THE EFFECTIVENESS OF INTRODUCTION TO ASTRONOMY TEACHING MATERIALS TO IMPROVE PROBLEM-SOLVING AND GENERIC SCIENCE SKILLS

Abstract

This study aims to analyze the effectiveness of introductory astronomy teaching materials with inquiry settings on students’ problem-solving and generic science skills. This study used a quasi-experimental design with the one-group pretest-posttest design. The research subjects were one class of 23 fourth-semester science education students. Data on problem-solving skills were collected using a test method with ten essay questions, and generic science skills data were collected using 30 multiple-choice questions. Data analysis was carried out descriptively, and a t-test with a significance level of 0.05. The analysis results showed that the use of inquiry-based introductory astronomy teaching materials in astronomy learning was effective in improving the problem-solving skills (p<0.05, = 0.67 medium categories) and generic science skills (p<0 .05, = 0.53 moderate type). So, it can be concluded that introductory astronomy teaching materials with inquiry settings effectively improve stu-dents’ problem-solving and generic science skills.