Abstract

Competencies of Thai EFL pre-service teachers in integrating English language teaching with higher-order thinking skills (HOTS) play a crucial role in student development. However, these competencies remain underexplored. This study aimed to explore Thai EFL pre-service teachers’ competencies, namely knowledge, skills, attitudes, and attributes for promoting HOTS in students. The Delphi technique was employed for data collection, beginning with an open-ended questionnaire in the first round, followed by 5-point rating scale questionnaires in the second and third rounds to reach consensus. A total of 40 experts were purposively selected from faculties of education at various universities across Thailand. They were divided into four panels, each comprising 10 experts in the fields of English language teaching, educational psychology, curriculum and instruction, and measurement and assessment. Content analysis was used to analyze qualitative data from the first round. Mean, standard deviation, and interquartile range (IQR) were used to determine the level of consensus for each item. The findings revealed a high level of consensus across four competency domains. In the knowledge domain, the consensus included linguistic knowledge, pedagogical content knowledge, curriculum knowledge, knowledge of learners, technological knowledge, knowledge of thinking theories, and research knowledge. The skill domain comprised both hard and soft skills, including pedagogical skills, English language proficiency, technological skills for teaching, teamwork and collaboration, thinking skills, and life and career skills. The attitude domain consisted of affective, cognitive, and psychomotor subdomains such as enthusiasm for learning and teaching HOTS, caring and empathy, belief in the importance of HOTS, and commitment to HOTS development. Finally, the attribute domain encompassed both personal and professional attributes essential for effectively promoting HOTS in students.

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