Analysis of Reading Comprehension Questions Based on Higher Order Thinking Skills in Cognitive Domain Of Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy

Jurnal Ilmiah Wahana Pendidikan https://jurnal.unibrah.ac.id/index.php/JIWP Vol. 7, No.2, April 2021 Analysis of Reading Comprehension Questions Based on Higher Order Thinking Skills in Cognitive Domain Of Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy Nia Liska Saputri Universitas Indraprasta PGRI Email : Info Artikel Sejarah Artikel: Diterima: 12 Maret 2021 Direvisi: 20 Maret 2021 Dipublikasikan: April 2021 e-ISSN: 2089-5364 p-ISSN: 2622-8327 DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.4657114 Abstract: In 2013 curriculum , the integration of higher thinking skills are required to encourage students to achieve the competencies of critical thinking, creativity and innovation, communication, collaboration, and confidence. One of essential learning sources is textbook, therefore it should facilitate the higher thinking skills as the basis of this curriculum. As the result, this present research mainly focuses on investigating the realization of HOTS based on revised Bloom’s taxonomy namely: analyzing level (C4), evaluating level (C5), and creating level (C6) in the reading comprehension questions found within English textbooks for grade 10 th which are published by the Ministry of Education and Culture entitled Bahasa Inggris SMA/MA/SMK/MAK. This research is a content analysis employing descriptive qualitative approach. The researcher collected and listed the questions in the reading comprehension tasks and then calculated the percentage and frequencies of each level of cognition. The results showed that the lower order thinking skills (LOTS) are less dominant than the higher order thinking skills HOTS). After analyzing the data, the finding of HOTS in reading comprehension questions have reached 64.3 % of 100 % while it was 35.3 % for lower order thinking skills LOTS). It indicated that this textbook concentrated more on higher –level thinking questions than lower lever thinking. Key words: Textbook, Higher Order Thinking Skill (HOTS), Reading Comprehension, Descriptive Qualitative Method. each other and can’t be separated or be independent. This statement was supported by Uma and Ponambala (2001:96), they stated that mastering language skills will determine the students' communicative competence in the target language. One of INTRODUCTION English has four skills that are essential to be mastered by the students. The skills are, listening, speaking, writing and reading. Those skills are related to 27 the receptive skills that have to be mastered by the students is reading. According to Brown (2007:185), reading is the most essential skill in the educational context as it can be the assessments for students' general language ability. Meanwhile Stone (2009:39), stated that reading is a fundamental goal that students must master in order to be successful in school and in life. Based on Ruth, Cynthia, Christine, and Lori (2008:39), they defined reading as several parts which are: Reading is not just a basic skill, reading is a complex process, and reading is problem-solving. On the other hand, education plays an important role in improving quality of life. It provides knowledge, skills, and also experiences which enable people to gain success and prosperity. In preparing young generation in this century, education requires students to master several skills that are formulated under the name 21st century skills which cover the skills of critical thinking and problem solving, creativity and innovation, collaboration, question formulation, global awareness, communication skills, and technology skills (Harvard Advanced Leadership Initiative, 2014). The skills are widely acknowledged as the provision to deal with the current global challenges. Thus, it is no wonder that the 21st century skills are included in many educational policies. As one of the learning sources, the textbook plays important role in the English teaching and learning process. Textbook is defined as a manual that comprises instructions on certain subject to assists teacher and learner to meet the objectives of the subject, Eruchalu (2012). Hutchinson and Torres (1994, p. 327) also added that “textbook is a visible and workable framework around which the many forces and demands of the teachinglearning process can cohere to provide the basis of security and accountability that is necessary for purposeful action in the classroom”. In conclusion, we can say that textbook is an important component to enable teaching and learning process work as what the intentional objectives and intentional actions have been designed.Hutchinson and Tores (1994) believe that textbook is an almost universal element of ELT teaching. A good textbook is not the expensive one, but it is good in the presenting materials and it has the relevance with the curriculum. The curriculum itself is broadly defined as the totality of student experiences that occur in the educational process. According to Sukmadinata (2000:17) curriculum is a set of subjects and educational programs provided by the educational provider, which includes lesson plans that will be given to students in one period of education. The inclusion of 21st century skills in educational settings can be seen in Indonesia through the adjustment of 2013 curriculum or known as K13. The Indonesian National Ministry of Education and Culture emphasized 21st century skills in the classroom context in the current curriculum (Ahmad, 2014). In implementing 21st century skills, critical thinking becomes one of the skills in which the Indonesian government has set standards-based curriculum (Syarifah et al. 2019). Furthermore, the policy of Directorate of High School (2015) states that students’ assessment developed by teachers are expected to encourage the students’ higher order thinking skills of, creativity, and build their self-reliance to solve problems. Teaching for higher order thinking is largely a matter of identifying and using these operations of thinking in the context of subject areas such as mathematics, science, language arts, and social sciences 28 (Peterson, 1990). It assists them to complete their tasks in reading comprehension test and open their mind toward the issues happened in the world. Besides, in this current curriculum students are prepared to face some both internal and external challenges. According to Education and Culture Ministry, internal challenges fulfill eight standards of competencies and the development of Indonesian civilization especially human resources. Meanwhile, external challenges include globalization issues, information and technology development, social lives, adaptation ability, creative and critical thinking skills, pedagogical and knowledge development, and negative phenomenon surrounding the students, for example, drug abuse, student fights, plagiarism, and cheating in final examinations. Some activities learned in the textbook Bahasa Inggris Siswa Kelas X SMA/MA, SMK/MAK involves warmer, vocabulary builder, pronunciation practice, reading, vocabulary exercises, text struct (...truncated)