Does Discovery Learning Enhance Secondary Students' Mathematical Critical Thinking Skills?

Abstract

The implementation of the discovery learning (DL) model in Indonesia is believed to improve the mathematical critical thinking skills of the secondary students, so that it becomes the recommended learning model in the national curriculum. Several previous similar types of research have found that DL can enhance secondary students’ mathematical critical thinking skills. However, there were inconsistencies in the effect size of these primary studies. The meta-analysis was carried out to obtain a comprehensive analysis result and investigate the effect of study characteristics. Comprehensive meta-analysis (CMA) is a tool used to calculate hedge’s effect size (ES). An analysis of 25 relevant primary studies that met the inclusion criteria revealed that, based on the random-effects model, the implementation of the DL model had a high positive effect (ES = 0.981) on secondary students’ critical thinking skills compared to the conventional model. The duration of treatment and indexed publication are important factors that affect the effectiveness of implementing DL on students’ mathematical critical thinking skills. Based on the analysis, DL is recommended for use by secondary school teachers, taking into account the characteristics of the study. Keywords: iscovery learning, mathematical critical thinking skills, secondary students