The Rule of Contextual Teaching and Learning Approach with Problem Solving Method to Students’ Critical Thinking Skills on Physics Chapter Work and Energy

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to find out: (1) the influence of Contextual Teaching and Learning (CTL) approach with a problem-solving method to students’ critical thinking skills on physics chapter work and energy, (2) the obtained improvement of students’ critical thinking skills taught using CTL approach with a problem-solving method on physics chapter work and energy. This research was a quasi-experimental study with a nonequivalent control group design. The data collection technique used was technical tests and non-tests. The data analysis technique used was description analysis and parametric statistics with t-test and Normalized Gain (N-gain). The results of this study showed that: (1) the CTL approach with problem-solving method had influenced students’ critical thinking skills and self-regulation on physics chapter work and energy with a significance level (sig. 2-tailed) of 0.025. This value obtained got smaller value than the significance value < α = 0.05. It could be said that H a was accepted and H 0 was rejected, (2) the CTL approach with problem-solving method could improve students’ critical thinking skills on physics chapter work and energy with 0.603 of N-gain score (in the medium category). Whereas the self-regulation skills based on students’ experience revealed an increased metacognition aspect as obtained by the description of students’ answers. Keywords: Contextual teaching and learning approach, a problem-solving method, critical thinking skills, self-regulation, physics chapter work, and energy. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.23960/jpf.v8.n1.202008