The analysis of scientific argumentation skill and computational thinking skill of the primary educational teacher department students

Abstract

Scientific argumentation skill is very important to be mastered by students. It allows students to analyze, to make decisions based on the result of thinking, and to apply science in everyday life. This study aims to analyze and describe the characteristics of students' scientific argumentative skills in the Primary Educational Teacher Department based on the results of computational thinking tests about motion system material. This is exploratory research with quantitative and qualitative data analysis to understand the characteristics of students’ answers in proposing scientific arguments and computational thinking. The participants of this study were second-year students in class-D of Primary Educational Teacher Department in the even semester of class 2019/2020. They were taken by a random sampling technique. The applied instrument was a written test instrument with a subjective form entailed by indicators of computational thinking skills. This applied instrument was to identify and analyze the characteristics of students' scientific argumentative skills. The results were then analyzed descriptively with Toulmin's Argumentation Pattern (TAP). The results showed that the characteristics of scientific argumentation skill of Primary Educational Teacher Department students were 4% of students at level 1, 8% of students at level 2, 15% of students at level 3, 31% of students at level 4, and 43% of students at level 5. On another hand, the results of computational skills showed that the students’ thinking was high in the analyzing stage, elaborating, providing hypotheses, and finding patterns of problems. The results of this analysis indicated that the characteristics of scientific argumentation skills and computational thinking skills of Primary Educational Teacher Department students need to be developed optimally.