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Asia-Pacific Forum on Science Learning and Teaching, Volume 21, Issue 1, Article 2 (Dec., 2021) |
The model of argumentation flipped learning (AFL) which is applied to the topic of Temperature and its Changes and Heat and Transfer to improve skills of critical thinking has been tested statistically. The ANOVA test showed that the AFL learning model was able to improve the critical thinking skills of the students as indicated by the F-calculated of 19,116 with a significance of 0.000. This was observed to be in line with the findings of previous studies by Fuad et al. (2017), Mahanal et al. (2016), Setiawati & Corebima (2017), and Saputri et al. (2019).
The 1st, 2nd, and 3rd meetings conducted on LP 1, LP 2, and LP 3 were used to determine the practicality of the AFL model. This was followed by the determination of the effectiveness of the model in the 4th, 5th, and 6th meetings on LP 4, LP 5, and LP 6 after the model has been declared practical (Nieveen et al., 2007). It is important to reiterate that the second set of meetings focused on teaching the 31 class VIIC students of SMPN 5 Wates heat and changes in the state of matter in LP 4, heat propagation by conduction and convection in LP 5, and heat propagation by radiation in LP 6.
It was also discovered that the implementation of LP 4, LP 5, and LP6 to analyze (C4) and evaluate (C5) all showed the n-gain value of 0.8 and this implies they are in the high category while create (C6) had 0.5 which is the medium category as indicated in Figure 3. This proves that the blended AFL model has the ability to significantly increase the critical thinking skills of junior high school students.
The data for the critical thinking skills indicators were observed to correspond with the difficulty level of Bloom's Taxonomy with the percentage of correct answers discovered to be largest at C4 and lowest at C6. This is indicated by the results obtained where LP 4 had 39.2% pretest, 88.1% posttest, and 0.8 n-gain for analyzing (C4), 20.3% pretest, 79.2% posttest, and 0.7 n-gain for evaluating (C5), and 10% pretest, 55.5% posttest, and 0.5 n-gain for creating (C6). Moreover, LP 5 had 39.8% pretest, 87.9% posttest, and 0.7 n-gain for analyzing (C4), pretest 21.2%, posttest 79.6%, and n-gain 0.7 for evaluating (C5), and pretest 11.3%, posttest 56.2%, and n-gain 0.5 for creating (C6). Meanwhile, LP 6 had 37.4% pretest, 86.2% posttest, and 0.7 n-gain for analyzing (C4), pretest 21.1%, posttest 78.6%, and n-gain 0.7 for evaluating (C5), and pretest 10.8%, posttest 56.7%, and n-gain 0.5 for creating (C6). It was, however, discovered that Fauzet (2016) had already classified analyzing (C4), evaluating (C5), and creating (C6) as Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) with the difficulty levels ranging from C4, C5, and C6.
The application of Bloom's Taxonomy in learning is useful to determine students' cognitive levels and also serves as a standard to achieve the learning outcomes, thereby, leading to its use by teachers in preparing learning and evaluation activities. It is important to note that the main impact of learning is to achieve instructional learning outcomes (Niveen et al., 2007) and this was achieved in this study by using the blended learning model of AFL to increase the critical thinking skills of the students based on the C4, C5, and C6 in Bloom's Taxonomy. This indicates it is not compulsory to always start with low-level cognitive levels C1, C2, and C3 which are commonly called Lower Other Thinking Skills (LOTS).
The effectiveness of the AFL model was not only based on Bloom’s Taxonomy but also Piaget's opinion on cognitive growth and development (Piaget, 2003). This is normally used as the basis to link the development of low-level thinking and higher-order Bloom's Taxonomy. Therefore, the teachers need to build schemas of previously acquired knowledge with new information which is then reconstructed into comprehensive thinking skills from low to high level.
The AFL model was applied to the Temperature and its Changes as well as the Heat and Transfer topics based on the pre-class, in-class, and post-class steps (Kong, 2015; Adhitya et al., 2015). The pre-class activities involved asking the students to download the subject matter sent via WA, and this was followed by studying the material to ensure the students have the initial knowledge of the subjects in order to have a better understanding when the teacher explains (Wulandari, 2020). The provision of the material before the actual delivery is also expected to allow the learning process to be systematic, direct, and organized, thereby, allowing the teachers to use time effectively to achieve instructional learning objectives.
The in-class activities involved the teachers and students meeting in online classes to learn topics on Temperature and its Changes as well as Heat and Transfer. The teacher explained the subject matter using the Toulmin argumentation model which involves describing temperature and its changes as well as heat and displacement into Toulmin elements of data, evidence, support, qualifications, rebuttals, and claims (Kulatunga et al., 22013; Akhdinirwanto et al., 2020; Wardani, 2016; Suartha et al., 2020). This indicates the students needed to be vigilant in order to have the ability to separate the problem into the Toulmin elements and were also required to apply and analyze the learning materials through several interactive activities in the classroom (Wulandari, 2020).
The subject topic was learned for six meetings which are divided into sub-subjects including (1) Expansion of Solids, (2) Expansion in Liquids, (3) Heat and Changes in Temperature, (4) Heat and Changes in the Form of Substances, (5) Conduction and Convection, and (6) Radiation. The 1st, 2nd, and 3rd meetings focused on determining the practicality of the AFL model, and after it was declared practical, the 4th, 5th, and 6th meetings were used to determine its effectiveness. Each of those meetings was used by the teacher to train the students critical thinking skills through Toulmin's arguments as indicated by the problems provided on each sub-topic which were in accordance with Toulmin's components including data, evidence, guarantors, supporters, rebuttals, and claims (Kulatunga et al., 2013; Diniya & Rudiana, 2018; Pakpahan & Siregar, 2020).
The post-class activities involved providing project-based tasks related to the learning materials currently being learned in the class to the students. This was considered necessary to deepen the knowledge of the students in the material by asking them to do assignments which involved describing the same problem according to the Toulmin components (Kulatunga et al., 2013; Diniya & Rudiana, 2018; Pakpahan & Siregar, 2020). This involved evaluating and creating the tasks (Wulandari, 2020).
The learning processes involved in using the AFL model to improve the critical thinking skills based on Bloom's Taxonomy indicators are divided into three parts which include remembering and understanding the things learned in pre-class, applying and analyzing those learned in the class, and evaluating and creating those in the post-class. It is important to note that additional three meetings were held to study the effectiveness, and the analysis showed the model was very effective at increasing the critical thinking skills as indicated by the effective value of 0.52 (Cohen et al., 2007).
The effectiveness of the AFL model to improve the critical thinking skills of the students on Temperature and its Changes as well as Heat and Transfer was also supported by the observations of student activities by the teachers during the learning process. This was indicated by the report from the students' parents or guardians that acted as the observers after the completion of each learning process.
It is, however, important to note that the improvement of critical thinking skills does not depend only on the learning model but also on several other influencing factors such as intelligence, psychological characteristics, learning environment, and family characteristics (Budsankom et al., 2015). This means there is a need for the teachers to develop an appropriate model which captures all these factors (Marin & Halpern, 2011) and also to have the ability to manage the class effectively by provoking the students to ask questions towards building concepts required to solve problems and using the ideas and skills learned to find new concepts. The active involvement of students and interactions between them and their teachers are expected to aid their ability to practice these critical thinking skills (Aun & Kaewurai, 2017; Cargas et al, 2017; Thomas, 2017; Rudibyani, 2018).
Critical thinking is a higher-order skill which has the ability to make students think objectively, logically, fairly, and neutrally, and this means it is useful for them both during their period in school and after entering the labor market in the future (Cotrell & Cotrell, 2005). It can also assist them in facing the challenges of the 21st century, especially in the era of disruptive innovation and the emergence of several other innovations (Wan, 2005; Saputri et al, 2020).
