Students’ Critical Thinking Skills at Junior High School: An Analysis of Science Teachers’ Perceptions and Students’ Written Responses
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.47945/create.v1i1.3354Keywords:
Critical Thinking, Facione Framework, Science Education, Teacher Perception, Lower Secondary SchoolAbstract
Critical thinking is a core competence targeted by the Indonesian curriculum through the critical reasoning dimension of the Pancasila Student Profile, yet empirical evidence continues to indicate that lower-secondary students have not developed it adequately. Most previous studies have examined either students’ test performance or teachers’ perceptions separately, leaving limited evidence on how the two perspectives converge or diverge within the same classroom context. This study aimed to (1) describe a science teacher’s perception of students’ critical thinking skills and (2) profile students’ critical thinking based on their written responses, using Facione’s six core skills as a common analytical framework. A descriptive qualitative design was employed at SMP Negeri 1 Kabupaten Sorong, Southwest Papua. Participants were the Grade IX science teacher and 66 students from classes IX G (n = 34) and IX H (n = 32). Data were collected through observation, semi-structured interviews, a six-item essay test, and documentation of final science examination scores, and were analysed through data condensation, data display, and conclusion drawing. Both data sources indicated that students’ critical thinking was generally at a low level. The weakest aspects were evaluation, inference, explanation, and self-regulation; students’ responses tended to restate information, offer single-reason arguments, and draw subjective conclusions. A discrepancy emerged in interpretation, which the teacher rated as fairly good while students’ written responses showed limited clarification of meaning. These findings suggest the need for instruction that explicitly engages students in argumentation, reasoned judgement, and reflective self-monitoring.
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