Professional Development of Teachers and Development of Teaching Material in Higher Order Thinking Skill (HOTS) with Mathematical Realistic Approach

Abstract

In this globalization era, everyone is required to have the skills to think critically, creatively, communicatively, and collaboratively, and to have the ability in communication and information technology. This ability is called high-level thinking skills or Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS), so must be emphasized in every learning process at every level of education, especially mathematics education. However, HOTS of Indonesian students is still low (PISA, 2015). The reasons are because of the teacher's limited ability to think at HOTS and teaching materials that do not apply HOTS (Collin, 2014). Therefore, this scientific study aims to develop teacher professionalism in HOTS and develop teaching materials that do apply HOTS. Of the several alternatives in the professional teacher enforcement of the Directorate General of Primary and Secondary Education of the Ministry of National Education (2005), researchers in develop teacher professionalism in the MGMP empowerment program in the East OKU district area. While the development of teaching materials used is Realistic Mathematics Education (RME), which has been shown to increase students’ understanding of mathematics learning so as to enhance students' understanding of higher-order thinking skills. So that collaboration between the development of teacher professionalism and the development of teaching materials is expected to improve HOTS of Indonesian students.