Critical Thinking through Teaching at The Right Level Approach using Mind Mapping

Abstract

The gap between active student and inactive student in group learning in social science learning make an ineffective learning process. Teachers make group composition differently, besides many students need the same frequency level of ability. This research aims to find out the increase of critical thinking ability through teaching at the right level using mind mapping. TaRL is an approach that uses homogeneity groups in the learning process. This collaborative action research used descriptive quantitative analysis. The sample consisted of 28 students from 5 grade Primary Schools in Yogyakarta. The research was divided into three groups of class, low-level group, medium-level group, and high-level group. The difference result of cycle 1 and cycle 2 shows that every group increased significantly. Every member had a different score on the critical thinking test. The findings showed that the TaRL approach using mind mapping increases critical thinking ability. Students become more active, creative, and easy to understand social studies learning after using mind mapping learning. This learning does not make students feel bored and not too monotonous in understanding learning so that learning becomes more fun.