The development of higher-order thinking skills (HOTS) assessment instrument in chemistry using socioscientific issues context: A preliminary trial

Abstract

Dealing with socioscientific issues in the classroom provides an appropriate context to concentrate on several components of scientific literacy that were related to higher-order thinking skills. Hence, it is important to use an appropriate assessment instrument using socioscientific issues because it presents a contextual problem that is relevant to students' daily lives. This study aimed to develop a valid and reliable instrument to measure higher-order thinking skills (HOTS) using the context of socioscientific issues on buffer solutions, acid-base titrations, and colloids. The test instrument developed consisted of 40 items (35 multiple-choice items and 5 essay items) with 9 socioscientific issues texts related to the topics. The test items met the three cognitive domains according to Revised Bloom's Taxonomy: (1) C4-Analyzing (15 questions); (2) C5-Evaluating (15 questions); and (3) C6-Creating (10 questions). The research subjects for trial out consisted of 70 senior high school students from 5 schools in East Java. The development of the instrument used the Borg and Gall model which consists of 4 stages: (1) preliminary study; (2) item development; (3) expert judgment; and (4) trial out. The expert judgment was carried out by two chemistry lecturers and two chemistry teachers. This study showed that the instrument is declared worthy of construct validity. The data in the form of written responses were analyzed by two raters with internal consistency (Cohen's Kappa coefficient) of 0.73. Based on the difficulty level index, found that 5 items (12%) were very difficult; 18 items (45%) were difficult; and 17 items (43%) were moderate, while the results of the discriminatory analysis showed that 10 items (25%) were very good; 24 items (60%) were good; and 6 items (15%) were sufficient. The results of analyses trial out data revealed that the test instrument had high reliability (Cronbach's Alfa coefficient = 0.89). The development of the higher-order thinking skills (HOTS) test instrument with the context of socioscientific issues can be used as an assessment tool in improving students' higher-order thinking skills (HOTS) to enhance their scientific literacy.