International Conference on Mathematics and Science Education

Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia

Volume 5, 2020| P-ISSN 2655-2361, E-ISSN 2655-3252

The enhancement of critical thinking ability and

mathematical resilience in junior high school students with a
model eliciting activities

Rifdah*, N Priatna , and E Cahya

Departemen Pendidikan Matematika, Fakultas Pendidikan Matematika dan Ilmu
Pengetahuan Alam, Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia, Jl. Dr. Setia Budhi No. 229,
Bandung 40154, Indonesia
*
rifdahkurniawan@upi.edu

Abstract. Mathematics critical thinking ability junior high school students in Indonesia is still
relatively low. This can be seen from the results of the 2018 Program for International Student
Assessment (PISA) survey in which Indonesia ranked 74 out of 79 countries with an average
score of 371. In the mathematics category, Indonesia ranked 73 out of 79 countries with a score
of 379. Based on the results of research previously conducted by researchers, the researchers
researched mathematical thinking abilities and mathematical resilience of junior high school
students through. The previous results of research showed the average critical thinking skills of
junior high school students were still relatively low. The average critical thinking ability of junior
high school students only scored 68 on a scale of 0-100, this value is included in the new category
enough. The goal of this research is to get a picture about the enhancement of critical thinking
and mathematical resilience students after learning using Model Eliciting Activities (MEAs).
This research conducted in the private junior high school in Central Jakarta class VIII, even
semester in the academic year 2018-2019. The method of this research was a quasi-experiment.
The research sample consisted of one experimental class and one control class selected based on
cluster random sampling technique. The material used in this research was build a flat side room.
The results showed that 1) the enhancement of mathematical critical thinking abilities of students
who study with Model Eliciting Activities (MEAs) was higher than students who study with
Problem Based Learning (PBL), 2) achieving the mathematical resilience of students who study
with Model Eliciting Activities (MEAs) was higher than students who study with Problem Based
Learning (PBL) reviewed as a whole, 3) there was a correlation between mathematical resilience
and critical thinking ability, meaning that there was a significant relationship between
mathematical resilience and critical thinking ability.

1. Introduction
Mathematics critical thinking ability junior high school students in Indonesia is still relatively low. This
can be seen from the results of the 2018 Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) survey
in which Indonesia ranked 74 out of 79 countries with an average score of 371. In the mathematics
category, Indonesia ranked 73 out of 79 countries with a score of 379.

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Mathematical ability defined by National Council Of Teacher Of Mathematics (2000) is the ability
to solve problems both mathematical problems and problems encountered in everyday life.
Mathematical ability consists of mathematical reasoning abilities, mathematical communication,
mathematical critical thinking, mathematical creative thinking, mathematical understanding, and
mathematical problem-solving abilities.
Crtical thinking ability is the ability to examine, analyze, and organize information received,
examined, and compared in advance to the truth with prior knowledge and understanding so that a person
can conclude this information for the right reasons. The description of the critical thinking skills of
junior high school students in Indonesia can be seen from the results of research that has been done.
Nuryanti, Zubaidah, and Diantoro (2018) who obtained the results that the average mathematical critical
thinking ability of Grade VII Middle School students on flat material only gained an average of 40.46%
[1]. This difficulty is caused by the lack of students' abilities in a) understanding concepts that require
concept resolution, understanding concepts, and using concepts, b) language and mathematical notation,
c) making conclusions from the given user. The results of research conducted by Syahbana (2012) show
the average critical thinking skills of junior high school students are still relatively low. The average
critical thinking ability of junior high school students only scored 68 on a scale of 0-100, this value is
included in the new category enough
Increasing the critical thinking ability is a goal in the process of learning mathematics. The results
of Aksu and Koruklu's research (2015) state that student success in learning mathematics has a
significant correlation with students' mathematical critical thinking abilities. Based on these studies it
can be concluded that increasing students' critical thinking skills is a way to increase student success.
The success of students in learning mathematics can be seen through the success of students in
solving mathematical problems. In addition to mathematical critical thinking skills, other affective
aspects can affect students' ability to solve mathematical problems, namely mathematical resilience.
Mathematical resilience is an important affection in learning mathematics because there are still many
students who experience difficulties and failures in learning mathematics. Johnston-Wilder, S. & Lee,
C. (2008, 2010a) said that mathematical resilience is an important concept in education, in the learning
process there are still some students who experience difficulties and failures in learning or solving
mathematical problems [2]. Students who have mathematical resilience then they will also have the
ability to grow their confidence. Students who have mathematical resilience ability will assume that the
mathematical problems they face are not obstacles, even though these students have difficulties, and
these students will remain confident in solving mathematical problems. Students who have mathematical
resilience of students are also willing to help their friends/groups in solving mathematical problems by
the knowledge they have and can take advantage of the help and support provided by their friends when
they need it.
Yeager and Dweck (2012) also define resilience as attribution behavior (an element of the process
of perception that can greatly influence one's attitude) or emotional responses to positive academic or
social challenges that are beneficial to development. The existence of resilience is caused due to several
obstacles faced [3]. In the context of mathematics, the obstacles faced can be in the form of boredom,
inaccuracy in solving mathematical problems, shame because of poor performance, low quality
curriculum or instruction, and the absence of interaction between teacher and students or between
students and students.
Based on the definitions that have been described, it can be concluded that mathematical resilience
is a person's persistent attitude in facing and solving mathematical problems. The mathematical
resilience indicators used in this study adopt the opinions of Sumarmo & Hendriana (2017) as follows:
(a) show perseverance, confidence/confidence, work hard and find it difficult to surrender in the face of
problems, failures, and uncertainties; (b) shows the desire to socialize, have a helping spirit, discuss with

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peers, and adapt to the surrounding environment; (c) generate new ideas/thoughts and find creative
solutions with challenges; (d) failure is used as an experience to build self-motivation; (e) have a
curiosity, reflect, research, and utilize various sources; (f) have the ability to control themselves, aware
of their feelings [4].
In developing students' critical thinking skills and mathematical resilience, learning is needed that
has the characteristics of building categories, solving problems, and creating a supportive environment.
The Model Activities Activity (MEAS) is considered effective in facilitating students' critical thinking
abilities and mathematical resilience, being able to make students independent in learning, asking
questions, and asking themselves about what is already known and what is needed to solve a problem.
Model Eliciting Activities (MEAs) are learning that can stimulate students to model problems into
mathematical models. Sudrajat (2016) said that the Model Eliciting Activities (MEAs) is a learning
model based on real-life situations, students work in small groups and present a mathematical model as
a solution to existing problems [5].
Based on the opinions of these experts, the researcher concludes that the Eliciting Activities Model
(MEAs) is a learning model that focuses on the relationship between mathematical ideas that students
have with real problems and constructs a model to provide solutions to existing problems critically. In
this study, the stages of learning by using Model Eliciting Activities (MEAs) adapted from the opinions
of Chamberlin and Moon (2005) are 1) giving readings; 2) giving readiness questions; 3) grouping
students; 4) make mathematical solutions to solve problems; 5) making a settlement model of the
problem presented; 6) testing and revision of problem solutions to get the best solution; 7) presentation
of a model for solving the problem [6]. Based on the description above, researchers feel the need to
conduct research in order to find a picture of increasing mathematical critical thinking skills and
mathematical resilience of students who obtain learning with Model Eliciting Activities (MEAs).

2. Methods
This study aims to obtain a picture of increasing mathematical critical thinking abilities, and
mathematical resilience of students who obtain learning with Model Eliciting Activities (MEAs).
Besides, the new grouping is not possible for researchers to do because it is caused by the administrative
rules of the school so that researchers use existing classes. Therefore, this research was conducted with
a quasi-experimental method with the design of "Non-Equivalent Control Group".
This research was conducted in a junior high school in the city of Tangerang with a population of
eighth-grade students in the second semester of 2019/2020 school year. The research sample was
selected by a cluster random sampling to determine the class to be taken in the study. By using random
sampling from two classes determined one experimental class and one control class [7]. Furthermore,
the experimental class gets the learning by using the Model Eliciting Activities (MEAs) and the control
class gets the Problem Based Learning (PBL) learning model.
The instruments in this study were test and non-test instruments, the test instruments consisted of 5
questions in the form of descriptions that had been tested beforehand to find out the validity, reliability,
level of difficulty, and distinguishing features of each question. The test is arranged based on indicators
of mathematical critical thinking ability. Non-test instruments in this study were in the form of students'
mathematical resilience scale consisting of 25 statements and equipped with 4 answer choices, namely
Very often (SS), Frequently (S), Rarely (J), and Rarely (JS).

3. Result and Discussion

3.1 Result
The following results are presented in the form of a general picture of an increase in mathematical
critical thinking abilities and achievement of students' mathematical resilience, and the results of the
correlation test between mathematical resilience with students' critical thinking skills to see if there is a
relationship between mathematical resilience with students' critical thinking abilities.

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Volume 5, 2020| P-ISSN 2655-2361, E-ISSN 2655-3252

Research hypotheses about improving students' critical thinking skills as follows:

H0: 𝜇𝑀𝐼 ≤ 𝜇𝐾 The Enhancement of mathematical critical thinking ability of students who get
learning with Model Eliciting Activities (MEAs) is no higher than students who
get learning by using Problem Based Learning
H1: 𝜇𝑀𝐼 > 𝜇𝐾 The Enhancement of mathematical critical thinking ability of students who get
learning with Model Eliciting Activities (MEAs) is higher than students who get
learning by using Problem Based Learning.
The two-tailed hypothesis testing criteria (2-tailed) are sig
H0 rejected if the value of sig. (𝑝 − 𝑣𝑎𝑙𝑢𝑒) < 𝛼 = 0,05 and
H0 accepted if the value of sig. (𝑝 − 𝑣𝑎𝑙𝑢𝑒) ≥ 𝛼 = 0,05.
The test results are as follows:
Table 1. T-Test Results N-gain Mathematical Critical Thinking Ability
Class
Statistics
Experiment Control
t 2,235
Asymp. Sig. (2-tailed) 0,029
Conclusion H0 Rejected

Based on Table 1 it is known that Asymp. Sig. (2-tailed) is 0,029 < 0,05 then H0 is rejected. So it can
be concluded that the increase in mathematical critical thinking skills of students who get learning with
Model Eliciting Activities (MEAs) is higher than students who obtain learning by using Problem Based
Learning (PBL).
Research hypotheses about achieving students' overall mathematical resilience are as follows:
H0: 𝜇𝑀𝐼 ≤ 𝜇𝐾 The average scale of mathematical resilience that gets learning with Eliciting
Activities Model (MEAs) is not higher than students who get learning using
Problem Based Learning (PBL).
H1: 𝜇𝑀𝐼 > 𝜇𝐾 The average scale of mathematical resilience that gets learning with Eliciting
Activities Model (MEAs) is higher than students who get learning using Problem
Based Learning (PBL).
Table 2. Student's Mathematical Resilience Score Achievement Test Results
Class
Statistics
Experiment Control
t 2,388
Asymp. Sig. (2-tailed) 0,020
Conclusion H0 Rejected
Based on Table 2 it is known that Asymp. Sig. (2-tailed) is 0,027 so that the value of sig < 0,05 then
H0 is rejected. So it can be concluded that the average scale of mathematical resilience that gets
learning with Model Eliciting Activities (MEAs) is higher than students who get learning using
Problem Based Learning (PBL). Next will be explained the results of the correlation test between
mathematical resilience with students' mathematical critical thinking skills.
Research hypotheses about the relationship of mathematical resilience with mathematics critical
thinking ability are as follows:
H0: r = 0 There is no significant relationship between mathematical resilience and critical
thinking skills.
H1: r ≠ 0 There is significant relationship between mathematical resilience and critical
thinking skills.

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Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia
Volume 5, 2020| P-ISSN 2655-2361, E-ISSN 2655-3252

Table 3. Correlation between Mathematics Resilience and Mathematics Critical Thinking Ability
Results with Students' Mathematical Critical Thinking Ability.

Pearson Correlation Sig. Conclusion

0,319 0,013 H0 Rejected

Based on table 3 it is known that Sig. (2-tailed) is 0,013 so that the value of Sig. < 0,05 then H0
rejected. This means that there is a significant relationship between mathematical resilience and critical
thinking skills.

3.2 Discussion
Based on the results of the research shown that mathematics critical thinking ability of the students who
get to learn by using Model Eliciting Activities (MEAs) is higher than students who get to learn by using
Problem Based Learning (PBL). It can also be seen from students' answers in solving questions about
mathematics critical thinking ability. One of the problems that illustrate students' mathematics critical
thinking ability with indicator which strategy used to solve a problem can be seen in Figure 1 below.

Figure 1. Post-test Number 2

The following is an illustration of an answer from one of the students in the experimental class and the
control class.

Figure 2. The Answer one of the students who got MEAs learning

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Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia
Volume 5, 2020| P-ISSN 2655-2361, E-ISSN 2655-3252

Figure 3. The Answer one of the students who got PBL learning
Based on Figure 2 and Figure 3 can be seen the difference in the answers of students who get MEAs
learning and students who get PBL learning. Both students have understood that to solve the problem
first calculate the surface area of the cube-shaped toy box, but students who get PBL make mistake in
the process of solving the problem and have not been able to draw the right conclusions
Theoretically, learning with Model Eliciting Activities (MEAs) is a learning model based on reality,
students work in small groups, and provide a mathematical model as a solution to existing problems
(Sudrajat, 2016) [8]. This is shown during the research, active students, able to work together, have the
spirit of completing mathematical problems, and provide mathematical models for completing the given
problems. The researcher suspects that one of the factors causing mathematical resilience of students
who get MEA learning better than students who obtain PBL learning are student activity, students'
ability to work together, and enthusiasm needed for the learning process. This is also supported by the
opinion of Murphey (2013) where human characteristics that have high resilience are having easygoing
and easy to socialize, have good thinking skills, have people around to support, believe in themselves
and believe in their ability to make decisions and have spirituality or religiosity [9].
Based on the results of data analysis that has been done, it shows that there is a correlation between
mathematical resilience and critical thinking ability, meaning that there is a significant relationship
between mathematical resilience and critical thinking ability. These results are also supported by the
results of observations made during the research. During the implementation of the pretest, many
students found it difficult to solve the pretest questions. The students said that the questions given were
difficult. They immediately gave up without trying to understand or analyze the questions given. At the
first meeting in the learning process, both in the experimental class and the control class, the majority
of students looked very insecure. This is seen when the researcher ask some students to express their
ideas. Students tend to lack confidence and fear being wrong even though there are some students who
have the right ideas. Based on this, it showed that the weak mathematical resilience of students.
After learning, the students' mathematical resilience changes for the better, where students are more
enthusiastic in learning, not easily giving up, being careful in solving problems. This is supported by the
opinion of Kooken (2015) showing that students who have mathematical resilience have the ability to
grow their confidence and be careful in solving a problem [10]. This can be interpreted that the
conditions of good students’ mathematical resilience will have a positive impact on students' critical
thinking skills. In other words it can be said that students' mathematical resilience can affect students'
mathematical critical thinking abilities.
Based on the explanation above it can be concluded that the mathematical resilience and the
mathematics critical thinking of the students have a positive relationship, so if the students’
mathematical resilience is good then the students’ mathematics critical thinking will be good, and vice
versa.

4. Conclusion
Based on the results of data analysis and discussion that have been presented previously, it can be
concluded that: a) Increased mathematical critical thinking ability of students who get learning with
Model Eliciting Activities (MEAs) is significantly higher than students who get learning with Problem

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Volume 5, 2020| P-ISSN 2655-2361, E-ISSN 2655-3252

Based Learning (PBL). That is because students have the opportunity to be able to build their knowledge
in learning with MEAs which are supported by steps such as reading articles, readiness questions,
grouping students, making models of solving the problems presented, testing and revising problem
solutions to get the best solutions, and presentation of a model of solving the problem. Thus, there are
opportunities for students to find their own concepts and knowledge. b) Achieving the mathematical
resilience of students who study with Model Eliciting Activities (MEAs) higher than students who study
with Problem Based Learning (PBL) reviewed as a whole, 4) there is a correlation between mathematical
resilience and critical thinking ability, meaning that there is a significant relationship between
mathematical resilience and critical thinking ability.

5. References
[1] Nuryanti L Zubaidah S and Diantoro M 2018 Analisis Kemampuan Berpikir Kritis Siswa SMP
Jurnal Pendidikan: Teori, Penelitian, Dan Pengembangan pp 3
[2] Johnston W S and Lee C 2010 Developing Mathematical Resilience BERA Conference 1st - 4th
September University of Warwick
[3] Yeager D S and Dweck C 2012 Mindsets That Promote Resilience: When Students Believe That
Personal Characteristics Can Be Developed Educational Psychologist 47 p 302-314
[4] Sumarmo Utari 2015 Kumpulan Makalah Berpikir dan Disposisi Matematik serta
Pembelajarannya (Bandung: Jurusan Pendidikan Matematika FPMIPA UPI) p 68
[5] Sudrajat 2016 Pengaruh Pembelajaran Model Eliciting Activities Terhadap Peningkatan
Kemampuan Koneksi Matematis dan Self-Confidence Siswa Tesis Pendidikan Matematika
UPI. Bandung: Tidak Diterbitkan
[6] Chamberlin S A 2005 Model -Eliciting Activities as a Tool to Develop and Identify Creatively
Gifted Mathematicians Proceedings of the Journal of Secondary Gifted Education Amerika
Serikat p 5
[7] Sugiyono 2017 Metode Penelitian Kombinasi ed Sutopo (Bandung: ALFABETA) p 153
[8] Sudrajat. 2016 Pengaruh Pembelajaran Model Eliciting Activities Terhadap Peningkatan
Kemampuan Koneksi Matematis dan Self-Confidence Siswa Tesis Pendidikan Matematika
UPI. Bandung: Tidak Diterbitkan.
[9] Murphey D Barry M and Vaughn B 2013 Positive mental health Resilience Child Trends Positive
Mental Health Resilience, January(January), p 1-6.
[10] Kooken J, Welsh, Megan E and Mccoach D B. 2013 . Mathematical Resilience: An application
and exploration of motivational constructs related to resilience in the study of mathematics.
Annual Meeting American Educational Research Association (AERA) p 1–34.

Acknowledgments
The Authors thank the authors' parents for the do they always offer for the future of the author, also
thank you to Mr. and Mrs. lecturer of Mathematics Education, especially Suroto who allowed me to do
research in her class.

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