Analyzing The Critical Thinking Skills of 5th Grade Students Using Qualitative Descriptive Method on The Respiratory System Material

Abstract

This study aims to identify the critical thinking skill profile of grade 5 elementary school students on the respiratory system material at SDN 05 Madiun Lor. Critical thinking is an essential skill in 21st-century education, but it is often neglected in the teaching of science at the elementary school level in Indonesia. Critical thinking skills are one of the essential abilities in 21st-century education, especially to equip students with good analysis, evaluation, and argument preparation skills. The research method used is qualitative descriptive with survey techniques. This study uses a descriptive qualitative method with survey techniques. Data was collected through questionnaires, interviews, and classroom observations to describe the level of students' critical thinking skills. Data was collected through questionnaires, interviews, and classroom observations to describe the level of students' critical thinking skills. The results showed that of the 30 students tested, most (15 students) were in the Fair category, 12 were in the Low category, and only 3 were in the Good category. The results showed that most students were in the 'Fair' category, with difficulties in deeper critical thinking. No student achieved the Very Good or Very Low category. Critical thinking skills indicators that include analyzing, evaluating, composing arguments, and solving problems indicate that students have a basic understanding but have difficulty in deeper critical thinking. The study concludes that students' critical thinking skills are still limited to basic understanding, and teaching methods that focus more on memorization need to be replaced with more interactive and problem-solving-based strategies. This low skill is caused by learning methods focusing more on memorization and the lack of interactive learning media.