SKILLS
Liliasari, Ari Widodo, Agus Setiawan Graduate School for Science Education
Indonesia University of Education
Abstract
Multimedia play an increasing role in education, especially in science instruction.
Unlike the conventional teaching media, multimedia allow flexible combination of different mode of representation, such as written text, pictures, animations, and sound.
Using multimedia teachers can use a combination of pictures and texts to explain a complex structure. Multimedia also allow a simulation of complex processes in simpler
form of animations. The results reported here is the result of the first year of a tree-year research project aims at developing a web-based instruction that utilized multimedia.
The aim of the first year is to develop multimedia and to analyze the impact to the improvement of students' understanding of science concepts and the improvement of their generic skills. This study finds that the use of multimedia in science instruction can promote students' understanding of science concepts. Relatively high gain were observed in biology lesson (junior high school) and chemistry lessons (senior high school), while mediocre impacts ae observed in thermodynamics course (pre-service teacher training) and magnetic induction (in-service teacher training ). The use of multimedia in instruction also promote participants' generic science skills.
Key words:
generic science skills, multimedia; science, concept understanding Introduction
It is quite well-known that for many students science is a difficult subjects. Results of national examination and international comparative studies (OECD/UNESCO-UIS, 2003) clearly suggest that science education in Indonesia demand urgent improvements.
Science instruction should not focus on understanding scientific concepts but should also address skills and attitudes that are also very important learning achievement. Brotosiswoyo (2000) suggests that science instructions can promote students' generic skills in 1) direct observation, 2) indirect observation, 3) sense of scale, 4) symbolic language, 5) logical consistency of natural law, 6) logical inference, 7) causality, 8) mathematics modeling, and 9) developing abstract and functional concepts.
On of the alternative innovations to promote students' understanding of science concepts is designing instructions that make use recent development in computers and information technologies. In the last few years multimedia play an increasing role in instructions, especially science instruction. Unlike the conventional teaching media, multimedia allow flexible combination of different mode of representation, such as written text, pictures, animations, and sound. Using multimedia teachers can use a combination of pictures and texts to explain a complex structure. Multimedia also allow a simulation of complex processes in simpler form of animations. Chemical reactions, for example, are difficult science topics for students due to their abstract nature. Using multimedia such abstract processes can be animated so that they are easier to understand.
Schnotz and Lowe (2003) categorize multimedia into three different levels:
technical level (the technical devices that carry the messages, e.g. computers, networks);
the semiotic level (the representational format of the messages, e.g. texts, pictures), and the sensory level (the sensory modality of sign reception, e.g. visual, auditory). This suggests that research on the use of multimedia in instruction may focus on a certain level or a combination of different levels.
The results reported here is the result of the fir st year of a tree-year research project aims at developing a web-based instruction that utilized multimedia. The aim of the first year is to develop multimedia and to analyze the impact to the improvement of students' understanding of science concepts and the improvement of their generic skills.
Methods
In order to gain information on the application of interactive multimedia in different learning conditions, very different characteristics of participants were involved in the study, i.e. junior high school students, high school students, pre-service teachers, and
in-service teachers. The topics covered in the study include topics related to biology, chemistry, and physics (see Table 1).
Table 1 Subjects and topics of the study
Subject Topic
Junior High School Students Organization of life (Biology)
High School Students Hydrolysis of salt (Chemistry), Colligative properties of solution (Chemistry)
Pre-service teacher Thermodynamics (Physics) In-service teacher Magnetic induction (Physics)
The characteristics of the concepts within the three topics are presented in Table 2. The table shows that the number of the topics and the type of the concepts vary for each school level.
Tabel 2 Characteristics of the concepts
No. Subject Topic Types of concepts
1. Biology • Organization of life Concrete, abstract, concepts based on principles
2. Physics • Thermodynamics
• Magnetic induction
Concrete, abstract, concepts based on principles, symbols, processes, and properties.
3. Chemistry • Hydrolysis of salt
• Colligative properties of solution
• Ideal gas
Concrete, abstract, concepts based on principles, abstract concepts with concrete examples, processes, symbols, and properties
Concrete, abstract, concepts based on principles are three characteristics shared by all topics. While the type of concepts addressed in biology only three, concepts addressed in physics and chemistry include also concepts related to symbols, concepts related to properties, and concepts related to processes.
A quasi experiment design was employed in the study. Prior to instruction subjects were required to do tests to measure the understanding of the concepts and the
level of their generic science skills. During the instruction interactive multimedia specially developed for the purpose of the study were employed. At the end of the instructions subjects were again required to do similar tests administered as pretest (see Figure 1).
Pretest Instruction using multimedia Post test
Figure 1. Design of the study
Students' achievement were measured in terms of their understanding of the concepts and the level of generic science skills. In this first research year a number of generic science skills as identified by Brotosiswoyo ( 2 0 0 0 ) are assessed. Aspects of generic science skills addressed in this study are presented in Table 3. To measure the effectiveness of the multimedia, pretest and posttest were administered.
Table 3 Generic science skills assessed in the study
Generic skills Subject
Generic skills
Junior high school
Senior high school
Pre-service teacher
In-service teacher Direct Observation
Indirect Observation V V
Sense of Scale V
Symbolic language V V
logical consistency of natural law
V V
Logical inference V V V
Causality V V V
Mathematic modeling V V V
Developing abstract concepts
. V V V V
Results and findings
Multimedia and understanding of science concepts
To gain information of the impact of multimedia to the improvement of subjects' understanding of science concepts, pretest and posttest scores are compared for each group (see Table 4).
Table 4 Scores for each group of subjects
Subject n Pretest Posttest Significant test Junior High School Students 34 46.4 73.6 Significant Senior
School Students
Hydrolysis of salt 33 34.9 80.7 Significant Senior
School Students
Colligative properties of solution
39 31.5 63.5 Significant
Pre-service teacher 33 44.8 57.3 Significant
In-service teacher training 30 20.0 46.3 Significant Analyses of the data reveal that there are significant improvements of students understanding of the concepts taught using multimedia. This suggests that multimedia can be used as an alternative for improving students' understanding of science concepts.
Analyses of the gain (normalized gain) show that the use of multimedia in instruction results in gain of 0.33 - 0.71 (see Figure 2). Relatively high gain scores are observed in junior and high school instructions, while gain for instruction in pre-service and in-service training are relatively low. This suggest that multimedia are effective for school students but less effective for teachers.
A Junior high school B. Senior school (hydrolysis
of salt)
C. Senior school (colligative properties of solution) D. Preservice teacher E Inservice teacher
Figure 2. Scores of normalized gain for each group
Multimedia and generic skills
As discussed in the previous section, only generic skills closely related to the nature of the topics and the education levels are measured in this study. Results of the study is presented in table 5.
Table 5. The impact of multimedia to improvement of participants' generic skills
Generic skills Subject
Generic skills
Indirect Observation significantly improved
significantly improved Sense of Scale significantly
improved
Symbolic language significantly
improved
significantly improved
less improved logical consistency of
natural law
significantly improved
significantly improved Logical inference significantly
improved
significantly improved
significantly improved Causality significantly
improved
significantly improved
significantly improved Mathematic modeling significantly
improved In general, the use of multimedia in science instruction results in significant improvement of participants' generic science skills.
One of the interesting finding is that the use of multimedia in in-service teacher training does not always result in significant improvement of participants' generic skills.
This result is quite similar to the results related to the improvement of participants' understanding of the concepts. As previously discussed, the use of multimedia for teachers results only limited gain in terms of participants' understanding. Both findings
suggest that the use of multimedia for teachers may need deeper and more carefiil consideration than its use for students.
Conclusion
In summary, the use of multimedia can promote participants' understanding of science concepts as well as participants' generic skills. It seems, however, that the use of multimedia for teachers' training need to be more carefully developed.
References
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Schnotz, W. & Lowe, R. (2003). External and internal representations in multimedia learning. Learning and Instruction, 13(2), 117-123.
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l ampiran 1. Judiil dan Lingkup Penelitian serta nama S2 & S3 yang dilibatkan dalam penelitian
Penelitian ini melibatkan 6 orang mahasiswa S2 dan 2 orang mahasiswa S3, dan model pembelajaran yang dihasilkan dapat dilihat pada tabel 1 dan 2
Tabel 1. Mahasiswa S2 peserta penelitian dan model pembelajaran yang dihasilkan
No Nama mahasiswa &
NIM Model Pembelajaran Pebelajar
i i.
rierimdwdu, o . r a .
NIM. 055199
lviumineuid reiuDeidj di dii UJHUK
meningkatkan Pemahaman Konsep dan keterampilan generik Siswa pada konsep Keragaman tingkat Organisasi kehidupan
i j l S V V d O l v l i
2. Suci Utami Putri, S.Pd.
NIM. 056262
Pembelajaran konsep bakteriologi &
virologi berbasis teknologi informasi untuk meningkatkan keterampilan generik mahasiswa
Mahasiswa keperawatan 3. I Wayan Darmadi, S.Si.
NIM. 055451
Model Pembelajaran Berbasis Web Untuk meningkatakan pengusaan konsep dan keterampilan generik sains mahasiswa calon guru pada materi termodinamika
Model Pembelajaran Hipermedia Induksi magnetik untuk meningkatkan penguasaan konsep dan keterampilan generik sains guru fisika
Guru Fisika
O K AX~\
SMP 5. Ikhsanuddin, S.Pd
NIM. 055835
Pembelajaran Inkuiri berbasis teknologi informasi untuk
meningkatkan pemahaman konsep dan keterampilan generik sains siswa SMA pada topik Hidrolisis garam
Siswa SMA
6. Tuszie Widhiyanti, S.Si.
NIM. 056360
Pembelajaran Berbasis teknologi informasi untuk meningkatakan pemahaman konsep dan keterampilan berpikir kritis siswa pada topik sifat koligatif larutan
Siswa SMA
l abel 2. Mahasiswa .S3 peserta penelitian dan model pembelajaran yang direncanakan akan dihasilkan
No Nama mahasiswa &
NIM Model Pembelajaran Pebelajar
7. Drs. Riandi, M.Si.
NIM. 055535
Pengembangan Sistem Perkuliahan Biologi Umum Berbasis TIK untuk Meningkatkan Kebermaknaan Belajar dan
Keterampilan Generik sains Mahasiswa
Mahasiswa Calon Guru Biologi
8. Drs. Ijang Rohman, M.Si.
NIM. 055545
Pembelajaran Kimia Fisik Berbasis Komputer untuk Mengembangkan Keterampilan Generik Sains dan Berpikir Kritis Mahasiswa Calon Guru
Mahasiswa Calon Guru Kimia
Lampiran 2 : Kumpulan Abstrak dan Prakata Tesis Mahasiswa S2 Prodi IPA SPs UPI yang Telah Lulus
PEMANFAATAN MULTIMEDIA UNTUK MENINGKATKAN PEMAHAMAN KONSEP
DAN KETERAMPILAN GENERIK SISWA PADA
KONSEP KERAGAMAN TINGKAT ORGANISASI KEHIDUPAN Herlinawati Hutagalung
(055199) Abstrak
Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk merancang program pembelajaran dengan teknologi multimedia interaktif, menganalisis pengaruh pemanfaatan teknologi multimedia interaktif terhadap peningkatan pemahaman konsep dan keterampilan generik siswa.
Metode yang digunakan dalam penelitian ini "static group pretest-posttest design " yang melibatkan 68 orang siswa SMP kelas VII pada salah satu sekolah swasta di kota Bandung. Data yang dijaring adalah data tentang peningkatan pemahaman konsep keragaman tingkat organisasi kehidupan dan keterampilan generik setelah pembelajaran menggunakan teknologi multimedia interaktif. Berdasarkan analisis data diperoleh hasil bahwa pembelajaran dengan memanfaatkan teknologi multimedia interaktif berbeda
signifikan antara kelas eksperimen dan kontrol Pemanfaatan teknologi multimedia interaktif dapat mengembangkan keterampilan generik siswa yaitu hukum sebab akibat, kesadaran tentang skala besaran, inferensi logika dan membangun konsep. Dari hasil analisis terhadap kuesioner diperoleh kesimpulan bahwa sebagian besar siswa (94,12%) menyenangi program ini. Sedangkan guru dalam wawancara mengakui dengan sumber daya yang mereka miliki terutama dalam bidang komputer membuat mereka termotivasi untuk belajar komputer dan menerapkannya dalam pembelajaran.