Assessing students' prior knowledge on critical thinking skills in the biology classroom: Has it already been good

• Main Authors: Fausan, Muhammad Mifta, Susilo, Herawati, Gofur, Abdul, Sueb, S., Yusop, Farrah Dina
• Format: Conference or Workshop Item
• Published: 2021
• Subjects: Q Science (General)
• Online Access: http://eprints.um.edu.my/35476/; https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85102470508&doi=10.1063%2f5.0043167&partnerID=40&md5=c50a895c26910680bedad71d85eadc4d

Critical thinking is a competence that must be had by students. Critical thinking refers to the student's ability to apply high order cognitive skills. In the context of biology learning, the essential empowerment of thinking skills can facilitate students to be an individual who tends to have a good focus, give a logical reason, do an analysis to conclude comprehensively, and solve the problem appropriately. This survey study aimed to describe the students' prior knowledge of critical thinking skills in biology. One hundred fifteen respondents participated in this study. They were students of Senior High School in Jombang Regency, East Java, Indonesia. The respondents were asked to answer ten questions in a critical thinking essay developed by the researchers. The items used to assess were five critical thinking skill aspects: focus, supporting reasons, organization, conventions, and integration. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. This study showed that the critical thinking skill aspect got the highest score was conventions (M= 55.22, SD= 19.31), while the critical thinking skill aspect that got the lowest score was supporting reasons (M= 45.57, SD= 16.44). This study also uncovered that overall the average score of students' critical thinking was 49.95. This average score is still included in the very low category. Therefore, the student's critical thinking skill needs to be improved and optimized, such as integrating learning strategies with appropriate learning techniques. © 2021 Author(s).