COMPARIZON OF THREE LEVELS OF INQUIRY BASED LEARNING TO DEVELOP STOICHIOMETRY PROBLEM SOLVING SKILLS IN TERM OF STUDENTS LOGICAL THINKING
Fahyuddin (a*), Saefuddin (a), Herawanti (b)

(a) Department of Chemistry Education, Halu Oleo University, Kendari
* fahyuddin[at]uho.ic.id
(b) Provincial Department of Education, Southeast Sulawesi

Abstract

There is a large body of research on the effectiveness of Inquiry based learning over traditional methods. However, less has been reported in the chemistry education literature of study that investigated the different levels of inquiry on students^ problem solving skills. This study compared three levels of inquiry (verification, structured inquiry, and guided inquiry) based learning on the development of high school students^ skills to solve stoichiometry problem with regard to logical thinking skills. A quasi-experimental design was used in this study. Students from one of the high Schools in Kendari city participated (N = 92, grade 11) in this study. One class of student were randomly assigned to verification, and two classes assigned to either the guided-inquiry or the structured-inquiry based learning. The problem solving skills test was administered to three groups, prior to the intervention of and than after the intervention. Descriptive statistics and Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) were used to analyze the data collected. The results indicated that the level of guided-inquiry based learning caused a significantly better acquisition of problem solving skills than the others inquiry designed, while the level of verification is not significantly different from structured-inquiry in developing students^ problem solving abilities. In addition, students^ previous logical thinking skills made a significant contribution to the problem solving skills of stoichiometry concepts

Keywords: : Level of inquiry, Problem solving skills, Stoichiometry, Logical thinking skills

Topic: Chemistry Education