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International Journal of Instruction January 2020 • Vol.13, No.1


e-ISSN: 1308-1470 • www.e-iji.net p-ISSN: 1694-609X
pp. 535-550
Received: 02/12/2019
Revision: 08/24/2019
Accepted: 08/30/2019
OnlineFirst:11/14/2019

Trend of Critical Thinking Skill Researches in Biology Education


Journals across Indonesia: from Research Design to Data Analysis

Eko Susetyarini
Department of Biology Education, Muhammadiyah University of Malang, Indonesia,
[email protected]
Ahmad Fauzi
Corresponding author, Department of Biology Education, Muhammadiyah University of
Malang, Indonesia, [email protected]

Empowerment of critical thinking skills is one of the numerous goals the 21st
century education intends to acquire. This study employed content analysis on a
number of articles that had been published in Biology education journals across
Indonesia since 2010 to 2017, with critical thinking skills as the main focus of the
study. This current study has revealed that in the past three years, the number of
publications that focused on critical thinking skills had improved. Among those
publications, the most dominant research design was quantitative. In addition, the
tenth graders of senior high school and 'Ecosystem' were consecutively the subject
and material targeted the most. Test and t-test were serially the most commonly-
used instruments and data analysis methods. In respect to the findings of this
study, some recommendations have been proposed for upcoming researches
underpinning critical thinking skills as the main focus. Some of these
recommendations include increasing the diversity of research types and choosing
more precise data analysis techniques.
Keywords: biology educational journals, critical thinking skills, data analysis, educational
biology, critical thinking
INTRODUCTION

Presently, education has been considered very crucial as a means of creating competent
societies in the 21st century (Kivunja, 2014). It is said that not only is conceptual
mastery needed by students to survive within the century (Glaze, 2018), in addition to
memorizing every single concept that is served (Lindsey, Shroyer, Pashler, & Mozer,
2014), but also a competence that leads them to critical thinking and life skills. A
collaborative with communicative skill is another competence that is supposed to be
sharpened (Kivunja, 2014). In addition, scientific process skills are also considered

Citation: Susetyarini, E., & Fauzi, A. (2020). Trend of Critical Thinking Skill Researches in Biology
Education Journals across Indonesia: from Research Design to Data Analysis. International Journal
of Instruction, 13(1), 535-550. https://doi.org/10.29333/iji.2020.13135a
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536 Trend of Critical Thinking Skill Researches in Biology …

strongly essential for scientific and technological era nowadays (Gultepe, 2016).
Besides, some patterns of thinking skills, such as metacognitive (Perry, Lundie, &
Golder, 2018), creative (Mumford & McIntosh, 2017), and critical thinking skills
(Strauss, 2016) have also been said to be the most essential capital for graduates to
deal with tight competition in the 21st century.
Among all mentioned competencies, critical thinking is frequently included in the list of
must-acquired competencies for the 21st century education (Binkley et al., 2012).
Critical thinking collaborates with creative, collaborative, and communicative thinking
skills, closely interlinked to 4Cs, constituting a central aspect in almost all programs of
education (Moser, 2017). Correspondingly, critical thinking skills belong to 10 key
competencies that have been formulated into Assessment and Teaching of 21st
Century Skills (ACT21S) (Binkley et al., 2012). In addition, LMTF also inserts critical
thinking skills as a sub-domain of Global Framework of Learning Domains - 21st
century skills framework designed by UNESCO (Learning Metrics Task Force, 2013).
In essence, the mentioned happens closely due to positive characteristics that are
going to unite with the graduates who are prepared to be critical thinkers.
In contrast to the urgency of critical thinking skills, several studies reported that
students' critical thinking in some countries were still less empowered. Studies from
Gedik reported that Turkish students' critical thinking skill was still categorized as low
or, in other words, less optimal (Gedik, 2013). In line with those studies, Aktas & Unlu
also reported that the critical thinking of Turkish prospective teachers was not high
(Aktaÿ & Ünlü, 2013). The low level of students' critical thinking skills was also found
in the Philippines (Salas, 2016) and Malaysia (Fadhlullah & Ahmad, 2017). Furthermore,
similar cases were also reported by several studies conducted in several locations in
Indonesia, such as Subang (Santika, Purwianingsih, & Nuraeni, 2018) and Malang
(As'ari, Mahmudi, & Nuerlaelah, 2017). The less intensive attention to the empowerment
of critical thinking skills in some countries might be caused by the educational system
applied of which designs and practices restrict students to get actively involved in
discussion, debate, and evaluation on their thinking process (Sellars et al., 2018 ).
However, those kinds of activities are completely essential to create critical thinkers.
Educational development should be able to accommodate the optimization of students'
critical thinking skill empowerment (Strauss, 2016). The development itself cannot be
separated from a number of studies that have contributed to providing plentiful
discussions about sustaining quality improvement on instructional process (Fauzi &
Pradipta, 2018; Spencer-Rodgers & Cortijo-Ocaña, 2015). Some studies, also, have
strained to uncover the level of students' critical thinking skills in search of potential
attempts for optimization of critical thinking empowerment during instructional activities
(Huber & Kuncel, 2016; Tiruneh, Verburgh, & Elen, 2014). The mass of information
gained from those several studies is frequently utilized as a fundamental basis for
governmental policy as well as instructional planning designed by teachers and lecturers.
In Indonesia, numerous studies on critical thinking skills are also found, especially in
Biology education context. Some studies focus on the distribution of students' critical
thinking level (As'ari et al., 2017; Santika et al., 2018), and the other discusses the effect

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of specific instructional design on students' critical thinking skills (Wulandari, Amin,


Zubaidah, & Henie, 2017). There has also been a study that discusses the relationship
between critical thinking skills and other parameters of learning accomplishment (Naimnule
& Corebima, 2018). Notwithstanding, among all those studies, none of which attempts to
review information that has been reported in all of the studies.
Using content analysis on several scientific Biology education journals published in
Indonesia, from 2010 to 2017, this current study aimed at collecting information about
variety of studies discussing critical thinking skills in Indonesia. In detail, this study was
intended to answer the following questions: (1) How was the trend of the number of
studies on critical thinking skills from year to year? (2) How was the variety of research
designs employed to investigate critical thinking skills in Indonesia? (3) What was the
most frequent topic used to investigate students' critical thinking skills? (4) What kinds of
treatments did the researchers implement to improve students' critical thinking skills?
(5) What were the instruments used by the researchers to measure critical thinking skills?
(6) What were the techniques of data analysis used by the researchers to analyze critical
thinking skills? (7) How was the portrayal of the series of studies that had been conducted
by the researchers in investigating critical thinking skills?
In some aspects, this current study differs from previous ones that were concerned with
critical thinking skills. Firstly, this study was focused on the entire articles that had been
published from 2010 to 2017; all of which were accredited by the Science and Technology
Index (SINTA). Second, this study was devoted to investigating a number of articles with
critical thinking skills as their main focus. Thirdly, various parameters were used as
foundations for content analysis.
METHOD

Research Design
This study adheres to the principle of content analysis, which was focused on findings
from numerous studies that have been published in scientific journals in Indonesia. The
research method used was similar to those used by Fauzi & Pradipta (2018).
Data Source

The data were collected from the results of content analysis on Biology education articles.
The entire articles were taken from Biology education journals registered at Science and
Technology Index (SINTA) on July 2018. SINTA (http://sinta2.ristekdikti.go.id/) is a
platform to measure science and technology development which was designed and
developed by Ministry of Research, Technology, and Higher Education of Indonesia. In
total, there were 13 biology education journals in the SINTA database. Henceforth, all of
the articles that reviewed critical thinking skills were collected from each of those journals.
The articles under analysis in this study had been published on-line before July 2018. Of
the hundreds of articles collected, there are 42 articles that examine critical thinking. All
of the articles were analyzed in this study.

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Research Instruments

The instrument used for this current study was a guideline of content analysis that contained
related aspects under observation (Table 1.). There were as many as seven main aspects
to review for content analysis in this study. Those aspects included (1) the number of
publications per year; (2) types of research; (3) research subjects; (4) Biology topics chosen
for the studies; (5) treatments; (6) data collection instruments; and (7) data analysis methods.
Exceptionally, categories on aspects (1), (4), and (5) were not decided in the beginning due
to the absence of previous studies that might be referred to determining what should be
included in the categories and the possibility of overgeneralized categories that might appear
when content analysis on some articles was performed. Besides, categories on aspects (2),
(3), (6), and (7) were defined before data collection. The categories are shown in Table 2,
which were adapted from (Fauzi & Pradipta, 2018). In addition, aspect (2) was divided into
two sub-aspects, including (2a) general types of research and (2b) quantitative research
design.
Table 1
The Aspects and Categories used for Content Analysis in the Study
Aspects Categories
Types of research (2a) A.1-R and D A.3-Qualitative Research
A. 2-CAR A4-Quantitative Research
Types of quantitative B.1-Observation Studies (OS) B.5-True Experimental Designs
research (2b) B.2-Correlational Research (CR) (TED)
B.3-Survey Research (SR) B.6-Quasi-Experimental Designs
B.4-Pre-Experimental Designs (QED)
(PED) B.7-Ex Post Facto Designs
(EPFD)
Research subjects C.1-VII Grade JHS students C.7-Undergraduate students
C.2- VIII Grade JHS students C.8-Postgraduate students
C.3-IX Grade JHS students C.9-JHS teacher
C.4-X Grade SHS students C.10-SHS teacher
C.5-XI Grade SHS students C.11-lecturer
C.6-XII Grade SHS students
Data collection D.1-questionnaire sheet D.4-interview sheet
instruments D.2-observation sheet D.5-unidentified
D.3-test sheet
Data analysis methods E.1-mean E.6-ANCOVA
E. 2-percentage E.7- Correlation
E. 3-N-gain E.8-Unidentified
E. 4-t-test E. 9-Others
E.5-ANOVA

Data Analysis
Each of articles was classified into specific categories based on certain aspects that met
the defined category. The decision was based on information that was shared by the authors
in abstract, method, and discussion parts. Furthermore, the data that had been collected
were presented in a form of bar chart.

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FINDINGS
Number of Publications

The number of article publications indicated how frequently the research was conducted
in a certain period. Alluding to the graph shown in Figure 1, the articles that reviewed
critical thinking skills could be found since 2010. No specific pattern of shift occurred to
the number of publications from year to year. Nonetheless, referring to Figure 1, the
number of publications since 2015 had increased higher than those in the previous years.
The increasing trend on the number of publications about critical thinking skills indicated
that there was a significant increase in the number of researchers who were interested
in investigating high-level critical thinking skills.

Figure 1
The Increasing Trend of the Number of Educational Researches with Critical
Thinking Skill as the Main Concern in Indonesia in 8 Years
Most researches were generated from the researchers' sensitivity on common issues
that frequently occur around them. One of the most commonly found issues nowadays
was in regards to Indonesian students' critical thinking skill level that was still considered
low. For that reason, conducting research is believed to be the most effective way for
the purpose of dealing with and overcoming the issue. By research, the researchers
could identify the most effective instructional design or media that might be able to
optimally accommodate students' critical thinking skills.
The higher the number of researchers investigating critical thinking skills, the more
positive influence on Indonesian educational development will be. The premise is based
on an idea proclaiming that the most ultimate goal of a research is to improve
educational practices (Coburn & Penuel, 2016). Further, a research will influence
educational practices because of various reasons, namely that: (1) its findings can be
referred to as credible information that can be implemented by teachers; (2) it can be a
fundamental basis for educational decision making, in national, local, or specific
institutions; and (3) its findings can affect teachers' ways of thinking.
Types of Research
Types and designs of research determine the focus of a study. Based on Figure 2,
quantitative research constituted the most dominant design the researchers employed to

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investigate critical thinking skills. The higher number of quantitative researches than
other types of research is in line with some previous studies reporting that the
researchers preferred quantitative research design to conduct research in education,
instead of qualitative one (Goktas et al., 2012; Uzunboylu & Asiksoy, 2014) . In addition,
the qualitative approach is considered relatively new for educational research (Sharma,
2013). However, the trend of qualitative design has been shown to start increasing
(Shakouri, 2014) and have targeted social researches, including some issues of
education (Mohajan, 2018). Such a condition was closely interlinked to the advantages
of qualitative approach to define a phenomenon in detail and comprehensively. For that
reason, the lack of qualitative research existence has been a good opportunity for further
researchers to make use of qualitative design and focus their researches on critical
thinking skills.

Figure 2
The Distribution of Researches with Critical Thinking Skills as the Main Concern based
on Types of Research
Nevertheless, the finding revealed the rarity of R and D research about critical thinking
skills was contested by a study of Fauzi & Pradipta. Their research claimed that R and
D research was the most chosen type of research published in 2017 (Fauzi & Pradipta,
2018). R and D research constitutes one of up-to-the-minute trends in Indonesian
educational research. In this kind of research, the researchers often produced
educational products based on the results and processes of purely Biology researches
they had conducted previously. The products, further, could be in the forms of books,
modules (Suciati & Adian, 2018), or instructional materials (Kamaludin, Surtikanti, &
Surakusumah, 2018). In regards to those researchers, it was revealed that, among R
and D researches by Indonesian researchers, critical thinking skills were still not
equipped as a fundamental basis for developing their researches.

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Figure 3
The Distribution of Quantitative Researches with Critical Thinking Skills as the Main
Concern in Indonesia

In addition to the types of research, this study also aimed at revealing the distribution of
quantitative research that had been chosen by most researchers. Based on Figure 3,
quasi experimental design signifies the most common experimental research about
critical thinking skills. The high frequency of quasi-experimental use than other designs
of experimental research implied that the researchers had to choose the one that best
fitted their educational concerns (Randler & Bogner, 2008). Compared to other
experimental designs, pre-experimental designs were the rarest (Knapp, 2016) and only
found in two publications. On the other hand, true experimental design, which was said
to be the most difficult design to apply to educational issues, was not found, at all, in
publications that highlighted critical thinking skills.
In quasi-experimental research, the researchers attempt to compare which one is the
most effective treatment for critical thinking skill empowerment. The most remarkable
characteristic of this type of research is that the researchers are allowed to involve the
whole student in the classroom as a control group, while appointing another group of
students in another classroom (or more) as an experimental group. By applying different
treatments and formulating hypotheses, the researchers were allowed to sum up which
of the treatments worked more significantly for empowering students' critical thinking
skills. In this kind of research, the researchers do not need to take into account true-
experimental design for it demands them to complete certain requirements, for instance,
the participants are randomly selected and randomly assigned (Martella, Nelson, Morgan,
& Marchand-Martella , 2013). In fact, true-experimental design cannot be implemented
in researches since most educational institutions must have set their students into
several classes; and therefore, the researchers are only allowed to choose which classes
to be involved. In addition, the researchers cannot reselect the students and re-divide
them into some classes randomly, too.
Beside experimental design, surveys were also frequently chosen by the researchers. In
the survey, there are several advantages offered to the researchers, such as low budget,
time efficiency, and abundance of information about attitudes, beliefs, thoughts, and
capabilities of the population they are about to observe (Brewer, 2009). Besides,
observational study and correlation research were two less frequently quantitative

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researches. Meanwhile, there was a study in Indonesia highlighting critical thinking


skills that had employed correlation research in spite of its being unpublished in
Indonesian journals (Naimnule & Corebima, 2018). Accordingly, any information
generated and shared in this current study is supposed to contribute to enriching
upcoming researches dealing with critical thinking skills in Indonesia.
Research Subjects
The empowerment of critical thinking skills was aimed at students. Based on the
information regarding the types of research, quasi-experimental design constituted the
most commonly used design the researchers preferred. It indicated that, in general,
the researches attempted to compare some of the finest instructional designs in
empowering students' critical thinking skills. In conducting research, the researchers
needed research subjects to examine their hypotheses. Based on Figure 4, the most
selected research subjects were students of senior high school, consecutively followed
by students of higher education and junior high school. This finding is in line with a
study conducted by Fauzi & Pradipta analyzing the content of all Biology education
studies published within 2017 in Indonesia (Fauzi & Pradipta, 2018).
The dominance of students of senior high school level was also shown in a study of T.
Lin, Lin, & Tsai (2014). Based on their study, students' learning process and conceptual
understanding constituted two out of three topics that were frequently selected as the
focus of study in 15 recent years. The finding is similar to that in Choi, Seo, & Kim
(2016) revealing that “students” was the third most-searched keyword used for
educational research. Withal, this current study is different from a study of Goktas et
al. (2012). In Goktas', the most frequently taken research sample in Turkey's
educational articles was students of higher education and teachers.
Beside showing information about the comparison of senior high school, higher
education, and junior high school levels, Figure 4 shows that the higher the level of a
class in a certain educational level, the less frequent the class would be selected as
research subject. The first graders of junior high school were also frequently selected;
while the third graders were rarely taken into consideration. Similarly, the first graders
of senior high school reached the highest frequency of being involved in researches;
while the third graders were shown to be the lowest. This phenomenon is in line with
the trend that most of schools are selective to give permission to researchers to
conduct researches in the third grade of junior high school or senior high school level
due to the tightly-scheduled preparation for national examination.

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Figure 4
The Distribution of Research Subjects in Some Educational Researches with Critical
Thinking Skills as the Main Concern in Indonesia
Biology Topics Selected when Conducting Studies
Biology is one of scientific courses with numerous topics. There are some topics considered
easy and some remain difficult for students (Fauzi & Fariantika, 2018; Fauzi & Mitalistiani,
2018). Departing from the analysis, there were some publications that only underpinned
one specific topic; while others highlighted several topics. Based on Table 2, some topics
were chosen by the researchers to pilot their researches in senior and junior high school
levels. Specifically, ecosystem was the most commonly selected topic for conducting the
researches. As many as five publications reviewed students' critical thinking skill level
under the theme of ecosystem. Unfortunately, none of them elaborated the background of
the study in respect to factual conditions between students' critical thinking skills and
ecological topic.
Referring to other studies, ecosystems have not only been said to be one of Biology topics
that is closely related to today's human activities but also becoming a challenging topic for
students (Agboghoroma & Oyovwi, 2015). On the other hand, there was a review that
showed the significance of instructional activities empowering critical thinking skills when
students learned about the topic of environment (Burrow, 2018). As a consequence, it is
of importance to impart specific reasons why ecological topics were chosen to pilot an
investigation about critical thinking skills, especially for the purpose of transparency to the
readers.
Table 2
Three Biology Topics Mostly Selected in Educational Researches with Critical Thinking
Skills as the Main Concern in Indonesia
Topics Number of articles
Ecosystem 5
Biodiversity 3
Pollution and environmental changes 3

Furthermore, there were two other topics commonly adopted as the main concern for
researchers, namely biodiversity as well as pollution and environmental change (Table 2).
Each of the two was highlighted in three publications that were concerned with critical
thinking skills. Similar to ecological topic, the three publications under the topic of

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biodiversity did not completely explain any background related to factual condition of
students' critical thinking skills. Only a study from Sophia & Mulyaningrum (2017)
determined the reasons behind the selection of biodiversity topic despite its disconnection
to critical thinking skills. The researchers claimed that the topic contained complex
materials and theories, thus it required an analysis on numerous issues of biodiversity.
However, based on in-depth analysis, biodiversity as well as pollution and environmental
change were said to be similar to the topic of ecosystem. The similarity lied on a reason
that all of those three topics discussed relationships, roles, and effects of human's
existence in a specific environment. This portrayal indicated that Indonesian researchers
were more potential to find out a solution to help students become critical thinkers and
good problem solvers for their environment.
Treatments

Giving treatment aims at testing the researchers' hypothesis or at identifying the


significance of specific conditions upon any parameter under investigation. Based on
Table 3, Inquiry Based Learning (IBL) and Problem Based Learning (PBL) constitute the
most commonly used treatments in the researches about critical thinking skills. There
were eight publications using IBL, and seven using PBL. Following the treatments
mentioned, the scientific approach positioned the third most-used treatment. To some
extent, PBL, in fact, is similar to IBL. The latter is said to be the main framework of the
former. On top of that, both are categorized into scientific approach. By nature, PBL, IBL,
and scientific approach stand over the similar fundamental principle, in which students are
facilitated to perform a series of scientific activities (Oguz-Unver & Arabacioglu, 2014).
Critical thinkers constitute the ultimate characteristic of science (Schmaltz, Jansen, &
Wenckowski, 2017). As a matter of fact, any instructional activities that lead students to
scientific activities have very potential to optimally empower students' critical thinking skills.

Table 3
Three Types of Treatments or Independent Variables Frequently Selected in
Educational Researches with Critical Thinking Skills as the Main Concern in Indonesia
Treatments/independent variables Number of articles
Problem-based learning 8
Inquiry-based learning 7
Scientific approach 2

The findings of this current study also informed that most researchers preferred to
implement specific instructional design as treatment or independent variable of their
researches. On the other hand, researches that were focused on the influence of
demographic factors were rarely found on articles published in Indonesia, despite the fact
that demographics is one of determining factors closely interlinked to students' learning
achievement. A number of studies showed different results about the influence of
demographics on students' critical thinking skills. There were several studies pointing out
that demographic aspects did not significantly influence students' critical thinking skills
(Demirbag, Unisen, & Yesilyurt, 2016). In addition, another study revealed that
demographics had significantly influenced students' critical thinking skills (Harish, 2013).

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For that reason, studies on demographic influence on students' critical thinking skills
need considerable improvement.
Data Collection Instruments

In conducting research, researchers need an instrument to help them collect data.


Students' critical thinking skill could be measured by means of numerous instruments
developed by previous researchers. Based on the graph shown in Figure 5, the test has
been the most commonly used instrument to collect the data about critical thinking skills.
In essence, critical thinking skills constitute a way of thinking that can be accessed or
assessed based on students' answers to high-level questions. Additionally, data collection
by means of test is deemed more objective than questionnaire and observation.

There were some tests that could be administered to measure students' critical thinking
skills. The most common one found in Indonesian publication was Cornell Critical
Thinking Tests (CCTT), together with critical thinking skills assessment in the form of
essay developed by Zubaidah, Corebima, & Mistianah (2015). Unfortunately, some
researchers did not inform what instruments were used to collect the data about critical
thinking skills in their papers. Some who made use of test as the main technique of data
collection did not inform whether the instrument had been tested in terms of validity and
reliability. It is the key point that the validity and reliability of instruments are to be tested
before being used to collect any data (Bajpai & Bajpai, 2014). In other words, the
information about validity and reliability is considered crucial to convince target readers.

Figure 5
The Distribution of Instrument Selection for Data Collection in Some Educational Studies
Researches with Critical Thinking Skills as the Main Concern in Indonesia
Data Analysis Methods
The accuracy of method selection for data analysis would determine the level of validity
of a research. Referring to the graph shown in Figure 6, there were 24 researchers using
quasi-experimental design (Figure 3), but only eight researchers used ANCOVA as data
analysis method (Figure 6). Further, Figure 6 shows that t-test was data analysis method

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the researchers used the most. This finding has clarified that the researchers often
used t-test to compare the achievements of two groups or classes. There were two
common trends shown by the researchers in using t-test for hypothesis test. Firstly, the
researchers only took the post-test data from each class, then determined them by
means of t-test. Second, the researchers referred to pre-test and post-test data before
calculating N-gain from both of the data. Afterwards, N-gain from both classes were
examined by means of t-test. These kinds of trends would decrease the validity level of the researches.
This inaccurate use of data analysis method is in line with the findings shown in a study
of Fauzi & Pradipta (2018).

Figure 6
The Distribution of Data Analysis Method Selection in Some Educational Researches
with Critical Thinking Skills as the Main Concern in Indonesia
The use of ANCOVA is particularly recommended when researchers attempt to choose
quasi-experimental design, where they could not select students one by one as their
research subjects (only students in the determined class were possible to be chosen).
By using ANCOVA in such a condition, the researchers could control external variables
that might influence the relationship between independent and dependent variables.
Further, by using ANCOVA, it could identify the differences that occur between groups
with respect to the corrected average based on the characteristics of the research
subjects shown in pre-test data (Warner, 2012). To sum up, the use of ANCOVA is
recommended for quasi-experimental research with pre-test and post-test data.

CONCLUSION

In this current study, articles that highlighted critical thinking skills and were published
in Biology education journals across Indonesia from 2010 to 2017 have been reviewed.
The trend has been found that there was an increase in the number of publications with
critical thinking skills as the main concern in the past three years. Among hundreds of
publications, quantitative researches were mostly found. In addition, the tenth graders
of senior high school were mostly chosen as research subjects; while ecosystem
material constitutes the most chosen topic. PBL signified the most implemented
treatment; while test and t-test were the most commonly used instruments for data
collection and analysis. Alluding to the findings of this study, some recommendations

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have been set up for further researches. Firstly, it is of necessity to increase the frequency
of conducting qualitative research to investigate critical thinking skill development.
Second, R and D that aims at developing instructional products should be targeted to
increase students' low level of critical thinking skills. Thirdly, the researchers are to
inform clearly about their research instruments, along with instrument validity and
reliability. Finally, it is suggested that the researchers select the best-fitted test for
hypothesis and research design in conducting any research.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The authors would like to say thank you to University of Muhammadiyah Malang for
support in this research.
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