THE IMPLEMENTATION OF HIGHER ORDER THINKING QUESTIONS IN TEACHING READING IN A PRIVATE PRIMARY SCHOOL A THESIS Presented to Widya Mandala Catholic University Surabaya in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the Degree of Master in Teaching English as a Foreign Language By: Rosalinda Mintre 821

In order to meet up the needs of acquiring the 21st century skills, students need to be equipped with critical thinking skills. In English language learning, one way to foster students’ critical thinking is through Higher Order Thinking (HOT) questions in reading. This study unveils the implementation of HOT questions in Grade 5 reading classes in a private primary school in Surabaya. The study in particular was aimed to find out (1) the structure of the teacher’s questions, (2) the types of the teacher’s questions, and (3) the students’ responses. This study used the New Bloom’s taxonomy as the underlying instrument for classifying the types of questions and the students’ responses. Four observations, four teacher’s interviews and two students’ focus group discussions were conducted in this study. The recorded data were transcribed and analyzed to get the results. The results of the data analysis indicate that 65.15% of the total of 66 questions used by the teacher in the classroom were HOT questions. Among all types of HOT questions, the New Bloom’s analyze questions were used the most with 37.88% of the total questions. HOT questions were mostly addressed during the whilst-instructional activities. Interestingly, the HOT questions were answered in different forms: oral answers, dramatizations and presentations. Related to this finding, the teacher was quite satisfied with the students’ responses since they reached the same thinking level, although sometimes it is necessary for the teacher to simplify his questions in order to get students’ responses.

v vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my greatest gratitude to Jesus Christ who always guides my ways to complete this thesis.I do believe in His supports for me to complete this thesis.
I would like to thank my thesis advisor Prof. Anita Lie, Ed.D. for guiding and supporting me in this thesis writing.I am so grateful for having her as my thesis advisor.I will never forget her kindness and never-ending supports.
I would also like to thank Dr. H. J. Hendra Tedjasuksmana and Prof. Dr. Veronica L. Diptoadi as the examiners for giving me some feedback which was incredibly useful for this thesis.
I would like to honor Prof. E. Sadtono, Ph.D. as my former thesis advisor for inspiring me with his life.His hard work and passion in teaching will always be remembered.
I would like to send my gratitude to all the lecturers and staff of the English Department Graduate School of Widya Mandala Catholic University.Thank you for all the supports and help you gave to me during my study.
I would like to extend my gratitude to the participants of this study for their willingness to participate and be supportive in this research.
I am beyond blessed for having a great working environment in my workplace, Xin Zhong school.I would like to thank Xin Zhong principal and vice principal, Bertha Herawati and Ellen Pai, for supporting my thesis.I am grateful for having my supporting system from my colleagues, especially Reny, Inez, Santi and Widhia for their understanding and never-ending supports during this thesis writing.Without their help, I would not be able to accomplish this thesis.I would also like to thank all of the teachers and students who always motivate me to finish my study soon.
I would like to thank Delfin C. Fernandez and Benita for giving me a lot of supports in this thesis.They are the ones who know what I have undergone through the thesis-writing process.I do appreciate them and will never be able to repay their kindness.Thank you for listening to my grumbles.
I cannot thank God more for sending classmates who are graduate students of batch 25 in the Master in Teaching as a Foreign Language.Their persistence in coming to classes and hard work in doing the assignments remind me not to give up!I send my special thanks to Cendana, Akhe and Vivi who always cheer me up and make me laugh uncontrollably.I am also grateful for having Kiki as a mother figure in our batch.I will never forget you.