EMBEDDING CRITICAL THINKING THROUGH CRITICAL READING: TEACHING NARRATIVE TEXT IN JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL

Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui apakah strategi critical reading dapat meningkatkan kemampuan berpikir kritis dan bagaimana strategi critical reading membantu siswa untuk berpikir kritis dalam membaca naratif teks. 35 siswa di salah satu sekolah menengah pertama di Bandung Barat dilibatkan dalam penelitian ini. Penelitian ini menggunakan mixed-methods sebagai metodologi penelitian. Data diperoleh melalui pre-test, post-test, observasi kelas dan wawancara. Temuan menunjukan bahwa terdapat sebanyak 18 dari 35 siswa (51%) yang mencapai peningkatan yang tinggi dalam kemampuan berpikir kritis. Hal ini berarti strategi critical reading dikonsiderasikan dapat meningkatkan kemampuan berpikir kritis dalam membaca naratif teks. Adapun lima strategi critical reading sebagaimana diusulkan oleh Sousa (2004) dan Winston-Salem State University (2013) yaitu previewing, outlining and summarizing, reflecting dan evaluating terbukti mempunyai perannya sendiri dalam dalam meningkatkan kemampuan berpikir siswa. Terlebih lagi, proven to have its own role in fostering students’ critical thinking skills. Selain itu, perkembangan kemampuan berpikir kritis siswa diinvestigasi dan diurutkan dari yang paling dikuasai hingga yang belum dikuasai 1) penalaran, 2) prediksi, 3) pemahaman konteks dan 4) bertanya.,---This study was aimed to find out whether or not critical reading strategies can improve students’ critical thinking skills and how critical reading strategies help students to think critically in reading narrative text. Thirty five of eight graders in one of junior high schools in West Bandung were involved in this study. This study employed mixed methods as the methodology. The data were gained through pre-test, post-test, classroom observation and interview. The findings revealed that there were 18 of 35 students (51%) who made a high improvement of their critical thinking skills. It means that critical reading strategies were considered could improve students’ critical thinking skills in reading narrative text. In addition, the five critical reading strategies as proposed by Sousa (2004) and Winston-Salem State University (2013) namely previewing, outlining and summarizing, reflecting and evaluating were proven to have its own role in fostering students’ critical thinking skills. Moreover, students critical thinking evolvement were investigated and listed from the most evident to the least evident; 1) reasoning, 2) predicting, 3) recognising context and 4) questioning.