Examining High School Students’ Ill-Structured Problem Solving Skills on Chemistry Problems Related to COVID-19

Abstract

This study is preliminary research that aims to examine high school students' ill-structured problems solving skills on chemistry problems related to COVID-19. This study used a mixed-methods research design. The participants of this study were 70 senior high school students (16-17 years old) that were selected by convenience sampling from several regions in East Java Province (Malang, Banyuwangi, and Tulungagung). The research instrument consisted of 2 ill-structured chemistry problem texts related to COVID-19 issues. Each problem consisted of 9 question prompts. The instrument has high reliability (Cronbach's Alpha coefficient = 0.774). The result of this study showed that the highest percentage of students' ill-structured problem solving skill is the stage of problem representation (37.74%) and the lower percentage is the stage of making justifications (24.40%). The result of this study also showed that only 8.57% (6 students) on problem 1 and 10.00% (7 students) on problem 2 solved the problem based on the chemistry concept (chemical bonding, hydrocarbon compound, and polymer) while the others solved the problems based on social, economic, environmental, and health aspect. That result indicated that student was lack of ability to apply chemistry concept to solve their everyday life problems. Therefore, teachers need to apply more ill-structured problem solving in the chemistry learning.