HOTS in Pesantrens: Higher-Order Thinking Derived from Daily Life

The term Higher Order Thinking Skills, or HOTS, has entered educational spaces with a fresh face: appearing in teacher training, learning modules, exam blueprints, and the Bloom’s Taxonomy pyramids displayed on presentation screens. Teachers are encouraged to lead students beyond mere memorisation towards analysis, evaluation, and creation. While this idea is undoubtedly important, behind the clamour of this new terminology lies a question: has our education truly only just begun learning to think at a higher level since HOTS was introduced?

This question becomes intriguing when we look at pesantrens. Behind the dormitory walls, the call to prayer, the bustle of student conversations, tight schedules, and a life that almost never truly stops, an educational process takes place that is far broader than classroom lessons. Pesantries may not always refer to it as HOTS, but for years, students (santri) have been learning to face problems, make decisions, manage people, test ideas, accept criticism, and even bear the consequences of the choices they make.

Pesantrens are often viewed through two opposing lenses. On one hand, they are praised as bastions of morality, independence, and the community’s scholarly tradition. On the other hand, they are sometimes perceived as placing too much emphasis on rote memorisation, obedience, and tradition.

Both perspectives have merit, but neither is sufficient to explain the entirety of the pesantren educational process. To understand how pesantren educate ways of thinking, it is not enough to enter the classroom and observe the books studied by the students. We must view their life as an ecosystem.

In modern pesantren, education occurs in almost every corner of life. Students learn in classrooms, live in dormitories, worship together, use foreign languages, organise activities, deliver speeches, manage events, practice teaching, perform, and resolve life’s problems collectively. What is seen, heard, felt, and done is integrated as part of the education. Therefore, HOTS in pesantren does not primarily exist as a term; it grows into an experience.

Not a Ladder that Separates

Bloom’s Taxonomy is often visualised as a pyramid. Remembering and understanding are at the base, while analysing, evaluating, and creating are placed at the top. This visualisation helps explain the levels of cognitive processes. However, it can create the impression that remembering is a low-level skill that must be quickly abandoned in order to ascend towards creativity.

In reality, it is impossible for someone to analyse something they do not know. It is also difficult to create something without having sufficient knowledge to serve as the material for thought. In the educational practice of pesantren, the stages of thinking are more accurately viewed as an interconnected series. Remembering, understanding, applying, analysing, evaluating, decision-making, and creating are not separate rooms, but rather links in a single learning process.