Inquiry instructional model infused blended experiment: helping students enhance critical thinking skills

Abstract

Critical thinking skills (CT) are pivotal elements in teaching and learning physics. Training CT skills can be carried out using diverse approaches in learning process. However, infusing blended experiment is rarely conducted to facilitate students to achieve CT skills. This study examined implementation of an inquiry instructional model infused blended experiment to enhance CT skills. The research method used in this study was quasi experiment with non-equivalent pretest post-test design. The participants of this study were 81 students in one private senior high school in Indonesia. They were divided into three groups (27 students each group) to be given diverse treatments: an inquiry instructional model infused real, virtual, and blended experiment. The CT skills of students were photographed by an instrument test developed in specific topic in physics (i.e. electricity). In addition, normalized gain was used to analyse the enhancing of CT skills and analysis of variance (ANOVA) was expended to investigate the difference of normalized gain significance. Result of this study depicted that the infusing blended experiment through an inquiry instructional model was the most significant treatment among all treatments. This was portrayed by average of normalized gain achieved namely blended (0.44), virtual (0.32), and real experiment (0.31).