CONCEPTUAL VARIATIONS ON READING COMPREHENSION THROUGH HIGHER ORDER THINKING SKILLS (HOTS) STRATEGY

ENGLISH REVIEW: Journal of English Education Volume 7, Issue 2, June 2019 p-ISSN 2301-7554, e-ISSN 2541-3643 https://journal.uniku.ac.id/index.php/ERJEE CONCEPTUAL VARIATIONS ON READING COMPREHENSION THROUGH HIGHER ORDER THINKING SKILLS (HOTS) STRATEGY Nani Ronsani Thamrin English Education Department, Faculty of Teacher Training and Education, Universitas Kuningan, Indonesia E-mail: Silvia Agustin English Education Department, Faculty of Teacher Training and Education, Universitas Kuningan, Indonesia E-mail: APA Citation: Thamrin, N. R., & Agustin, S. (2019). Conceptual variations on reading comprehension through higher order thinking skills (HOTS) strategy. English Review: Journal of English Education, 7(2), 93-100. doi: 10.25134/erjee.v7i2.1777. Received: 22-01-2019 Accepted: 16-04-2019 Published: 01-06-2019 Abstract: Thinking capability is the most significant aspect in educational process. As every student has his own distinctive method of thinking, he will then possess his learning concepts. Being a critical thinker means they have to be able to think more critical than any other people, by practicing their skills through comprehending the material and the content of the text. Therefore, this paper discusses the phenomenon of conceptual variations on reading comprehension through Higher Order Thinking Skill (HOTS) strategy in Universitas Kuningan and describes how the HOTS strategy improves the students’ skills in comprehending the academic reading text. The data collected from a classroom observation and interview were analyzed qualitatively by using categories formulated based on theories related to HOTS strategy. As a result, it was found that various concepts on reading comprehension are seen from the C1-C6 phase of HOTS strategy and critical reading. This indicates that most students have higher order thinking skills in comprehending the text in critical reading class. Finally, the findings are expected to be references for English teachers in implementing various teaching strategy. Keywords: critical reading; higher order thinking skills; reading comprehension. The implementation of HOTS in classroom would be beneficial for both students and teachers as well. This research proposed the description of students’ conceptual variations on reading comprehension through HOTS strategy as well as the improvements of the skills in comprehending the academic reading text using HOTS strategy. This research also deals with critical reading (Cotrell, 2005), the steps of HOTS strategy (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001), and the concepts related to HOTS. HOTS strategies usually required for those who want to develop their thinking skills. Therefore, good readers need higher order thinking strategies to think of, and direct their perception before, during and after reading the passages. Beneath all, students need to acquire the HOTS strategy to improve their abilities in thinking process instead of thinking simply of the passage they read. Upon even strategies of HOTS, here is a detail information on how the strategies of HOTS is applied according to Seif (2012). First, giving high questions during reading activity. Giving questions is defined by INTRODUCTION The need of learning reading is increasing along with the needs of students to acquire information during their study. The mutual relationship between students’ academic reading skills and educational achievements involves the four basic skills. These include reading, writing, critical thinking, oral presentation, and media literacy, which involve receptive and productive skills of students (Tinto in Hermida, 2009). As receptive skill, reading becomes the most necessary skill to get information for students since the reading courses which are explained by teachers in classroom is not enough. There are benefits of teaching reading that provide good models for English writing (Harmer, 2007). However, to teach this skill, teachers need to improve methods instead of LOTS (Lower Order Thinking Skill) to enhance students thinking skills. Anderson and Krathwohl (2001) categorized level of reading and cognitive development into six level and changed the terms from LOTS to HOTS which is started with remembering, understanding, applying, analyzing, evaluating, and creating. 93 Nani Ronsani Thamrin & Silvia Agustin Conceptual variations on reading comprehension through higher order thinking skills (HOTS) strategy Hendricks et al. in Seif (2012) as a strategy in order to help students to improve their reading skills to deeper thinking and learning for grasping the content of the text. Thus, teachers should give higher-order questions related to the text during reading activities in the classroom. The questions are prepared by the teachers and given to the students during the reading activity by stopping at intervals and proposing the questions directly to the students. This activity is in line with the theory of directed reading proposed by Haggard in Seif (2012) that questioning can be facilitated with the Directed Reading-Thinking Activities Approach (DRTA). This strategy is believed as a way on how to improve students’ thinking skills in reading activity. As supported by Raphael in Seif (2012) that “a Question-Answer Relationship (QAR) technique has been linked to improve students’ reading comprehension after reading.” Second, making inference related to reading between lines strongly. Students could be trained to utilize the illustrations, graphs, and headline from the text to create inferences. Generating conclusion is closely to the description of making inference. According to Doff in Seif (2012), we can engage our experience to the reading passage based on our experience, otherwise we can imagine ourselves being on the stories that serve much experience, so that we can feel and grasp the meaning that author’s mean from the text. Third, teachers take very important role in every single program of education. Seif (2012) stated that teachers expose the student to be more aware of the material they learn from the very first place, should not talk too much, improve certain strategies to cultivate thinking behavior, use media, ask question regularly, and break the classroom into the small groups to work on the more specific task. Therefore, this is perhaps an effective way to train students to think without noticing it. Cotton in Seif (2012) suggests that teachers need to utilize various instructional approaches to develop thinking skills and to enhance students’ knowledge and thinking skills by using generating questions, redirection and reinforcement in order to achieve the goal. Besides, the questions proposed by the teachers must be higher-order questions and of course teachers need to be patient to wait to the students’ responses. Furthermore, Anderson and Krathwohl (2001) developed the Bloom’s taxonomy of cognitive objectives by categorizing it into six phase, starting from C1 to C6 – Remembering, Understanding, (...truncated)