Development of Chemistry Teaching Material in Acid-Base

Topic for Junior High School Using Four Steps Teaching

Material Development (4S TMD)
Ragil Astuti1,Sjaeful Anwar2 and Hendrawan3
1

Sekolah Pasca Sarjana, Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia, Jl. Dr. Setiabudi no 229, Bandung 40154, Indonesia
Departemen Pendidikan Kimia, Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia, Jl. Dr. Setiabudi no 229, Bandung 40154,

a)

Corresponding author: [email protected]

Abstract. The aim of this research is to develop chemistry teaching material for junior high school in Acid-Base topic.
This is a Research and Development (RnD) which follows 4D model by Thiagarajan with some modification. On
developing stage of this model researcher using Four Steps Teaching Material (4S TMD) method as the framework to
developing the teaching material. 4S TMD consists by four main steps, they are selection, structuring, characterization
and reduction. In selection, researcher developed five indicator which are correlated to the basic competence, concept and
value that is correlated to the concept. In Structuring steps, researcher develop concept map, macro-structure, and
multiple representation as the guide line for developing the teaching material. From characterization, researcher knew
that from 44 topics on the teaching material, there are 14 topics which is categorized as difficult. These 14 topics then
went to reduction step to make it easier to understand by student. The result of understand-ability test is 75,33% which is
categorized as highly understandable. The average of appropriateness test result is 88,88% which is categorized as good.
This result shows that this chemistry teaching material that has been developed is understandable by the students and can
be implemented in real teaching process in the class.

INTRODUCTION
Chemistry as a subject has been taught at junior high school in Indonesia since 2006 according to the
Educational Unit Curriculum (KTSP) and followed by 2013 Curriculum. To meet this need, the government has
regulated it in Constitution Number 14 in 2005, and National Education Rule Number 16 in 2007 about Standard
Academic Qualification and Teacher Competence, and National Educational Rule Number 15 in 2010 about
Standard Minimum of Primary Education in regency, which told that the teacher should teach according to the
background in Natural Science Environment.
In real application of this rule, there are several problems; one of those is the lack of teacher who teach natural
science in school with bachelor degree in chemistry (Darmianto, 2012). Generally the teachers who teach natural
scince in junior high school has their educational background as bachelor in biology and physics. This fact was
supported with the data which is get by interview in some junior high school in Bandung. The data said that, from 12
natural science teacher who taught in junior high school, 50% is bachelor in biology, 41,67% is bachelor in physics,
and 8,33% is bachelor in natural science. There is no teacher with bachelor degree in chemistry.
The purpose of teaching chemistry in junior high school is to introduce the basic of chemistry, before the
students take their steps to the higher educational level like senior high school. According to that reason, it is
necessary to develop students perception toward chemistry as an interesting subject to learn. In other hand in the
school, most of the students think that chemistry is a difficult subject (Sirhan, 2007).
In the learning process, there are three main components that are included in it. The components are teacher,
learners, and the teaching materials. In the process, there will be a transformation of knowledge (teaching materials)

from the teachers to the learners, and the result of this transformation the learners get the learning experience
(Anwar, 2014). Halbrook (2005) said that teachers should provide the relevant learning materials so that the learning
process will be meaningful for the learners. Birisci & Metin (2010) said that, teaching materials that is developed for
learning will have a important role to make the learning process become active. Beside, learning material will
increase efficiency and effectiveness of learning methods (Kamal, 2013).
Anwar (2014) said that, there are four steps which should be taken before the learning materials can be
implemented in a class. Those four steps is called 4S TMD (Four Steps Teaching Materials Development) which are
consisted by selection, structuring, characterizing, and reduction. These processes are the steps for developing
teaching materials so that it can be implemented in the class for the students. If we look generally, 4S TMD have
clear description in every steps. It shows that this development model is designed for developing teaching material
for students.
According to explanation above, researcher thinks that it is necessary to develop chemistry teaching material for
junior high school which is relevant to help teacher doing learning process in the class and the students can learn
chemistry optimally. The research tittle that will be done by researcher is Development of Chemistry Teaching
Material for Junior High School Students in Acid-Base Topic Using Four Steps Teaching Material Development.

METHODS
This research is using research and development methods (RnD). In this research, researcher will develop
chemistry teaching material for junior high school using 4S TMD in one junior high school in Bandung City. The
development procedure in this research is arranged according to Thiagarajan (1974) with some modification using
4D (four D) model. The development stage are defining stage, designing stage, developing stage, and distributing
stage. In this opportunity, the research will be done till developing stage due to the time and fund limitation. Bellow
is the explanation of every stage that is done:
a.

Defining Stage
The purpose of this stage is to analyze the curriculum, school condition and references as foundation to
developing the teaching material. According to the introduction above, the next step is to collected the data as pilot
research. This pilot research is done by doing some interview about natural science teacher educational background
in junior high school and about existing chemistry teaching material for junior high school.

b.

Designing Stage
The purpose of this stage is to arrange the teaching material so that it will fit with the steps in 4S TMD
(selection, structuring, characterization, and reduction). In selection step, the teaching material should follow the
criteria in curriculum, the concept is right, and the value that is related to the concept. In structuring steps, the
teaching material should follow the teaching material presentation systematic, concept mapping, and concept
presentation systematic. In the characterization steps, the teaching material will be determined the degree of
difficulty of every texts that are presented, and in reduction is used to decreasing the degree of difficulty of every
texts, so the text that is contained in the teaching material will be more understandable by the students.

c.

Developing Stage
The purpose of this stage is to produce the teaching material which has been developed according to the 4S TMD
and has been revised by the experts. The experts are consist of 4 lecturers from Indonesia Education University
Chemical Education Study Programs. The experts validate appropriateness of the teaching material according to
National Education Standard Institution rule. Some aspect that are validated are content, material presentation,
linguistic and graphical aspect.

FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

a.

Selection
There are three elements are being selected in this teaching material development, they are selection of content
standard from the curriculum, selection of text book of fundamental chemistry and selection of value that is related
to the chemistry concept. From the teaching material development in acid-base, researcher get five indicator which

is developed from basic competences. Then researcher choose the concept from several resources which has high
accountability, and developed the value that is integrated with the concept.
b.

Structuring
In this steps, researcher develop a concept map, macro-structure, and the multiple representation. The result of
this step is a draft of teaching material which has been adapted with the map concept, macro-structure, and multiple
representation.

c.

Characterization
This step includes the arrangement of characterization instruments and test of understand-ability to 25 students
from one of public junior high school in Bandung City to identify the difficult concepts. Before the teaching material
prototype implemented, this prototype is being validated using two characterization instrument, they are test of
difficulty degree and main idea of the paragraph test. In this steps, researcher get that from 44 topics in this teaching
material there are 30 topics that categorized as easy topics and 14 topics categorized as difficult. The result of
understand-ability test show that percentage of understand-ability of this teaching material is about 75,33% that
categorized as highly understandable.

d.

Didactic Reduction
This step is done to 14 topic that categorized as difficult in characterization step. In this steps, researcher arraged
some grid line for didactic reduction. In this steps, researcher determined the kind of didactic reduction for every
concepts that have been categorized as abstract, complex, and difficult. The result of this step is a teaching material
draft which will be validated by the expert to validate the appropriateness of this teaching material.

e.

Appropriateness of Teaching Material

According to the questioner of validation, researcher get that the appropriateness of the teaching material is
about 94,87% which is categorized as good. The appropriateness of presentation of the topics is about 73,33% which
is categorized as good enough, the appropriateness of linguistic is about 81,48% which is categorized as good
enough, and the appropriateness of graphical presentation is about 96,29% which categorized as good. The average
of the appropriateness is 88,88% which categorized as good, so we can conclude that this teaching material can be
implemented in junior high school chemistry class.

Image 1. Percentage of teaching material appropriateness

CONCLUSION
According to the research result and data analysis, can be conclude that from development of chemistry teaching
material in Acid-Base topic for junior high school using 4S TMD , we can get five indicators in selection steps
which are developed from basic competence and selection from some resources that can be trusted, to select the
concept. In structuring step, has been developed concept map, macro-structure, and multiple representation.
Characterization step consists of development of characterization instrument and test of understand-ability to 25
students from one of public junior high school in Bandung City to identify the difficult concept. In this step,
researcher get from 44 topics in the teaching material, 30 topics are categorized as easy and 14 topics are
categorized as difficult. The result of understand-ability test of teaching material can be concluded that student

understanding of this teaching material is 75,33% which is categorized as high. The result of appropriateness test of
this teaching material after been validated by experts shows that the teaching material average appropriateness is
88,88% which categorized as good.

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