The purpose of this research was to 1) identify teachers' perspectives on incorporating HOTS into EFL classes for primary school students and 2) discover the challenges faced by the teachers during the implementation of HOTS based learning. This study used an embedded mixed technique. The quantitative data were acquired by giving one set of closed-response questionnaire items to 39 English teachers teaching English in elementary schools in Palembang, Indonesia. Meanwhile, qualitative data were gathered through one-on-one in-depth interviews with ten English teachers who agreed to be interviewed. The descriptive statistics analysis was used to assess the students' replies to each questionnaire item. Meanwhile, thematic analysis was used to assess the qualitative data gleaned from the interviews. The statistical study revealed that first, Teachers expressed their positive experiences implementing HOTS-based learning in EFL classes for elementary school students. Second, there are five impediments that instructors encountered while applying HOTS-based learning for primary school children; 1) time limitations; 2) supplementing HOTS-based learning resources; 3) selecting an effective teaching strategy to elicit students' HOTS; 4) selecting an effective teaching technique to elicit students' HOTS; 5) Mixed ability of students and 6) Big class size

Keywords: Elementary School Students; English Language Teaching (ELT); High Order Thinking Skills (HOTS)

Ahmad, A. A. A., Ismail, F., Ibrahim, N. M., & Samat, N. A. (2017). Investigating the implementation of Higher Order Thinking Skills in Malaysian classrooms: Insights from L2 teaching practices. Sains Humanika, 9(4-2). https://doi.org/10.11113/sh.v9n4-2.1361

Ahmad, K. A., Zamri, M. L., & Abdul Kadir, N. L. (2015). An Investigation of the Frequency of HOT and LOT of Bloom Taxonomy in the Diploma English Entrance Exam. AJELP: Asian Journal of English Language and Pedagogy, 3, 228-241. Retrieved from

https://ejournal.upsi.edu.my/index.php/AJELP/article/view/1232

Anderson, L., & Krathwohl, A. (2000). Taxonomy of Teaching and Learning: A Revision of Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational Objectives. Educational Psychology.

Aoumeur, H. (2017). The Impact of Class Size on Teaching and Learning English as a Foreign Language: The Case of the Department of English at Abdelhamid Ibn Badis University . Arab World English Journal, 8 (2). DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.24093/awej/vol8no2.25

Ardini, S. N. (2018). Teachers’ perception, knowledge and behaviour of Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS). ETERNAL (English Teaching Journal), 8(2). 20-33. https://doi.org/10.26877/eternal.v8i2.3045

Bernaisch, T., & Koch, C. (2016). Attitudes towards Englishes in India. World Englishes, 35(1), 118-132. https://doi.org/10.1111/weng.12174

Bloom, B. S. (1984). The 2 Sigma Problem: The Search for Methods of Group Instruction as Effective as One-to-One Tutoring. Educational Researcher, 13, 4-16. http://dx.doi.org/10.3102/0013189X013006004

Brookhart, S.M. (2010). How to assess Higher-Order Thinking Skills in your classroom. United States of America: ASCD Member Book.

Creswell, J.W. (2012). Educational research: Planning, Conducting, and Evaluting Quantitative and Qualitive Research (4th ed.). Pearson.

Fisk, P. (2017). Education 4.0 the future of learning will be dramatically different, in school and throughout life. Retrieved from http://www.thegeniusworks.com/2017/01/future-education-young-everyone-taught-together

Ganapathy, M., Singh, M.K.M., Kaur, S., & Kit, L.W. (2017). Promoting higher order thinking skills via teaching practices. The Southeast Asian Journal of English Language Studies. 23(1), 75-85. https://doi.org/10.17576/3l-2017-2301-06

Goldenberg, C. (2013). Unlocking the research on English Learners. American Educator, 37, 4–38. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1014021.pdf

Harwell, M. R. (2011). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods: Pursuing ideas as the keystone of exemplary inquir. In C. Conrad, & R. C. Serlin (Eds.), The Sage handbook for research in education: Pursuing ideas as the keystone of exemplary

inquir (2nd ed.). Sage.

Heigham, J., & Croker, R. (2009). Qualitative research in applied linguistics: a practical introduction. Palgrave Macmillan.

Heong, Y. M., Othman, W. B., Yunos, J. B. M., Kiong, T. t., Hassan, R. B., & Mohamad, M. B. (2011). The level of Marzano higher-order thinking skills among technical education students. International Journal of Social Science and Humanity, 1(2), 121-125.

http://ijssh.org/papers/20-H009.pdf

Ikhsan, O., & Norlia, M. S. (2005). Kurikulum dan pengajaran sekolah rendah, aspek-aspek yang berkaitan (curriculum and primary school teaching, relevant aspects). Quantum Books.

Joshi, A., Kale, S., Chandel, S., & Pal, D. K. (2015). Likert Scale: Explored and Explained. Current Journal of Applied Science and Technology, 7(4), 396-403. https://doi.org/10.9734/BJAST/2015/14975

Lee, K., & Lai, Y. (2017). Facilitating higherorder thinking with the flipped classroom model: a student teacher’s experience in a Hong Kong secondary school. Research and Practice in Technology Enhanced Learning, 12(1). doi:10.1186/s41039-017-0048-6.

Leung, L. L. (2013). An inquiry of teachers’perception on the relationship between higher-order thinking nurturing and liberal studies public assessment in Hong Kong. Teachers’Centre Journal, 12, 183–215. https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/An-inquiry-of-teachers'-

perception-on-the-between-Sim/49255dda97b233f40d5b653ca2d61bd5c7b577d5#citing-papers

Long, M. H. (1990). Maturation constarints on language development. Studies in Second Language Acquisitions, 12(3), 251 – 285. http://www.jstor.org/stable/44488300

Mursyid, M., & Kurniawati, N. (2019). Higher order thinking skills among English teachers across generation in EFL classroom. English Review: Journal of English Education, 7(2), 119. https://doi.org/10.25134/erjee.v7i2.1775

Masoudi, S. (2018). A content-based analysis of the activities in Iranian senior high school textbook. Unpublished M.A. thesis. University of Tabriz. Tabriz: Iran.

Miles, M. B., Huberman, A. M., & Saldaäna, J. (2014). Qualitative data analysis: A methods sourcebook (3rd ed.). SAGE Publications, Inc.

Ministry of Education and Culture. (2013). Curriculum 2013. Jakarta: Kementrian Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan.

Musa, H. M., & Yamat, H. (2021). Exploring primary school teachers’ challenges in incorporating Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) in English classroom. International Journal of Academic Research in Progressive Education and Development, 10(2), 665–674.

https://doi.org/10.6007/ijarped/v10-i2/9970

Nourdad, N., Masoudi, S., & Rahimali, P. (2018). The effect of higher order thinking skill instruction on EFL reading ability. International Journal of Applied Linguistics & English Literature. 7(3), 231-237. https://doi.org/10.7575/aiac.ijalel.v.7n.3p.231

Osman, N., & Kassim, H. (2015). Exploring strategic thinking skills in process oriented task in ESL classroom. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 171, 937–944. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.01.212

Rahimali, P. (2018). Comparing reflective thinking ability of EFL learners in language institutes and schools. Unpublished M.A Thesis. University of Tabriz, Iran.

Ramadhana, N. A., Rozimela, Y., & Fitrawati. (2018). High order thinking skills-based questions in the test items developed by senior high school English teachers of Padang. Journal of English Language Teaching, 7(4), 720-731. https://doi.org/10.24036/jelt.v7i4.101757

Raqqad, Y. M. A., & Ismail, H. H. (2018). Analyzing the reading questions of AP12 textbook according to Bloom’s taxonomy. International Journal of Education, Psychology and Counseling, 3(22), 84-94. http://www.ijepc.com/PDF/IJEPC-2018-22-12-06.pdf

Roets, L., & Maritz, J. (2017). Facilitating the development of higher-order thinking skills (HOTS) of novice nursing postgraduates in Africa. Nurse Education Today, 49, 51-56. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nedt.2016.11.005

Setiawan, A., & Bharati, D. A. L. (2019). Developing HOT project-based-speaking assessment to stimulate the students’ critical thinking and creativity. English Education Journal, 8(3), 301–307. https://doi.org/10.2991/eltlt-18.2019.66

Simanungkalit, I., Utanto, Y., & Rifai, A. R. C. (2019). The effectiveness of PBL-based HOTS in English learning. Innovative Journal of Curriculum and Educational Technology, 8(2), 67–73. https://journal.unnes.ac.id/sju/index.php/ujet/article/view/31342

Shafeei, K.N., Hassan, H., Ismail, F., & Aziz, A. A. (2018). Incorporating higher order thinking skill (HOTS) questions in ESL classroom contexts. LSP International Journal, 4(1), 101–116. https://doi.org/10.11113/lspi.v4n1.49

Vijayaratnam, P. (2012). Developing higher order thinking skills and team commitment via group problem solving: A bridge to the real world. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 66, 53–63. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2012.11.247

Willingham, D. T. (2008) Critical Thinking: Why Is It So Hard to Teach?, Arts Education Policy Review, 109(4), 21-32. https://doi.org/10.3200/AEPR.109.4.21-32

Yee, M. H., Yunos, J. M., Othman, W., Hassan, R., Tee, T. K., & Mohamad, M. M. (2015). Disparity of Learning Styles and Higher Order Thinking Skills among Technical Students. Procedia- Social and Behavioral Sciences, 204, 143–152.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.08.127

Yeung, S. Y. S. (2015). Conception of teaching higher order thinking: perspectives of Chinese teachers in Hong Kong. The Curriculum Journal, 26(4), 553-578. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585176.2015.1053818

Yulia, Y., & Budiharti, F. R. (2019). HOTS in teacher classroom interaction: A case study. EduLite Journal of English Education, Literature, and Culture, 4(2), 132–141. https://doi.org/10.30659/e.4.2.132-141

Yusoff, W.M.W & Embong, R. (2017). Teachers challenges in teaching and learning for Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) in primary school. International Journal of Asian Social Science. 7(7), 534-545. https://doi.org/10.18488/journal.1.2017.77.534.545

Zamani, G., & Rezvani, R. (2015). ‘HOTS’ in Iran's official textbooks: Implications for material design and student learning. Journal of Applied Linguistics and Language Research, 2(5), 138-151. http://www.jallr.com/index.php/JALLR/article/view/99

Zohar, A., & Cohen, A. (2016). Large scale implementation of higher order thinking (HOT) in civic education: The interplay of policy, politics, pedagogical leadership and detailed pedagogical planning. Thinking Skills and Creativity, 21, 85-96.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tsc.2016.05.003