The role of students’ critical thinking skills in junior high schools on chapter organism and its environment

Abstract

Thinking skills, especially critical thinking skills are complex skills currently needed by every individual to analyze personal and social problems that exist in the environment with a broad and detailed format. This study aims to analyze and classify the students’ level in constructing critical thinking. The subjects of the study were 20 students of class VIII B MTs PSM Tanen Rejotangan Tulungagung in academic year 2019/2020. Data were collected through interviews and tests of critical thinking skills. The critical thinking skills test instrument consists of 10 essay questions, including 6 indicators. The test instrument used has been tested as valid and reliable as a measuring instrument. Test was validated by experts and the results of the validity, reliability, difficulty index and discrimination power levels were determined as a good test instrument to use as critical thinking skills test for students. The analysis was conducted on the results of students’ tests and categorized into five categories of critical thinking skills, consisting of very good (VG), good (G), medium (M), less (L) and very less (VL). The results showed that 75% of students had critical thinking skills with very less categories (VL) and 25% of students had less categories (L) in critical thinking. The average score of the highest critical thinking indicators obtained in the explaining indicator is equal to 41.5. The indicators analyzing have the lowest average score of 9. The results show that students’ critical thinking skills still need to be improved for future study.