The Learning Management Model Integrated with Holistic Approach for Critical Thinking in Social Studies in Primary Education

Abstract

The purposes of this research were 1) to study the problems of learning in Social Studies, 2) to develop a learning model integrated with holistic approach to promote critical thinking, and 3) to evaluate its effectiveness of the learning model. The population of the research consisted of 45 teachers, five experts in social studies teaching, and students of Watlamnao School. The students were categorized into an experimental group consisting of 35 students from Grade 4/1, and a samples group consisting of 35 students from Grade 4/3. The student participants were selected with a purposive sampling method. The research tools were questionnaires, lesson plans, assessment forms, pre- test and post- test, and learning achievement test. The statistics used in data analysis were percentage, mean, standard deviation, effectiveness efficiency of E1/E2 based on standard of 80/ 80, and t-test values.

The results of the research found that (1) problems of learning in Social Studies for primary education in overall were moderately. When generated the results into each aspect, it found that the problems associated with curriculum and content, learning activities, the measurement and evaluation were highly. Whereas, the problems of media and learning resources were moderately. The other problems were such as teaching styles and management of learning materials that were outdated and unfitted with learning objectives. (2) The learning management model integrated with holistic approach to promote critical thinking was composed of the course description, objectives of learning, indicators,
pre- test and post- test, teaching protocol, summary of students’ learning, pre- test and post-test, and answer keys. The effectiveness of this learning management model had Index of Item Objective Congruence at .70 and 69.00/85.00 for its effectiveness of learning management experiments. And (3) in terms of the evaluation of the effectiveness of the learning model integrated with holistic approach to promote critical thinking, it found that the overall achievements of students’ learning in unit 8 had average scores for 26 points from total scores of 30 points, and the outcomes of critical thinking assessment had 17.30 points in average from total scores of 20 points.