Preliminary Research of Model Eliciting Activities learning Based to Improve Junior High School Students’ Mathematical Critical Thinking Ability

Abstract

Mathematical critical thinking ability of junior high school students in Indonesia is still low. Previous studies indicate that critical thinking ability of junior high school students is ≤ 50%. The inavailability of a helpful learning tool turns out to be the ground of lack of development on the students’ critical thinking ability at junior high schools. This condition is the foundation of conducting development research on learning tool using Model Eliciting Activities (MEAs) to improve the mathematical critical thinking of junior high school students. This research is part of the phases of plomp model development that is the premilinary research. The research is investigation study in which the activities in this introductory research are analyzing prerequisite and context (analysis of curriculum, concept and students) and review of related literature. The data are collected through questionnaires, interviews, documentation, and test of critical thinking ability. The data gained are examined descriptively. The subjects of the study are the students of SMP Negeri 8 Padang Grade VIII and the math teacher. Conclusion of this preliminary research is that it is imperative to develop MEAs based learning tool in math learning to advance critical thinking ability of junior high school students.