ISSN: 2226-6348
Open access
Reviewing previous HOTS studies in China revealed that the implementation and instruction of higher order thinking skills had not been widely adopted in Chinese college EFL education. Despite the unanimous agreement on the crucial role of fostering students’ HOTS, the incorporation of HOTS is affected by many factors. With a mixed-method approach, this research aims to investigate the factors affecting Chinese college EFL teachers’ HOTS implementation from the teacher’s perspective. Data was collected from 100 Chinese college EFL teachers through quantitative questionnaires and structured interviews. The findings of this research suggest that implementing HOTS in the Chinese college EFL classroom is challenged by various factors, particularly those related to teacher, student, institutional, and environmental factors. The results also provide empirical evidence of the insufficient knowledge and proficiency in implementing HOTS among the surveyed teachers during their language teaching process. This implies the need to establish a supportive HOTS-promoting environment involving teachers, students, and administrators in successfully implementing HOTS instructions in Chinese college EFL classrooms.
Ali, M. S. (2003). English language teaching in primary schools: Policy and implementation concerns. IPBA E-Journal, 1-14. Retrieved from
http://peoplelearn.homestead.com/Malaysia.English.pdf.
Alhassora, M. S. A., & Abdullah, A. H. (2017). Hindering factors in mastering higherorder thinkings skills: Application of Rasch measurement model. Man in India, 97(19), 275-280.
Atkinson, D. (1997). A critical approach to critical thinking in TESOL. TESOL Quarterly, 31(1), 71- 94.
Beyer, B. (2008). How to teach thinking skills in social studies and history. Social Studies, 99(5), 196-201. http://dx.doi.org/10.3200/TSSS.99.5.196-201
Black, S. (2005). Teaching students to think critically. The Education Digest, 70(6), 42-47.
Carter, R. (2004). Language And Creativity: The Art Of Common Talk. New York: Routledge.
Choy, S. C., & Cheah, P. K. (2009). Teacher perceptions of critical thinking among students and its influence on higher education. International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, 20(2), 198–206.
Creswell, J. W. (2012). Educational research: Planning, conducting, and evaluating quantitative and qualitative research (4th Ed.). Ohio: Prentice Hall.
Dai, W., & Zhang, X. (2007). Reflection on the instruction of undergraduate English majors. Foreign Language World, (4), 2-11.
Davidson, B., & Dunham, R. (1997). Assessing EFL student progress in critical thinking with the Ennis-Weir critical thinking essay test. JALT Journal, 19(1), 43–57.
Delmastro, A. L., & Balada, E. (2012). Modelo y Estrategias para la Promoción del Pensamiento Crítico en el Aula de Lenguas Extranjeras. Synergies Venezuela, 7, 25-37.
Ennis, R. H. (1989). Critical thinking and subject specificity: Clarification and needed research. Educational Researcher, 18(3), 4-10.
Fakhomah, D. N., & Utami, M. S. (2019). Pre-service English teacher perception about Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) in the 21st century learning. International Journal of Indonesian Education and Teaching, 3(1), 41-49.
Fan, Y., & Wang, Y. (2016). Dialogue in monologue: Dialogism in College English class. China University Teaching, (2), 54-59.
Fenyi, D. A., & Jones-Mensah, I. (2022). Higher order thinking skills in English language teaching: The case of colleges of education in Ghana. Linguistics Initiative, 2(1), 13-32.
Gibson, M. (2012). Integrating Higher-Order Thinking Skills into The L2 Classroom. [Online].http://dadun.unav.edu/bitstream/10171/27571/1/Gibson.pdf (accessed28.06.17)
Grosser, M. M., & Lombard, B. J. J. (2008). The relationship between culture and the development of critical thinking abilities of prospective teachers. Teaching and Teacher Education, 24, 1364-1375.
Halpern, D. F. (1998). Teaching critical thinking for transfer across domains. Dispositions, skills, structure training, and metacognitive monitoring. The American psychologist, 53(4), 449-455. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.53.4.449
Halpern, D. F. (2003). Thought and Knowledge: An introduction to critical thinking (4th ed.). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Hashim, R. (2003). Malaysian teachers’ attitudes, competencies and practices in the teaching of teaching. Intellectual Discourse, 11(1), 27-50.
Huang, F. (2013). A Study on Teaching Approaches to Cultivate Critical Thinking of College Students - An Action Research Based on Business English Teaching. (Ph.D. dissertation, Shanghai International Studies University).
Huang, Y. S. (1998). The absence of critical thinking. Foreign Languages and Their Teaching, 7 (2).
Huber, C. R., & Kuncel, N. R. (2016). Does college teach critical thinking: A meta-analysis. Review of Educational Research, 86, 431–468.
Lauer, T. (2005). Teaching critical thinking skills using course content material. Journal of College Science Teaching, 34(6), 34-44.
Lee, S. M. (2014). The relationship between higher order thinking skills, cognitive density, and social presence in online learning. The Internet and Higher Education, 21, 41-52.
Li, B., & Li, C. (2004). Exploring dialogic instruction. Contemporary Education Sciences, (16), 21-23.
Limbach, B., & Waugh, W. (1998). Developing higher level thinking. Journal of Instructional Pedagogies, 1-9.
Liu, D. H. (2005). A research on critical thinking skills in college students’ English writing. Foreign English Teaching, 26 (2), 46-52.
Liu, X. (2013). Designing a model of critical thinking development in College English class. Foreign Language World, (5), 59-66.
Luk, J. (2012). Teachers’ ambivalence in integrating culture with EFL teaching in Hong Kong. Language, Culture and Curriculum, 25, 249-264.
Michael, E. (2012). English teaching policy analysis: Flaws and the implications among Malaysian secondary schools students and teachers. Journal of Humanistic and Social Sciences, 1(1), 62-72. Retrieved from http://www.jhss.eu/article/view/10813/pdf.
MOE. (2000). Curriculum Requirements for College English Majors. Beijing: The People’s Education Press.
Mok, J. (2010). The new role of English language teachers: developing students’ critical thinking in Hong Kong secondary school classrooms. The Asian EFL Journal Quarterly, 12(2), 262-287.
Nagappan, R. (2001). Language Teaching and the Enhancement of Higher-Order Thinking Skills. Singapore: SEAMEO Regional Language Center. [Online] Available: http://nsrajendran.tripod.com/Papers/RELC2000A.pdf (April 20, 2001).
Ngwaru, J. M. (2011) Alternative Perspectives to English Teaching in Bilingual Contexts: A Case for Zimbabwe. Lambert Academic Publishing.
Pillay, L. A. M., Singh, C. K. S., & Yunus, M. M. (2020). Hots for teaching and learning in a teacher education university. International Journal of Psychosocial Rehabilitation, 23(4), 347-363.
Pithers, R. T., & Soden, R. (2000). Critical thinking in education: A review. Educational Research, 42(3), 237-249. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/001318800440579
Rajendran, N. (2001). The Teaching of Higher-Order Thinking Skills in Malaysia. Journal of Southeast Asian Education, 2(1), 42-65
Rajendran, N. (2013). Teaching and acquiring higher-order thinking skills: Theory and practice. Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris.
Rashid, R. A., & Hashim, R. A. (2008). The relationship between critical thinking and language proficiency of Malaysian undergraduates.
Resnick, L. B. (1987). Education and learning to think. Washington, D. C.: The National Academic Press.
Roets, L & Maritz, J. E. (2017). Facilitating the development of higher-order thinking skills (HOTS) of novice nursing postgraduates in Africa. Nurse Education Today. 49, 51-56.
Shafeei, K. N., Hassan, H., Ismail, F., & Aziz, A. A. (2017). Incorporating Higher Order Thinking Skill (HOTS) Questions in ESL Classroom Contexts. LSP International Journal, 4 (1).
Shirkhani, S., and Fahim, M. (2011). Enhancing critical thinking in foreign language learners. Paper presented in 1st International Conference on Foreign Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics, May 5-7, 2011. Sarajevo.
Sparapani, E. F. (1998). Encouraging thinking in high school and middle school: Constraints and possibilities. The Clearing House, 71(5), 274-276.
Thompson, C. (2002). Teaching critical thinking in EAP courses in Australia. TESOL Journal, 11(4), 15-20.
Tian, J., & Low, G. D. (2011). Critical thinking and Chinese university students: A review of the evidence. Language, culture and curriculum, 24(1), 61–76
Tyas, M. A., Nurkamto, J., Marmanto, S., & Laksani, H. (2019, October). Developing higher order thinking skills (HOTS)–Based questions: Indonesian EFL teachers’ challenges. In Proceedings of the International Conference on Future of Education (Vol. 2, No. 1, pp. 52-63).
Utami, R. T., Saleh, M., & Hartono, R. (2021, March). Factors Affecting Students’ Critical Thinking Development in EFL Classroom. In 1st Paris Van Java International Seminar on Health, Economics, Social Science and Humanities (PVJ-ISHESSH 2020) (pp. 221-223). Atlantis Press.
Wen, Q. F. and Zhou, Y. (2006). Review on the development of foreign language majors’ thinking ability. Foreign Language Research, 2006 (5): 76-80.
Wen, Q., Wang, H., Wang, J., Zhao, C., & Liu, Y. (2010). A comparative study on the critical thinking abilities between Chinese English undergraduates and other liberal arts students. Foreign Language Teaching and Research, 42 (5), 350-355.
Wu, Y. A. (2017). Language education in China: Teaching foreign languages. In R. Sybesma (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Chinese Language and Linguistics (Volume 2 De-Med) (pp. 515–527). Leiden: Koninklijke Brill NV.
Yen, T. S., & Halili, S. H. (2015). Effective teaching of higher order thinking (HOT) in education. The Online Journal of Distance Education and e-Learning, 3(2), 41-47.
Yeung, S. S. (2015). Conception of teaching higher order thinking: Perspectives of Chinese teachers in Hong Kong. The Curriculum Journal, 26 (4), 553-578.
Zhang, H. (2019). Understanding English language major teachers’ cognition on language and critical thinking integrated teaching. Foreign Languages Research, 176(4), 57–62.
Zhang, H., Yuan, R. & He, X. (2020). Investigating university EFL teachers’ perceptions of critical thinking and its teaching: Voices from China. Asia-Pacific Edu Res, 24 Jan, 2020.
Zohar, A. (2006). The nature and development of teachers’ meta-strategic knowledge in the context of teaching higher order thinking. The Journal of the Learning Sciences, 15 (3), 331-377.
Zohar, A., & Schwartzer, N. (2005). Assessing teachers’ pedagogical knowledge in the context of teaching higher-order thinking. International Journal of Science Education, 27(13), 1595-1620.
Zohar, A. (2013). Challenges in wide scale implementation efforts to foster higher order thinking (HOT) in science education across a whole wide system. Thinking Skills and Creativity, 10, 233-249.
Zohar, A., & Cohen, A. (2016). Large scale implementation of higher order thinking (HOTS) in civic education: The interplay of policy, politics, pedagogical leadership and detailed pedagogical planning. Thinking Skills and Creativity, 21, 85- 96.
(Yin & Samat, 2024)
Yin, Y., & Samat, N. A. (2024). Factors Affecting Teachers’ HOTS Implementation in Chinese College EFL Classrooms. International Journal of Academic Research in Progressive Education and Development, 13(1), 1053–1066.
Copyright: © 2024 The Author(s)
Published by HRMARS (www.hrmars.com)
This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) license. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of this article (for both commercial and non-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors. The full terms of this license may be seenavc at: http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode