nan Ibrohim

Improving critical thinking skills through the integration of problem based learning and group investigation

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to improve the critical thinking of biology students of STKIP Hamzanwadi Selong on an environment course through the implementation of Problem-Based Learning (PBL) and Group Investigation (GI) through Lesson Study. Design/methodology/approach – This study employed a descriptive qualitative method. The subjects of the study were 73 freshmen biology students academic year 2013/2014 who were divided into two classes. The Lesson Study was conducted in 16 cycles, comprising Plan, Do, and See stages. The instrument of the study used to measure the students’ critical thinking was an essay test which covered several criteria of critical thinking adapted from SOLO Taxonomy. Findings – The implementation of PBL and GI encouraged the students to think critically through planning, arguing, stating questions and problems, and analysing and providing solutions to the surrounding environmental problems. Originality/value – This study depicted Lesson Study activity on an environment...

Cognition Regulation of Biology Education Students

Regulation of cognition is a part of metacognition serving as a basic construction of such cognitive skills in controlling learning process as planning, information management strategies, monitoring, debugging strategies, and evaluating. This explorative survey research aimed at comparing the five component skills of regulation. Participants involved in this research were 107 students of third semester of Biology Education (BE) of Faculty of Teacher Training and Education. The participants were purposively selected. The instrument used was the Metacognitive Awareness Inventory (MAI) developed by Schraw and Denisson. Data were analyzed by Anova and were further tested with the least significant difference (LSD). This study concludes that there are significant differences among the five component skills of regulation. Such differences were getting apparent after a post hoc test had been performed, particularly in three skills of regulation. Doing evaluation presents as the lowest skill and it is not significantly different from the subscale of information management strategies. Monitoring is proved as higher skills and is significantly different from the two aforementioned skills. Debugging strategies is higher than monitoring, and planning is the highest one. Both debugging strategies and planning are not significantly different. Such differences give an overview that planning serves as an individual’s top priority in learning. In certain condition, he should adapt to or change strategies with regards to the goals set in planning. In reference to such findings, it is suggested that lecturers empower their students by training their skills of regulation such as through online learning and problem-based learning.