Strengthening the Basic Skills of Students^ Intellectual Process Skills through the Application of Interactive Demonstrations from Levels of Inquiry
Susi Martini, Ida Kaniawati, Sri Anggraeni, Ana Ratna Wulan

Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia

Abstract

The application of the inquiry model in the 2013 Curriculum in Indonesia aims to change the paradigm of student learning from passive to active, increase conceptual understanding, and develop 21st-century skills needed in a continuously developing society. Inquiry is a procedure commonly carried out by scientists and adults who have high motivation in an effort to understand natural phenomena, clarify understanding, and apply it in everyday life. The inquiry model is centered on student activities, but the teacher still plays an important role as a maker of learning experience designs. The teacher is obliged to guide students to carry out activities. Sometimes teachers need to provide explanations, ask questions, and provide comments and suggestions to students. This study aims to investigate interactive demonstration methods for high school students, and whether they can strengthen students^ intellectual process skills in learning the concept of the digestive system of food. Prior to learning, the teacher prepares learning steps and student worksheets to improve basic skills such as predicting, obtaining, and processing data, explaining, formulating, and revising scientific explanations, using logic and evidence, recognizing and analyzing explanations. Interactive demonstrations in digestive system learning force students to demonstrate their prior knowledge and use that knowledge to make predictions during the demonstration. By actively engaging students and encouraging them to use prior knowledge, interactive presentations allow students to be actively engaged in learning, make connections between new concepts and existing knowledge, and develop their predictive and understanding abilities. All students stated that they understood the learning material after learning through interactive demonstrations.

Keywords: Keywords: basic skills, intellectual process skills, interactive demonstration.

Topic: Biology and Biology Education