SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS' CRITICAL THINKING IN WRITING - Putri, Wulandari (2016)
Perkembangan pesat media dan kemunculan beragam permasalahan yang semakin kompleks menekankan pentingnya pengembangan kemampuan berpikir kritis siswa dalam dunia pendidikan. Sayangnya, penelitian yang menyediakan informasi mengenai pemikiran kritis siswa pada tingkat sekolah dasar dan menengah di Indonesia masih terbatas. Karenanya, penelitian ini dilakukan untuk meneliti elemen dari pemikiran kritis yang ditunjukkan oleh siswa SMA, terutama dalam menulis teks Hortatory Exposition berbahasa Inggris. Kesulitan siswa dalam menerapkan pemikiran kritis selama proses menulis dan keyakinan mereka terhadap kemampuan berpikir kritis sebelum dan sesudah proses menulis pun diteliti. Penelitian ini dilaksanakan melalui pendekatan exploratory dengan menggunakan empat instrumen pengumpulan data, yaitu tulisan siswa, observasi, kuesioner, dan wawancara. Data yang diperoleh kemudian dianalisis secara kualitatif dan kuantitatif. Temuan menunjukkan bahwa semua elemen pemikiran kritis tercermin dalam penulisan teks Hortatory Exposition. Empat kesulitan dasar pun ditemukan, yakni kesulitan dalam mengembangkan reasoning, membangun teks yang berterima, menggunakan Bahasa Inggris, dan mengontrol emosi. Kesulitan-kesulitan tersebut menyebabkan beberapa kesalahan reasoning, di antaranya reasoning yang ambigu dan reasoning yang berputar-putar. Sedangkan, keyakinan siswa terhadap pemikiran kritis mereka sebelum dan sesudah proses menulis menunjukkan perubahan yang positif. Hanya saja, perubahan tersebut tidak terlalu signifikan. Hasil dari penelitian ini menunjukkan bahwa para siswa memiliki kapasitas untuk berpikir kritis and berpotensi untuk menjadi pemikir kritis. Namun, latihan dan bimbingan dari pengajar mutlak diperlukan untuk mengembangkan pemikiran kritis siswa.;---The proliferation of media and the emergence of more complex problems accentuate the importance of nurturing students' critical thinking in education. Unfortunately, research providing insights into students' critical thinking in the primary and secondary level of education in Indonesia are limited. Therefore, this research was aimed at investigating critical thinking elements demonstrated by Senior High School students, especially in writing an English Hortatory Exposition text. Students' difficulties in incorporating critical thinking in writing were investigated as well as students' beliefs on their critical thinking. The exploratory approach was employed. The data were gained from students' compositions, observation, questionnaire, and interview. The collected data were analyzed both qualitatively and quantitatively. The results show that all of critical thinking elements were demonstrated by the students in writing a Hortatory Exposition text. Nevertheless, four major difficulties were discovered, including developing reasoning, constructing a coherent text, using English language, and controlling emotion. Students manifested difficulties in several fallacies such as ambiguity and circular reasoning. Meanwhile, students' beliefs on their critical thinking, before and after writing instructions, showed positive changes. However, the changes made were not significant to meet our satisfaction. The aforementioned research results conclude that the students had capacity and were potential to be a critical thinker. However, more practice and a patient guidance from the teacher are fundamental to nurturing their critical thinking.