APPLICATION OF THE PROBLEM-BASED LEARNING MODEL IN PKN SUBJECTS ON CRITICAL THINKING ABILITY OF CLASS IV STUDENTS (SD PRIVATE AL-ULUM MEDAN)

Abstract

Students who do not participate actively in their education do not fully benefit from this research, and as a result, their critical thinking skills are not fully stimulated during their thematic learning. The purpose of this study was to investigate how the application of Problem-Based Learning pedagogy affects students' critical thinking skills during the teaching of Civics subjects to fourth grade students at AlUlum Private Elementary Schools in Medan. The sample of this research was all fourth grade students of AlUlum Medan Private Elementary School, totaling 147 students. The sampling method used in this study was random selection of cases. The sample size for this study was 63 students, divided into two classes: IV A (consisting of 31 students who become the experimental group) and IV B (consisting of 32 students who become the control group). The research instrument uses a standard test battery. This study used prerequisite tests (normality test and homogeneity test) and hypothesis testing techniques for data analysis. The research findings show that implementing a problem-based learning curriculum has a positive effect on students' critical thinking skills; t- test produces a p-value of 0.00000005 indicating that the null hypothesis (H0) is rejected and supports the alternative hypothesis (Ha), which is supported by the data. This means that the application of problem-based learning models has an effect on students' critical thinking skills in learning subjects in class IV of Al-Ulum Private Elementary School Medan. The average (mean) results of data analysis after the intervention was carried out using a problem-based learning model in the experimental class was 82.52. If Compared to students in the control group, who averaged out at a level of 70.62 when not exposed to the problem-based learning model, it became clear that the latter group had a significant advantage. Students whose education is based on problem- solving learning models on average perform better than students who are not educated.