Improving critical thinking skills of geography students with spatial-problem based learning (SPBL)

Abstract

The 21st century demands that geography students think critically about orientation processes and analyze problems from a spatial perspective. This experiment presents data on how much influence the SPBL model has on critical thinking students of geography. The learning procedure carried out by students is oriented towards spatial problems, then formulates spatial problems, then collects and compiles data/information, then analyzes, discusses the results, ends with building communication. 78 students of the Department of Geography, State University of Malang were the subjects of this study. The critical thinking indicator from Ennis becomes the basis for making test questions for data collection. The use of the Independent sample t-Test with SPSS 23 for data analysis purposes. Based on the research results, it was seen that there was an increase in students' critical thinking after learning with the SPBL model. As many as 25% of students were able to think very critically. However, based on the Gain-Score calculation, it shows effectiveness <40%. Thus, it becomes a recommendation for teachers to apply relevant learning models so that students are more critical and active in the geography learning process. Another suggestion for designers is to further evaluate the effectiveness of the SPBL model so that the quality of this product is better and can have a more significant impact.