Higher Order Thinking Skills in Reading Comprehension Exercises Merdeka Curriculum English Textbook ’’Work in progress’’ for X Grade Senior High School

This study aimed to identify the types of Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS)
and analyze how HOTS are realized in the reading comprehension exercises of the
Merdeka Curriculum English textbook Work in Progress for X Grade Senior High
School based on Brookhart’s theory. This research applied a descriptive
qualitative method with content analysis design. The data source was the reading
comprehension exercises found in the 2022 Merdeka Curriculum English
textbook Work in Progress written by Budi Hermawan, Dwi Haryanti, and Nining
Suryaningsih. The data were collected through document analysis by identifying,
classifying, and analyzing the reading comprehension questions into three
categories of HOTS proposed by Brookhart, namely transfer, critical thinking, and
problem solving. The findings showed that there were 29 HOTS questions out of
55 reading comprehension questions in the textbook. The distribution of HOTS
consisted of 5 transfer questions (17.23%), 20 critical thinking questions
(68.94%), and 4 problem-solving questions (13.77%). Critical thinking was the
most dominant type found in the reading comprehension exercises. The
realization of HOTS in the textbook was reflected through several cognitive
processes such as apply, connect, analyze, infer, evaluate, identify, determine, and
solve. Inferential and analyze activities were the most frequently used in the
exercises. In conclusion, the English textbook Work in Progress has integrated
Higher Order Thinking Skills in its reading comprehension exercises and supports
the implementation of the Merdeka Curriculum. However, the distribution of
HOTS is still unbalanced because critical thinking skills are more dominant than
transfer and problem-solving skills. Therefore, it is suggested that textbook
writers and teachers provide more varied HOTS exercises to improve students’
higher-order thinking abilities comprehensively.