Assessment of higher order thinking skills in a literature based curriculum : challenges and guidelines

Abstract

The study focused on pertinent challenges and key guidelines in introducing and assessing students’ higher order thinking skills (HOTS) in a literature based English foreign language (EFL) curriculum. A curricular initiative in Israel, namely to integrate HOTS in the teaching and learning of literature in the high school EFL classes, prompted this study to measure its effectiveness on students’ abilities to understand and apply the HOTS in their reading and writing. This mixed-methods study dealt with the following research questions: Are HOTS innate skills or must they be purposefully taught in order for students to learn and to apply them? To what extent has 10th and 11th grade EFL Israeli students’ ability to apply HOTS to their bridging essays, after completing two years in the English literature programme, been improved? How accurately could students demonstrate an understanding of HOTS by naming them and by providing an example of how they could apply them in the areas of reading and writing? The overall key findings showed that; HOTS must be taught and practiced in order for students to learn and to apply them and that teaching students to use HOTS will improve their reading and writing capabilities in regard to higher order thinking as well as their understanding of specific HOTS. It was also found that students enjoy the challenge of infusing HOTS into a literature curriculum and expressing what they learn in their writing. They are consequently motivated to learn when they are challenged with a programme that infuses HOTS into an EFL literature curriculum. Implications of the findings are that the subject specific approach and infusion method for teaching HOTS are successful in the EFL classroom. The findings provide a novel contribution to the study of HOTS pedagogy within a literature based EFL curriculum programme. Recommendations for further studies are made, particularly on HOTS vis-à-vis weaker EFL students as well as on examining different writing formats, such as opinion essays, to determine if HOTS are transferring to other types of writing after students’ participation in this curricular initiative.