Analyzing the Contribution of Critical Thinking Skills and Social Skills on Students’ Character by Applying Discovery Learning Models

Abstract

Character education gets a lot of attention from stakeholders and educators to be developed; hence, many models have been created to develop the affective domain. This study aimed to analyze the relationship and contribution of critical thinking skills and social skills with students’ character through the application of discovery models. The population of this study were high school students in Situbondo. The research sample was chosen from SMA Negeri 1 Besuki with the purposive sampling method. The research instrument to measure critical thinking skills was an essay test developed from Facione's critical thinking skills rubric. Social skills were measured using instruments adopted from Social Skills inventory. To examine students’ character, observation sheets were developed from six pillars of character element of the Josephson Institute. The validity and reliability of the instruments were performed before using them. The results of the validity calculation with product-moment correlation analysis and the reliability calculation with Cronbach's alpha analysis showed that the instrument was valid and reliable so that it could be used in this study. Data were analyzed using multiple regression. The results showed critical thinking skills and social thinking skills together had a contribution to the development of students’ character in the application of discovery learning models. This research can be a reference for readers about the contribution of students' critical thinking skills and social skills to developing students' character. Further research is needed to find out other impacts that affect students’ character.