Developing Critical Thinking, Scientific Attitude, and Self-efficacy in Students through Project Based Learning and Authentic Assessment in Science Teaching at Junior High School

Abstract

The aim of this study was to analyze the effect of Project Based Learning (PjBL) model on critical thinking, scientific attitude, and self-efficacy in students. This study used a quasi-experiment of pos-ttest only control group design. The subjects were 60 ninth grade students of public high schools in Singaraja in the academic year 2017/2018 selected randomly from the existing classes, in which 30 students were assigned to the experiment class and another 30 to the control class. The instruments used were critical thinking test, scientific attitude questionnaire, and self-efficacy questionnaire. The instruments had a high reliability. The data were analyzed descriptively and to test the hypothesis, MANOV with the 5% significance level was used. The result showed that simultaneously critical thinking, scientific thinking, scientific attitude, and self-efficacy of the students who learned with PjBL and authentic assessment significantly differed from those who learned with PjBl and conventional assessment (F=10.79; p<0.05). The group of students who learned with PjBL and authentic assessment had a high mean than that of those who learned with PjBL and conventional assessment. In other words, authentic assessment is effective in enhancing critical thinking, scientific attitude, and self-efficacy of the students in science teaching.