The Correlation between Student Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) and Student Writing Hortatory Exposition Text at SMA Ahmad Yani 2 Baureno

Abstract

Higher-order thinking skills (HOTS) are essential for students to engage in complex cognitive processes necessary for academic success. Writing as a cognitive activity involves generating and organizing ideas effectively. In the Merdeka Curriculum twelfth-grade students are challenged to apply HOTS in writing hortatory exposition texts which require structuring arguments and clearly articulating viewpoints. This study investigates the correlation between students' HOTS and their ability to write hortatory exposition texts at SMA Ahmad Yani 2 Baureno.

This study employs a quantitative approach with a correlational design. The sample comprises 40 students from twelfth-grade classes using a random sampling technique. Data were collected using students' HOTS tests and assessments of students' writing hortatory exposition text. Pearson correlation coefficients were used to determine the strength and direction of the correlation.

The analysis revealed a Pearson correlation coefficient of 0.970 between students' HOTS and students' skills in writing hortatory exposition texts. This value exceeds 0.80, indicating a very strong correlation between the two variables. The p-value was 0.000, which is less than 0.05, indicating that the correlation is statistically significant. Additionally, the correlation coefficient surpassed the critical value (r table) of 0.312 confirming the clinical significance of the results. The analysis demonstrates a very strong and statistically significant correlation between students' HOTS and students writing hortatory exposition texts.