Development of a Critical Thinking Reading Assessment Instrument for Rural Indonesian Senior High School Students
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.35445/alishlah.v18i3.9837Keywords:
reading instrument, critical thinking, rural senior high school, assessmentAbstract
Critical thinking is essential for EFL reading comprehension; however, classroom assessments often provide limited opportunities to evaluate students’ analytical and evaluative reasoning, particularly in rural educational contexts. This study aimed to develop and evaluate a critical-thinking-oriented reading assessment instrument for rural Indonesian senior high school students. The study employed a Research and Development design using the ADDIE model. A needs analysis was conducted with 15 senior high school English teachers. The developed instrument, based on Facione’s critical thinking framework, comprised 20 multiple-choice and five essay items. Its development involved expert judgment, a limited trial, item analysis, reliability testing, revision, and field implementation with 107 eleventh-grade students at a rural senior high school. The needs analysis indicated a strong demand for a critical-thinking-oriented reading assessment (M = 4.56), while only 20% of the participating teachers reported incorporating critical thinking indicators into their assessment practices. Expert judgment supported the instrument’s content appropriateness. Empirical item analysis showed that 20 of 25 items met the applied validity criterion, while five items required revision. The multiple-choice and essay sections yielded Cronbach’s alpha coefficients of .723 and .693, respectively. Field implementation produced a mean student score of 72.19 (SD = 12.45). The findings provide initial evidence that the developed instrument is applicable for assessing critical thinking through EFL reading in a rural senior high school context. The mixed item format may also support teachers in translating critical thinking constructs into classroom assessment practices. Further multi-school validation is required to establish broader validity, reliability, and applicability.
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