill, there is no significant evidence that they master the others. It could

also mean that there is no significant evidence that students are developing the four skills

simultaneously.

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Graphic 5. Level of students’ English vocabulary.

60 45%

40%
50
35%

40 30%

25%
30
20%

20 15%

10%
10
5%

0 0%
A- Excellent B- Very good C- Good D- Poor E- Very Poor

Source. Question 5 of the questionnaire applied to the students.

According to the response to this question, 5% of the students agree that they have an

excellent level of English vocabulary, followed by 8% with a very poor level, 12% who agree that

their level is very good, then 37% with a good level, and lastly 38% of the students agree that their

level of English vocabulary is poor.

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Graphic 6. Rating of vocabulary learning strategies implemented by the teacher.

45 35%

40
30%

35
25%
30

25 20%

20 15%

15
10%
10

5%
5

0 0%
A- Excellent B- Very good C- Good D- Poor E- Very Poor

Source. Question 6 of the questionnaire applied to the students.

According to the students' answers to this particular question, 32% of them believe that the

vocabulary learning strategies used by their English teacher are good, 31% believe they are very

good, and 25% believe they are excellent. However, 9% of them disagree, believing that the

learning strategies are poor, and 4% believe they are very poor.

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 Students vocabulary level
compared to their
Graphicvalorations of the teaching
6.1. Students’ vocabulary level compared to their evaluations of teaching strategies.
strategies
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
A- B- Good C- Fair D- Poor E- Very
Excellent Poor

Vocabulary level
Valoration of teaching strategies

Source. Questions 5 and 6 of the questionnaire applied to the students.

According to the graph, as students’ vocabulary level improves their evaluations of the

teaching strategies also improve, while as students’ vocabulary level worsens, students' evaluation

of the teaching also worsens. A chi-square test of independence was performed to examine the

relation between these variables. It was found that the relationship was significant, X2 (4, N = 130)

= 53.58, p = <0.00001.

There’s significant evidence that students with more English vocabulary evaluated the

teacher strategies favorably but not students with low level of vocabulary. Students might be

blinded by their own bias, by their own experience with the teacher instead of considering

everyone’s experiences.

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Graphic 7. Frequency of identification of the parts of the text.

70 60%

60
50%

50
40%

40
30%
30

20%
20

10%
10

0 0%
A- Always B- Often C- Sometimes D- Rarely E- Never
Source. Question 7 of the questionnaire applied to the students.

According to the students' responses, 49% of them agree that they are able to identify the

parts of the text sometimes, 30% are able to do it often, 10% are able to identify the parts of the

text always, nevertheless, 8% do it rarely, and only 2% are not able to identify them never.

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Graphic 8. Frequency of identification of the meaning or the main ideas in a text.

60 45%

40%
50
35%

40 30%

25%
30
20%

20 15%

10%
10
5%

0 0%
A- Always B- Often C- Sometimes D- Rarely E- Never

Source. Question 8 of the questionnaire applied to the students.

The results of this question, which are represented in the graph, 41% of the students are

able to identify often the meaning of the texts or their main ideas, followed by 32% who can do so

sometimes, 15% who can always, 10% who can rarely, and finally 3% who never achieve in

understanding or identifying the texts while reading, much less their main ideas.

A chi-square test of independence was performed to examine the relation between students’

discursive coherence ability and their dependence level on the teacher help. The relation between

these variables was significant, X2 (4, N = 130) = 53.5827, p = <0.01. at <05. Students with higher

discursive coherence ability are more dependent on the teacher help, while students with lower

discursive coherence ability are more independent. This means that students who don’t ask for

help have lower capacity to understand the meaning of texts.

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 STtextual
Graphic 8.1. Students’ UDENT S' and
coherence T EXT UAL
cohesion.
COHERENCE AND COHESION
Cohesion Coherence

60%

50%

40%

30%

20%

10%

0%
A - A LWAYS B - O F T EN C- D- RA REL Y E- NEV ER
S O MET IMES

Source. Question 7 and 8 of the questionnaire applied to the students.

As shown in the graph, students are more likely to fluctuate between “Sometimes” and

“Often” when it comes to applying their ability of textual cohesion (identify the parts of the text)

and coherence (identify main ideas in texts). A chi-square of independence was performed to

examine the relationship between the two variables. It was found that there is not a significant

relationship between students’ textual coherence and cohesion. X2 (4, N = 130) = 8.60, p =

.071824. Students with textual coherence do not necessarily exhibit textual cohesion and vice

versa.

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Graphic 9. The most important element pertaining to reading cohesion.

6%

35%

41%

15%
3%

A- Punctuation B- Spelling C- Reference D- Repetition E- Logical connectors

Source. Question 9 of the questionnaire applied to the students.

The following graph illustrates which factor is most crucial in terms of reading

cohesiveness. In this aspect, spelling received a total of 42% of the students' votes as being the

most significant component in this area, followed by logical connectors with 35%, then repetition

with 15%, punctuation with 6%, and finally the element that obtained the lowest percentage was

reference with 3%.

A chi-square test of independence was performed to examine the relation between students’

reading cohesion ability and the frequency of time spent reading. The relation between these

variables was significant. Students with higher reading cohesion ability spent more time reading

while, students with lower reading cohesion ability spent less time.

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Graphic 10. Students’ reading strategy most frequently used in the English Class.

60 45%

40%
50
35%

40 30%

25%
30
20%

20 15%

10%
10
5%

0 0%
A- Scanning B- Skimming C- Dictionary D- Skip words E- Ask the F- Translator
teacher

Source. Question 10 of the questionnaire applied to the students.

According to their responses, this graph shows that 42 % of students use the strategy of

asking the teacher to help them understand the reading during English classes, followed by 18 %

of students who try to understand the reading by using a translator, 15 % who use the strategy of

skimming in order to get a general overview, 11 % who use dictionaries, 10 % who scanning

rapidly found specific facts, and 5 percent who simply skip the words.

Students have a strong dependency on the teacher for reading assignments and it is highly

questionable, to what extent “asking the teacher” is considered a favorable reading strategy in a

classroom.

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Graphic 11. Level of academic performance in English class.

70 60%

60 50%

50
40%
40
30%
30
20%
20

10 10%

0 0%
A- Excellent B- Very good C- Good D- Poor E- Very Poor

Source. Question 11 of the questionnaire applied to the students.

The following graph illustrates student’ level of academic performance in English class. In

this aspect, 49% of them agree that they level is good, followed by very good with 25%, then poor

with 14%, excellent with 11%, and finally the element that obtained the lowest percentage was

very poor with 1%.

P a g e 65 | 109
Graphic 12. Level of reading performance in English class.

50 40%
45 35%
40
30%
35
30 25%

25 20%
20 15%
15
10%
10
5 5%

0 0%
A- Excellent B- Very good C- Good D- Poor E- Very Poor

Source. Question 12 of the questionnaire applied to the students.

According to the answers of this question, 35% of the students believe they have a good

level of reading performance in English, followed by poor with 28%, then very good with 22%,

very poor with 10%, and lastly excellent with 6% of the students.

P a g e 66 | 109
 ACADEMIC
Graphic 12.1. Academic performancePERFORMANCE
vs reading performance. VS
READING PERFORMANCE
Academic performance Reading performance

60%

50%

40%

30%

20%

10%

0%
A- B- GOOD C- F A IR D- PO O R E- V ERY
EX CEL L ENT PO O R

Source. Questions 11 and 12 of the questionnaire applied to the students.

According to the graph, students’ self-evaluation in terms of academic and reading

performance are “Fair”. A chi-square test of independence was performed to examine the relation

between these variables, it was found the relationship was significant, X2 (4, N = 130) = 21.64, p

= .000236.<.5. This suggests that students with higher academic performance evaluate their

reading performance less favorably, and students with lower academic performance evaluate their

reading performance more favorably.

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Graphic 13. Frequency in which students express themselves when they need help in reading.

70 50%

45%
60
40%
50 35%

30%
40
25%
30
20%

20 15%

10%
10
5%

0 0%
A- Always B- Often C- Sometimes D- Rarely E- Never

Source. Question 13 of the questionnaire applied to the students.

The findings of this question, which are shown in the graph, show that 47% of the students

sometimes express themselves when they need help reading, followed by 23% who can do so

often, 18% who can do so rarely, 12% who can always, and lastly 1% who never can.

P a g e 68 | 109
Graphic 14. Motivation to practice English reading.

60 45%

40%
50
35%

40 30%

25%
30
20%

20 15%

10%
10
5%

0 0%
A- School B- Proffesional C- Interest in the D- Not interesed in E- Not interesed in
requirement motives language and reading but English English nor reading
culture

Source. Question 14 of the questionnaire applied to the students.

From this graph, it is evident that the majority of students are motivated to practice English

reading by their interest in the language and culture (41%), as well as by professional reasons

(35%), while a further 12% of students are motivated by school requirements. On the other hand,

9% of students do not have an interest in reading, and 3% of students do not care about either

English or reading.

P a g e 69 | 109
Graphic 15. Level of frequency in which students practice English reading independently.

50 40%

45
35%
40
30%
35
25%
30

25 20%

20
15%
15
10%
10
5%
5

0 0%
A- Always B- Often C- Sometimes D- Rarely E- Never

Source. Question 15 of the questionnaire applied to the students.

The findings of this question, which are represented in the graph, reveal that 35% of the

students sometimes practice their English reading independently, followed by 22% who can do so

rarely, 18% who can do so often, 14% who can never, and lastly 12% who always can.

P a g e 70 | 109
Graphic 16. Level of students who are currently taking an English course or have you
taken one before.

B- No, A- Yes,
60, 70,
46% 54%

A- Yes B- No
Source. Question 16 of the questionnaire applied to the students.

The level of students who are now enrolled in or have previously completed an English

course is shown in the following graph. In this regard, 54% of them affirm that they are taking or

have previously taken an English course; however, 46% of them neither say they are now taking

nor have ever taken an English course.

P a g e 71 | 109
Graphic 17. Students’ level of frequency in which students are exposed to the English
language.

60 40%

35%
50

30%

40
25%

30 20%

15%
20

10%

10
5%

0 0%
A- Always B- Often C- Sometimes D- Rarely E- Never

Source. Question 17 of the questionnaire applied to the students.

From this graph, it is evident that the majority of students with 38% are always exposed

and have access to the English language, as well as 28% of them often, while another 21% of

students are sometimes exposed. On the other hand, 10% of the students are rarely exposed, and

lastly 3% of the students are never exposed.

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 ANALIZING STUDENTS'
Graphic 17. 1. Analyzing students’ autonomy.
AUTONOMY
Ask for help Practice independently Exposure to the language

50%
45%
40%
35%
30%
25%
20%
15%
10%
5%
0%
A - A LWAYS B - O F T EN C- D- RA REL Y E- NEV ER
S O MET IMES

Source. Questions 13, 15 and 17 of the questionnaire applied to the students.

According to this graph, most students ask for help “sometimes”, most students practice

reading independently “sometimes”, and most students say they always expose themselves to the

English language. A chi-square test of independence was performed to examine the relation

between these three variables related to students’ autonomy (asking for help, practice

independently, exposure to the language). It was found that the relationship was significant, X2 (8,

N = 130) = 73.09, p =. <0.00001 at p <5. Students that engage in one of these activities, more often

than not, engage in the others and they are autonomous.

P a g e 73 | 109
Graphic 18. Student’s level of proficiency in expressing themselves in different contexts in
the English language.

60 45%

40%
50
35%

40 30%

25%
30
20%

20 15%

10%
10
5%

0 0%
A- Excellent B- Very good C- Good D- Poor E- Very Poor

Source. Question 18 of the questionnaire applied to the students.

The following graph demonstrates students' skill in using the English language to express

themselves in various circumstances. In this aspect, 42% of them agree that they level is good,

followed by poor with 36%, then very good with 13%, very poor with 5%, and finally the element

that obtained the lowest percentage was excellent with 4%.

P a g e 74 | 109
Graphic 19. Students’ level of prescriptive grammar (Formal / accurate language) in
English.

60 45%

40%
50
35%

40 30%

25%
30
20%

20 15%

10%
10
5%

0 0%
A- Excellent B- Very good C- Good D- Poor E- Very Poor

Source. Question 19 of the questionnaire applied to the students.

According to the answers of this question, 42% of the students believe they have a good of

prescriptive grammar (Formal language) in English, followed by poor with 40%, then very good

with 15%, and lastly excellent and very poor with 2% of the students.

P a g e 75 | 109
Graphic 20. Students’ level of descriptive grammar (informal language) in English.

60 45%

40%
50
35%

40 30%

25%
30
20%

20 15%

10%
10
5%

0 0%
A- Excellent B- Very good C- Good D- Poor E- Very Poor

Source. Question 20 of the questionnaire applied to the students.

The following graph shows students’ level of descriptive grammar (informal language) in

English. In this aspect, 42% of them agree that they level is good, followed by poor with 39%,

then very good with 9%, very poor with 5%, and finally the element that obtained the lowest

percentage was excellent with 4%.

P a g e 76 | 109
 FORMAL VS INFORMAL
Graphic 20.1. Formal vs informal language.
LANGUAGE
Formal language Informal language

45%
40%
35%
30%
25%
20%
15%
10%
5%
0%
A- B- GOOD C- F A IR D- PO O R E- V ERY
EX CEL L ENT PO O R

Source. Questions 19 and 20 of the questionnaire applied to the students.

As it is shown in the graph, students’ responses regarding their use of formal or informal

English, mostly fluctuate between “Fair” and “Poor” performance. A chi-square test of

independence was performed to examine the relation between these two variables. We found that

the relationship was not significant, X2 (4, N = 130) = 4.87, p = .300012 at p<5. This suggests that

the null hypothesis might be true and there is no significant relationship between students’

performance in formal and informal English nor which one they improve mostly, or the teachers

promote mostly in the classroom.

P a g e 77 | 109
Graphic 21. Level of familiarity with slangs, idioms, abbreviations, or accents.

50 40%

45
35%
40
30%
35
25%
30

25 20%

20
15%
15
10%
10
5%
5

0 0%
A- Fairly familiar B- Relatively C- Familiar D- A little familiar E- Not at all
familiar acquainted

Source. Question 21 of the questionnaire applied to the students.

The following graph shows students’ level of familiarity with slangs, idioms, abbreviations,

or accents. In this aspect, 36% of them agree that they are a little familiar, followed by familiar

with 30%, then not all acquainted with 21%, relatively familiar with 10%, and finally the element

that obtained the lowest percentage was fairly familiar with 3%.

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 ENGLISH TEXTBOOKS AND
KNOW LEDGE OF ENGLISH
Graphic 21.1. English textbooks and knowledge of English variations.
VARIATIONS
I am familiarized with English variations
English textbooks incentivate critical thinking
40%

30%

20%

10%

0%
A- B - A G REE C- D- E-
S T RO NG L Y UNDECIDED DIS A G REE S T RO NG L Y
A G REE DIS A G REE

Source. Questions 20 and 21 of the questionnaire applied to the students.

According to this graph, students are mostly “undecided” when it comes to the question

“From what extent do you think English textbooks promote critical thinking?”. Moreover, students

mostly “disagree” that they are familiarized with English variations, but they are also fairly

undecided on the question. It is true that the more students disagree that they are familiarized with

English variations, the less they think English books promote Higher Order Thinking.

A chi-square test of independence was performed to examine the relation between the two

variables (students’ evaluations of English textbooks and students’ knowledge of English

variations), it was found that the relationship was significant, X2 (4, N = 130) = 35.89, p = .0.00001

at p<5. This suggests that students are more likely to think English textbooks promote critical

thinking when they are more familiar with English variations and vice versa. Students are more

likely to think English textbooks do not promote critical thinking when they disagree, they are

familiarized with English variations. There is the possibility that students’ responses are biased by

their own experiences and in fact English textbooks improve students’ knowledge of English

variations.

P a g e 79 | 109
Graphic 22. Extend to which students feel that English textbooks encourage critical
thinking.

50 40%

45
35%
40
30%
35
25%
30

25 20%

20
15%
15
10%
10
5%
5

0 0%
A- Strongly agree B- Agree C- Undecided D- Disagree E- Strongly
Disagree

Source. Question 22 of the questionnaire applied to the students.

Based on the responses to this question, 35% of students believe they are undecided as to

whether English textbooks encourage critical thinking, followed by agree with 24%, then disagree

with 22%, strongly agree with 15%, and finally strongly disagree with 5% of students.

A chi-square test of independence was performed to examine the relation between

students’ knowledge of English variations (slangs, idioms, accents) and their evaluations of critical

thinking attributes in texts. There’s a significant relationship between them. Students with higher

knowledge of English variations are more likely to agree that the English textbooks contribute to

critical thinking.

P a g e 80 | 109
Graphic 23. Level of frequency in which students consider the context of English texts.
45 35%

40
30%
35
25%
30

25 20%

20 15%

15
10%
10
5%
5

0 0%
A- Always B- Often C- Sometimes D- Rarely E- Never

Source. Question 23 of the questionnaire applied to the students.

From this graph, it can be observed that the majority of students, with 32%, sometimes take

into account the context of English texts, as well as 29% of them often, while another 22% of the

students rarely consider contexts. On the other hand, 15% students believe it is always relevant,

and finally 3% of the students never think it is necessary to comprehend the context of the material

they are reading.

P a g e 81 | 109
Graphic 24. Students’ level of interest in implicit ideas of texts.

50 40%

45
35%
40
30%
35
25%
30

25 20%

20
15%
15
10%
10
5%
5

0 0%
A- Always B- Often C- Sometimes D- Rarely E - Never

Source. Question 24 of the questionnaire applied to the students.

The results of this question, represented in the graph, reveal that 35% of the students are

sometimes interested in the implicit ideas of the texts, followed by 30% who do so rarely, 23%

who do so often, and finally, always and never with 6%.

P a g e 82 | 109
Graphic 25. Level of frequency in which students question information, ideas, or opinions
in English text.

50 40%

45
35%
40
30%
35
25%
30

25 20%

20
15%
15
10%
10
5%
5

0 0%
A- Always B- Often C- Sometimes D- Rarely E- Never

Source. Question 25 of the questionnaire applied to the students.

According to students' responses, 35% agree that they question information, ideas, or

opinions found in an English text sometimes, 33% do so rarely, 18% question information often,

however, 8% never do so, and only 5% always question information found in texts.

A chi-square test of independence was performed to examine the relation between students’

engagement in creation, analysis, and evaluation (main components of Higher Order Thinking)

when reading English texts. The relation between these variables was significant. It is said that

there’s a significant statistical relationship between these skills, as students improve in one skill,

they also improve in the others.

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 F REQUENCY IN T HE IMPL EMENTAT ION
OF HIGHER
Graphic 25.1. Frequency ORDER TofHINKING
in the implementation higher orderIN
thinking in reading
READING
Interest in text context Interest in implicit ideas Question information of texts

40%

35%

30%

25%

20%

15%

10%

5%

0%
A - A LWAYS B - O F T EN C- S O MET IMES D- RA REL Y E- NEV ER

Source. Questions 23, 24, and 25 of the questionnaire applied to the students.

As shown in the graphs, students’ interest in the context of texts, implicit ideas and

questioning of information mostly occurs “sometimes” and “rarely”. A chi-square test of

independence was performed to examine the relation between these variables, it was found the

relationship was not significant, X2 (8, N = 130) = 12.7201, p = .12185.

This suggests that when students implement one skill of Higher Order Thinking in reading,

(interest in context, implicit ideas and question information), there’s no significant evidence

students use the three skills or implement higher order thinking in reading or teachers encourage

it.

P a g e 84 | 109
4.1.3. Report of the in-depth interview

The following is the report of the in-depth interview conducted with the 2 English teachers
who teach in the 5th grade of secondary school.
This interview was conducted in the teacher's lounge of the Ave Maria Polytechnic Institute,
on Thursday, June 21, 2022, in the morning. It lasted 40 minutes. The information was recorded,
and several notes were taken.
Question 1: Resources used to promote vocabulary learning in their classes.

Regarding this aspect, the teachers affirmed that they use songs in English, in this case, the
students listen, observe and at the same time pronounce the songs, lists of the vocabulary of the
different units, games, and group activities in the classroom to identify the vocabulary worked on,
as well as the use of objects found around them in the environment, images, and readings.

Question 2: Students' reading comprehension level.

According to the first teacher interviewed, who teaches technical English, the students are
at an intermediate level, because the institution teaches two subjects of English, basic English and
technical English, according to her experience, thanks to these two modalities, when the students
attend their classes they already have an advanced level of English, that is, they already have a
basic command of the language, nevertheless, the teacher who teach basic English said that the
students are at a shallow level, since they have lost interest in reading. According to the teacher,
the students find it more interesting and more interesting to use audiovisual resources, that is, to
watch a movie or a series, than to read.

Question 3: Students' level of oral comprehension.

According to the first teacher, the level of oral comprehension is advanced, this is due to
the fact that, according to her, to the strategies and activities implemented in the classes, the
students are able to understand the language and engage in a conversation with a client.

According to the other teacher, oral comprehension has been weakened as a result of the
students' lack of reading and therefore they do not have oral comprehension, in this case, students
read in the classroom to comply with the action or activity that is being carried out at the moment,

P a g e 85 | 109
but not with the intention of understanding in depth what they are reading, which is what they
really need to develop oral comprehension.

The same thing happens in the classroom, at the moment of giving an instruction, due to
their level of comprehension, the teacher must make use of gestures in order to make herself
understood.

Question 4: Students achieve the objectives programmed in class planning in terms of

comprehension and written production in English.

In this aspect, all the teachers affirmed that, if the students achieve the objectives, although not all
the students can be included, since this will depend on the motivation and the interest that the
student has towards the language, according to them, there is the case of some students who have
a great level of fluency when performing the activities, however, there is the case of others who
lag behind at the time of doing them.

In the case of written production, the students are very advanced, and according to the
teachers, this is due to the fact that the students tend to copy the tasks, and when they are forced
to write they unconsciously develop this skill.

Question 5: Type of readings most effective in arousing students' interest.

In this sense, the teachers said that intensive reading is a very effective approach in this
case since it seeks to make students understand what they are reading, the types of readings should
be of interest to students, according to their age, dealing with topics that capture their attention,
something that they like and try to understand.

Question 6: Autonomous performance of the students in terms of written production in

English.

The teachers said that they do not always, sometimes students make use of the online
translator, to complete their assignments, and sometimes it depends on whether this written
production is focused on a topic of interest, however, when students are given a topic to work on,
most of the time they make use of helpful resources such as the translator to complete the
assignments.

P a g e 86 | 109
Question 7: English language skill that students have the highest proficiency in.

In this sense, the two teachers affirmed that written production (writing), is due to the fact
that when the students reach this grade (5th grade of high school), most of them are in English
institutes, which facilitates the process.

According to the teachers, an approximate percentage for the other skills would be listening
45%, speaking 50%, and in many cases, some students do not develop this last skill because they
are embarrassed to speak out loud, to make a mistake, or that some of their classmates might laugh
at them in class.

Question 8: English language skill that students find most difficult to develop.

Oral production, according to the teachers, is the skill that she tries to perfect the most in
her students so that they are not only able to produce orally, but also to do it effectively.

Oral production, either because of the fear of failing, of making a mistake, of another
student laughing at them, of not doing it correctly, besides the fact that we are used to thinking in
Spanish and speaking in English we must change the sense of thinking.

Question 9: Students' ability to use English language consistently, even at a basic level.

The teachers affirmed that yes, the students have the capacity, since their technical area
requires them to be committed to use the language as a necessity to get involved and be committed
to the subject, highlighting the fact that it has been proven that many students can achieve it if they
are willing to do so, everything is based on the interest that the students have and the motivation
to learn.

According to the teachers, at present in our country, this is not achieved in schools, since
students see English as a subject rather than as a language. If our educational system were to
structure the English language and evaluate students according to their management and
performance in the language, making groups according to their level of mastery, better results
would be obtained.

P a g e 87 | 109
Question 10: Students' level of reading comprehension.

According to one teacher, some students have an appropriate level, and some do not. In the
latter case, the teachers use as a strategy to make a brief introduction in Spanish at the beginning
so that the students have an idea of the topic they will be working on, but then the rest of the classes
are exclusively in English.

The second one, considers that reading comprehension is not well developed, as it should
be because if the interest in reading and the motivation for reading are not developed, the students
would obtain that level, however, because there is no interest, the students only read to comply or
to obtain a grade.

Question 11: Students' critical reading attitudes in English.

According to the teachers, these attitudes should continue to be worked on, and one factor
that affects reading and learning the language is the textbooks used in public schools, since in
private education, parents have the facility to acquire books at the cost, however, in public schools
the books that arrive are very empty in relation to the contents.

They affirmed that another factor that also affects is the fact that the English material is not
adequate or directed to our Dominican students, according to the teacher, we should create material
that is specific to our country, that mixes both the culture of the language and our culture and in
this way motivate our students to learn the language of our daily situations with which we live,
from our reality as a country, thus connecting them with our context.

Question 12: Academic performance as a fundamental aspect of students' enjoyment of

learning English.

According to the teachers, the students' performance is based on their interest in grades and
passing the year, not on having a real interest in learning the language as a second language,
according to them, in public schools, English is perceived by the students as just another subject
and they do not give it importance.

P a g e 88 | 109
4.2. Discussion

Through the theoretical background of this research study, we have been able to find that
certain findings of the latter are not aligned with the consensus of international researchers in the
field. While the results of data analysis let us know that for our sample, generally, when they master
one of the Four-English-core-skills there is no significant correlation, although it is commonly
known that for most cases quite the opposite is found.

A case study conducted in 2019 by Ima Kusumastuti, Endang Fauziati, Sri Marmanto,
Sebelas Maret University, Indonesia, entitled: Revealing Teachers' Beliefs of Higher Order
Thinking Skills in Teaching at Junior High School, analyzed how teachers’ beliefs about HOTS
affected their practice; we found while interviewing the teachers, that they believe students are not
capable of reading critically, because they do not have an stable flow of textbooks at their disposal;
statement that is translated in their students’ belief; in the grades and sections studied, students
with higher knowledge of English variations (slangs, idioms, accent) are more likely to agree with
the usage of textbooks to contribute to critical thinking.

Whilst it is true that teaching material which not merely gives instructions to students to
memorize or remember, but requires them to be able to conclude, hypothesize, analyze, implement,
synthesize, evaluate, and compare (Anwar, 2021), has shown to be great for developing both
reading and HOTS; there is little to no evidence that these types of books are available for their
usage in public schools.

Now, on the other end of the spectrum, there are authors like Suwarna & Apriyani (2022),
that believe teachers should understand and be skillful in developing learning activities that can
build HOTS; implying that a teacher from the 21st century, who is preparing students for the highly
competitive job market, should focus on students being unfamiliar with the questions or tasks they
are asked to answer or perform and making sure that they have sufficient prior knowledge to enable
them to use their higher order thinking skills in answering questions or performing tasks (King et
all, 1998).

In spite of the formerly stated, there is still hope in this matter, as more researchers are
dedicating resources to the elaboration and distributions of said teaching materials; this is shown
in research studies like the one mentioned before performed in 2021; Muh. Anwar, for Universitas

P a g e 89 | 109
Negeri Makassar, Indonesia, presented the investigation entitle: Development of Foreign
Language Teaching Material Based on Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) to Increase Students’
Literacy Skills, the purpose of this study is to develop a foreign language teaching material based
on Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) and to investigate the impacts of the implementation of
the teaching material in increasing students’ literacy skill.

This study used research and development approach by adopting ADDIE model which
consisted of 5 steps (Analyze Design-Develop-Implement-Evaluate). This study suggested that
English teaching material being developed was able to significantly improve students’ literacy
skills which are reading and writing skills. To answer Higher Order Questions, students needed
good reasoning skill by thinking logically using knowledge, comprehension, and skills they
possessed and made associations with new situations covered in the questions.

Students with better reading cohesion skills spend more time reading that those who do not
and vice versa; now the questions is: how could high school students’ keep the habit of reading in
time, thus bettering their skills, if they find it is not enjoyable in the slightest. Regarding this in
2020, Bernadeta Siska Indriyana and Paulus Kuswandono, conducted the research: Developing
Students’ Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) in Reading: English Teachers’ Strategies in
Selected Junior High Schools. They state that reading comprehension, fluency growth, and reading
enjoyment should go hand in hand and should be built together over time through training.

They highlight the fact that teachers must integrate and develop the skills for students to
think on a learning level. And since reading is pivotal in the context of human life, especially
nowadays with all the advanced means of information and communication, it is of the upmost
importance that in contexts like the Dominican one, this skill is better enhanced from every
participant in the teaching-learning process. Harras and Sulistianingsih (1997) state that reading is
a bridge for people to progress and succeed in both education and professional fields. They agree
that reading proficiency or reading literacy is a requirement for every person to advance in their
lives.

In terms of reading interest, Wahadaniah (1997) argues that people who are interested in
reading have strong attention and enjoyment while reading a text and eventually, benefit from their
reading activities. Reading interest means a high willingness or tendency towards reading activity
or it can be associated with the love for reading (Dewi et al., 2020). Reading interest tends to

P a g e 90 | 109
provide a pleasant anticipation followed by actions, which in turn gives greater pleasure (Fatimah,
2021).

When students develop any of the skills involved in HOTS (creation, analysis, evaluation,
etc.), as a result, they develop all the other skills as well. This is supported by Brown (2015) who
exposes three phases in reading-based activities, pre-reading, while-reading, and post-reading, the
application of critical reading strategy can also improve the students' interest in reading activity,
thus they will become aware of the importance of literacy; meaning, the students get better at
evaluating and understanding the value of good reading skills.

It is common to hear people talking about critical thinking as the sole basis of HOTS, and
while this could be correct, other skills involved like creativity can help us understand more
practically how all HOTS are intertwined. Creativity involves divergent and convergent thinking
to produce new ideas (Crowl et al., 1997). Its place in the network of higher order thinking skills
was well articulated in Pasteur’s observation that “chance favors only the prepared mind” because
“only a trained mind can make connections between unrelated events, recognize meaning in a
serendipitous event,” and produce a solution that is both novel and suitable (cited in Crowl et al.,
1997, pp. 192–193).

4.3. Conclusions

With this research study we have rectified the importance of Higher Order Thinking Skills
and how they are taking a very important role in education internationally, nevertheless we have
established, unfortunately, how the Dominican government and institutions have yet to achieve a
basic level of application of policies and laws that define them as pivotal to the learning and
success of a 21st century student.

The picture gets even more substantial when we include English as a foreign language and
reading; two subjects, that in spite of their significance, still lack proper funding and planning in
our country. It is definitively concerning, how little research has been done by Dominican peers
on this matter specifically; nonetheless, it is our hope that authorities from the Ministry of
Education, administrative staff, teachers and students, will take the time to carefully analyze the
implications of this and other pieces of work surrounding the topic in the future.

P a g e 91 | 109
 In regard to, the first specific objective of this research paper, which basically aimed to
determine the cognitive aspects involved in higher order thinking skills; according to literature,
aspects like concept acquisition, creativity, evaluation, brainstorming, problem-solving, etc. are
included, individually or together, to facilitate learning as well as the development of higher order
thinking skills. Another cognitive aspect is what is called metacognition, which “includes
awareness of one’s thinking processes, self-monitoring, and application of known heuristics and
steps for thinking. One’s success with metacognition depends, in part, on a belief in one’s ability
to get smarter as well as the beliefs of others, such as teachers, in one’s ability” (Crowl et all 1997).
There was little evidence found through this research that the sample was actively and constantly
receiving input for the completion of any of these aspects; leading us to believe that higher order
thinking skills are not as emphasized.

Concerning to the second specific objective of this research, describe reading strategies
that develop critical thinking, Fatimah (2021) said that “English teachers are required not only to
ask their students to read the text, but also to teach reading strategies that can support the students’
higher order thinking skills. Furthermore, the strategies for learning to read in English with higher
order thinking skills include predicting skills (predicting), making connections from a text to the
outside world (making the connection), visualizing the text content (visualizing), making
conclusions (inferring), questioning the content of the text (questioning), and making a summary
(summarizing)”. We have found no evidence that any of these strategies are being taught in a
consistent basis, or for long enough to cause an impact or learning in students.

Finally, for the third specific objective of this work, which was to establish the level of
mastery of higher-order thinking skills in English reading; we already heard from the teachers
working with the students from the sample; that there is a significant less amount of content and
time dedicated to reading in the classes, and since students have not even received reading
strategies necessary for the implementation of HOTS in reading, there is not room to talk about
“mastery”; what we should be focusing on right now is improving the little we have and strive to
make that improvement sustainable in time.

P a g e 92 | 109
4.4. Recommendations

The people who can most help implement higher order thinking skills (HOTS) to improve
students' performance in reading English as a foreign language are teachers. These
recommendations are made to educational authorities, students, and teachers most of all.

For the educational authorities:

-Rectify and make sure the Dominican curriculum is aligned with the skills necessary to thrive as
students living in the 21st century.

-Contribute to the establishment and sustainability of training programs for teachers and
administrative staff, regarding the implementation of HOTS.

For students:

- Dedicate time to read, both for leisure and academically, as it will better your performance in all
other core skills pertaining to any language.

- Try to be understanding if your teacher comes up with an unfamiliar way of explaining things or
evaluating you; they might be trying to implement HOTS focused activities, which are excellent
for developing all skills you will need to succeed in most aspects.

For teachers:

- Provide the adequate environment in which HOTS are enhanced and highlighted as main skills.

-Align the content to be taught with an assessment style that favors the utilization of HOTS.

P a g e 93 | 109
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Appendices

P a g e 100 | 109
 4.5. Appendices

a. Instruments samples

IN-DEPTH INTERVIEW QUESTIONS GUIDE FOR THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

TEACHER

1. What kind of resources do you use to promote vocabulary learning in your classes?

2. What level do you consider your students have in terms of reading comprehension? Why?

3. What level do you think your students are at in terms of listening comprehension?

4. Do you think that most of your students achieve the objectives programmed in the lesson plans
in terms of comprehension and written production in English? Why?

5. What types of readings do you think are the most effective in arousing your students' interest?
Why do you think so?

6. Do you feel that your students are developing autonomously in terms of written production in
English? Why?

7. Which of the four core English language skills do you feel your students have mastered the
most? Why?

8. Which of these skills do you consider the most difficult to develop? Why?

9. Do you feel that your students have the ability to use English consistently, even at a basic
level? Why?

10. Do you feel that your students have an appropriate level of reading comprehension?

11. Do you feel that your students have critical reading attitudes in English?

12. Do you assume that it is fundamental for students to like learning English in order to have an
adequate academic? Why?

P a g e 101 | 109
 Desempeño del estudiante en la implementación
Habilidades de pensamiento de orden superior (HOTS) en lectura en inglés
en el Instituto Politécnico El Ave María, junio - 2022.

Estimados estudiantes:

El siguiente cuestionario tiene como finalidad recolectar información concerniente a sus

percepciones y desempeño en actividades realizadas para promover sus habilidades de
pensamiento crítico relacionadas con la lectura en la materia de inglés. Les pedimos llenar el
cuestionario con completa honestidad, les agradecemos de antemano su cooperación y
aseguramos la total confidencialidad de sus respuestas.

Marca con una X tu respuesta.

Sexo M __ F __ Grado __ Área Técnica __________________ Edad ________

Cuestionario para los estudiantes

1. ¿Como calificarías tu capacidad de escucha (listening) en inglés?
a) Excelente __
b) Muy bueno __
c) Bueno __
d) Deficiente __
e) Muy deficiente__

2. ¿Como calificarías tu capacidad de lectura (reading) en inglés?

a) Excelente __
b) Muy bueno __
c) Bueno __
d) Deficiente __
e) Muy deficiente __

3. ¿Como estimas tu nivel de producción escrita (writing) en inglés?

a) Excelente __
b) Muy bueno __
c) Bueno __
d) Deficiente __
e) Muy deficiente __

P a g e 102 | 109
4. ¿Como estimas tu nivel de producción oral (speaking) en inglés?
a) Excelente __
b) Muy bueno __
c) Bueno __
d) Deficiente __
e) Muy deficiente __

5. ¿Como estimas tu nivel de vocabulario en inglés?

a) Excelente __
b) Muy bueno __
c) Bueno __
d) Deficiente __
e) Muy deficiente __

6. ¿Como calificas las estrategias para el aprendizaje de vocabulario implementadas por tu maestra?
a) Excelentes __
b) Muy buenas __
c) Buenas __
d) Deficientes __
e) Muy deficientes __

7. ¿Al momento de leer un texto en inglés, logras identificar las partes que lo componen y/o el tipo de texto?
a) Siempre __
b) A menudo __
c) A veces __
d) Rara vez __
e) Nunca __

8. ¿Logras identificar el significado del título y/o las ideas principales?

a) Siempre __
b) A menudo __
c) A veces __
d) Rara vez __
e) Nunca __

9. ¿De los siguientes elementos pertenecientes a la cohesión discursiva cual consideras que es el más
importante?
a) Puntuación __
b) Ortografía __
c) Referencia __
d) Repetición __
e) Conectores lógicos __

P a g e 103 | 109
10. ¿De las siguientes estrategias de lectura, cual utilizas con más frecuencia en la clase de inglés?
a) Scanning (leer rápido para buscar información especifica) __
b) Skimming (leer rápido para tener una idea general del texto) __
c) Buscar las palabras desconocidas en el diccionario __
d) Word Skipping (Saltar las palabras desconocidas) __
e) Preguntar al profesor __
f) Uso del traductor __

11. ¿Como consideras tu rendimiento escolar en la clase de inglés?

a) Excelente __
b) Muy bueno __
c) Bueno __
d) Deficiente __
e) Muy deficiente __

12. ¿Como te sientes con tu desempeño en lectura en la clase de inglés?

a) Totalmente satisfecho __
b) Muy satisfecho __
c) Satisfecho __
d) Un poco satisfecho __
e) Nada satisfecho __

13. ¿Qué tan frecuente sueles expresarte cuando necesitas ayuda en lectura?
a) Siempre __
b) A menudo __
c) A veces __
d) Rara vez __
e) Nunca__

14. ¿Qué te motiva a practicar la lectura en inglés?

a) Exigencia de la escuela__
b) Motivos profesionales __
c) Interés en el idioma o la cultura de los países de habla inglesa __
d) Interesado en el inglés, pero no en la lectura __
e) No estoy interesado en el idioma ingles __

15. ¿Con que frecuencia practicas la lectura en ingles de forma independiente/ por tu cuenta?
a) Siempre __
b) A menudo __
c) A veces __
d) Rara vez __
e) Nunca __

P a g e 104 | 109
16. ¿Actualmente estas tomando un curso de inglés o lo ha tomado antes?
a) Si __
b) No __

17. ¿Con que frecuencia te expones al idioma inglés (videos, canciones, chat, dialogo, correo
electrónico)?
a) Siempre __
b) A menudo __
c) A veces __
d) Rara vez __
e) Nunca __

18. ¿Cómo calificas tu destreza para expresarte en diferentes contextos en el idioma inglés?
a) Excelente __
b) Muy buena __
c) Buena __
d) Deficiente __
e) Muy deficiente __

19. ¿Como calificas tu nivel de dominio del lenguaje formal en inglés?

a) Excelente __
b) Muy bueno __
c) Bueno __
d) Deficiente __
e) Muy deficiente __

20. ¿Como calificas tu nivel de dominio del lenguaje informal en inglés?

a) Excelente __
b) Muy bueno __
c) Bueno __
d) Deficiente __
e) Muy deficiente __

21. ¿Qué tan familiarizado te sientes con el uso de slang (jerga coloquial en inglés) idioms (modismos),
abreviaciones, acentos?
a) Bastante familiarizado __
b) Muy familiarizado __
c) Algo familiarizado __
d) Un poco familiarizado __
e) Nada familiarizado __

P a g e 105 | 109
22. ¿En qué medida consideras que los textos de la clase de ingles incentivan el pensamiento crítico?
a) Bastante__
b) Mucho__
c) Algo __
d) Poco __
e) Nada __

23. ¿Con que frecuencia piensas en el contexto que fue escrito el texto?
a) Siempre __
b) A menudo __
c) A veces __
d) Rara vez __
e) Nunca __

24. ¿Cuál es tu nivel de interés en las ideas implícitas del texto, es decir, lo que el autor no comunica de
forma directa, sino sugerida?
a) Totalmente interesado __
b) Muy interesado __
c) Interesado __
d) Un poco interesado __
e) Nada interesado __

25. ¿Con que frecuencia cuestionas las aseveraciones, es decir, ideas u opiniones hechas por el autor del
texto?
a) Siempre __
b) A menudo __
c) A veces __
d) Rara vez __
e) Nunca __

P a g e 106 | 109
 b. Activities Timetable

Dates Activities
May-12-2022 Creation of the WhatsApp group as a means of communication with the teacher, with the objective of
providing the most important and relevant information regarding the final project, this same day the teacher
assigned us to send by this means, the groups with which we would work and the selected theme.
May-16-2022 Meeting as a group to discuss and delimit the topic.
May-18-2022 Our topic was sent through the WhatsApp group.
May-19-2022 First meeting with the teacher, who explained to us the methodology of the final project, the outline of the
final project used by the university.
May-24-2022 Meeting in which we selected the institution where the project would be carried out (Instituto Politécnico El
Ave María).
May-25-2022 A request was sent to the career coordinator, Ligia Henríquez, to write a letter to the institution to carry out
the internship.
May-26-2022 Second meeting with the teacher, in this meeting we were discussing the general and specific objectives, then
with our groups we were working with the indicators of each topic.
June-01-2022 Meeting to create the instruments that include the multiple-choice questionnaire for the students and the
interview questions for the teachers.
June-02-2022 Third meeting, the teacher was reviewing the instruments by groups, evaluating what we should improve and
confirming that they had a connection with the indicators previously worked on. We were also assigned to
work on the first three chapters.
June-09-2022 Meeting to finalize the formatting of the instruments.
June-13-2022 We attended for the first time to the Instituto Politécnico El Ave María and delivered the letter, which was
rejected and this same day we sent Ligia again an email with this request.
June-16-2022 Meeting to investigate the history of the educational center.
June-17-2022 We returned to the university to look for the letter again with the arrangements we requested due to the
center's requirements.
June-21-2022 We went to the educational center to apply the instruments, the questionnaire to the students and we were
able to interview two teachers in the area.
June-22-2022 Meeting to work with the selected items and finalize chapter two.
June-23-2022 We did not have a meeting with the teacher since more time was requested to finish the chapters.
June-28-2022 Meeting to begin tabulating the information collected at the educational center.
June-30-2022 The first three chapters were sent to the teacher, and he sent us the feedbacks with the points to improve.
July-07-2022 Meeting with the teacher to correct and improve some errors he found while reviewing the submitted
chapters.
July-29-2022 Meeting with the teacher to correct the draft.

P a g e 107 | 109
c. Budget

a) Photocopy expenses

- 400 copies of student questionnaire

RD$ 1,200.00
b) Research filling

c) Expendable utensils RD$ 10,000.00

- 12 charcoal pencils RD$ 100.00

d) Transportation

- Travel to and from the university and to the educational center RD$ 200.00

e) Miscellaneous expenses RD$ 1,000.00

Total RD$ 12,500.00

P a g e 108 | 109
d. Pictures

P a g e 109 | 109