Prospective teacher’s expectation of students’ critical thinking process in solving mathematical problems based on Facione stages

Abstract

The professional teachers have to know about the students’ critical thinking process. So, a teacher can teach mathematics kindly to students at school. Then, all prospective teachers have to like that to be ready to be a good facilitator in the process of learning mathematics at school and others. This study aimed to describe the critical thinking process expected by prospective teachers to students in solving mathematical problems based on critical thinking stages of Facione’s theory. The research method used is descriptive research employing a qualitative approach. The subject of the study was the prospective mathematics teachers who were students of the Mathematics Study Program at Ibrahimy University, Situbondo, Indonesia. The data were collected by giving an essay test item to prospective teachers. The test was given to collect data related to the critical thinking process of prospective mathematics teachers. Moreover, the data collected through observations, tests, and interviews were analyzed and tested for their validity by using triangulation. The data analysis technique used is qualitative descriptive data analysis. The results of this study indicate that: (1) each of group subjects’ expectations tend to have different expectations for students’ critical thinking processes; (2) the high-group subject tend to expect that students follow and complete all of the critical thinking process stages according to Facione’s theory; (3) the moderate and low-group subjects tend not to expect their students to follow and complete all of the critical thinking process stages according to Facione’s theory; and (4) the percentage of indicators achievement of critical thinking processes expected by prospective teachers to students in solving problems based on Facione theory was revealed to be; Identify (57.14%), Define (50%), Enumerate (78.57%), Analyze (50%), List (39.29%), and Self-Correct (32.14%). The results of this study can serve as the fundamental to be discussed within the teacher’s summit in finding out the critical thinking process expected by teachers towards the students, because it will have a positive impact both on themselves and their students.