Analysis of conceptual understanding of botany and metacognitive skill in pre-service biology teacher in Indonesia

Abstract

The achievement of learning objective of Biology, especially Phanerogamic Botany requires several important aspects, namely conceptual understanding and metacognitive skill. Analysis of conceptual understanding of Botany and metacognitive skill is needed to know to what extent are both aspects of achieving the learning objectives. The research aims to know and analyze the conceptual understanding and metacognitive skill of college students to achieve course objectives. The research is conducted in July 2018 at the Universitas Negeri Jakarta in Phanerogamic Botany course Eudicot sub-course material with 77 students as sample. The research includes quantitative research with descriptive approach. Results obtained are, among others, the mean of conceptual understanding of Botany and metacognitive skill is 63.07 and 50.15, respectively, which is low based on the achievement score. The analysis result indicates that conceptual understanding of Botany is considered as low due to the difficulty faced by students in finding an example for each clade and in understanding the scientific terms that are the base of the learning. Students, however, can apply the concept into problems faced and students' metacognitive skill in student planning aspect is unable to arrange goals to be achieved to prioritize the learning.