Problem Based Learning in Mathematics Education and Its Effect on Student's Critical Thinking

Critical thinking belongs to higher order thinking skills which is important in our daily life. Mathematics education is one of ways to grow and to develop the critical thinking. The initial observation at one of junior high schools in Padang city showed that student's critical thinking was unsatisfied. Solving this problem, we implemented problem based learning which is one of learning models. We conducted class observation along the implementation process and gave the post-test in the end. These aimed to determine the problem based learning effect on student's critical thinking. We also compared the critical thinking of students who joint problem based learning with that of students who did not join problem based learning. Findings of this study show that: (1) problem based learning can improve student's critical thinking; and (2) critical thinking of student who joint problem based learning is higher than that of student who did not join problem based learning.