Development of Maquette to Promote Primary School Students’ Critical Thinking Ability in Social Sciences

Abstract

This research aimed to analyse the feasibility of the use of maquette and the
 effectiveness of maquette in improving students’ critical thinking ability. The research
 model employed was the development research model developed by Borg & Gall. The
 research subjects were third graders. The testing was divided into preliminary field
 testing, main field testing, and operational field testing. The analysis of the medium
 feasibility was based on the assessment by media experts, the assessment by subject
 matter experts, students’ response, and teacher’s response. The analysis of maquette
 effectiveness was carried out using a t-test (two independent samples) to figure out
 the difference and gain score of the experimental class for the purpose of identifying
 the improvement after the use of maquette. In the feasibility analysis, a score of 88
 in the category “feasible” was gained from the assessment by a media expert and
 a score of 85 in the category “highly feasible” was gained from the assessment by
 a subject matter expert. From the preliminary field testing, scores of 60.5 and 65 in
 the category “highly feasible” were gained for the students’ response and teacher’s
 response, respectively. Meanwhile, from the main field testing, scores of 56.1 and 66.5
 in the category “highly feasible” were gained for the students’ response and teacher’s
 response to the maquette use, respectively. The t-test results show a significant value
 in the critical thinking, namely.000 <.05, indicating a significant difference between
 the control class and the experimental class. The gain score was 0.5 and fell into the
 “moderate” category. Thus, it can be concluded that maquette is effective in improving
 critical thinking ability.