THE STUDENTS’ PERCEPTIONS ABOUT BUILDING CHARACTERS THROUGH EMPLOYING CRITICAL THINKING ACTIONS IN WRITING

Abstract

Critical thinking in writing skill has a very good potential to become the access for the students to build their own characters. It is because critical thinking in writing skill leads the students to express their various ideas about the characters that they want to build to form good attitudes. The study was aimed at invesigating about the acts of building elementary students’ characters through critical thinking in writing. The study used a quantitative approach within the survey design. There were 50 students of Laboratory Elementary School of Universitas Negeri Malang, East Java, Indonesia who participated being the subjects of the study. The results revealed that all students were highly enthusiastic in building their own characters. This could be seen from various types of characters they wanted to build. However, among the various types of characters existing, loving homeland was mostly wanted character type chosen. Hence, it is recommended that the teachers are expected to apply critical thinking actions in writing as one of the best alternative ways to build the students’ characters