The Effectiveness of Basic Concepts of Social Studies Teaching Materials in Improving Critical Thinking Skills among Primary School Teacher Education Students
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.37630/bijee.v4i2.5102Keywords:
basic consepts of social studies, critical thinking, teaching materials, pre-service teachers, primary school teacher educationAbstract
Critical thinking is an important competence for prospective elementary school teachers because they need to analyze information, evaluate arguments, and formulate logical solutions to academic and social problems. This study aimed to examine the effectiveness of Basic Concepts of Social Studies teaching materials in improving the critical thinking skills of Primary School Teacher Education students. The study employed a quantitative approach with a quasi-experimental non-equivalent control group design. The participants were 60 first-semester students from two existing classes, consisting of 30 students in the experimental group and 30 students in the control group. Class 1I was assigned as the experimental group and used Basic Concepts of Social Studies teaching materials, while Class 1J served as the control group and received conventional learning. Data were collected using an essay-based critical thinking test administered before and after the intervention. The research instruments were reviewed by two experts and obtained an overall mean validation score of 3.75 on a four-point scale, categorized as very feasible. The results showed that the mean critical thinking score of the experimental group increased from 40.00 in the pretest to 84.03 in the posttest, with an N-gain of 0.730, categorized as high. The control group increased from 40.07 to 80.80, with an N-gain of 0.683, categorized as moderate. The independent samples t-test showed no significant difference in pretest scores between the two groups (t(58) = −0.037, p = .971), but showed a significant difference in posttest scores (t(58) = 2.374, p = .021). The N-gain analysis also showed a significant difference between the two groups (t(58) = 2.230, p = .030). These findings indicate that the use of Basic Concepts of Social Studies teaching materials resulted in greater improvement in students' critical thinking skills than conventional learning.
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