The profile of logical thinking biology prospective teachers

Abstract

Certain program in practical work or lecture often 100% achieved but the achievement result seems still very low. The variety of student backgrounds in a private LPTK also worsened the situation. Therefore it was important to detect first their logical thinking ability as their background or their position in intellectual development before they joint certain courses. This preliminary descriptive study was conducted to investigate the logical thinking ability and scientific reasoning level of prospective teachers at two universities in the area of kopertis VI academic year 2016/2017 (n=84). The data on logical thinking was collected through the standardized Test (TOLT) that had been validated for students from middle school up to doctorate degree. The research finding shows that about 38% of the respondents were still in the concrete operational level, 29% in transitional level, and only 33% informal operational level. In general, all indicators of students’ logical thinking ability can be revealed by the test with different percentage values. This condition explains why most of the prospective biology teachers at a private university in the area of kopertis VI have difficulties in learning abstract biology concepts, and that this conditions should be handled through direct activities (hands-on) in programs.