Students’ Perceptions on Debate Technique in Improving Critical Thinking

Mohammad Heru Susanto¹

19 Desember 2017

¹Student of Pattimura University

At English Education Study Program class of 2015

INTRODUCTION

In the process of teaching and learning, the ability to deal with materials, problems, issues or phenomena being discussed is needed. In this process, teacher tends to bring the students to the new knowledge, information or issues are being discussed. The purpose this is to know how students will react on those things. So, to handle with those things, students need to have the capability to think about how to deal with the problem or issue that teacher gave. Unfortunately, the ability to think by ignoring the aspects of getting the way out is achieved yet. Many students are less of awareness to the kinds of the issue or problem being discussed. The only way to tackle with some kinds of problems or issues is to think deeply and critically. Thinking critically is on the higher place the process of thinking. A critical thinker will gain the many ways to solve some kinds of problem. Those, with the ability of critical thinking will be able to become the problem solver by generating creative ways and solutions that might be not thought by other people. And also a critical thinker will have the ability to become an open-minded person. He or she will respect the difference of ideas in one forum discussion or something like this. That is why the ability of critical thinking is very important of any kinds of field. In educational field, particularly in EFL class, students are hoped to have this ability in order to be usual in handling the kinds of issue, problem and phenomenon that the teacher gives to them and hope that students will have the ability to deal with them. The importance of critical thinking is also stated by Chan (2011, p.2), he says that critical thinking increase the ability in learning language and presentation. By thinking clearly and analytically could enhance the way we convey our ideas, analyze the language and increase the understanding ability. He also adds that it can improve creative thinking that can generate the solutions toward the problems (p.2).

In EFL class, there is a technique that mostly used by teacher to develop students’ speaking ability. The technique is called debate technique. In English learning, this technique is used in order to improve students’ speaking skill but there are also some students’ opinions say that it also develops their critical thinking and it is very important for them.

Considering the importance of critical thinking above especially in educational field, the researcher is interested with debate technique. This technique seems to be appropriate to improve students’ critical thinking. Therefore, the researcher wants to conduct the study about the students’ perception on debate technique in improving critical thinking.

Research Question

In this study, the researcher formulates the research questions as follow

1.      What are students’ perceptions on debate technique in improving critical thinking?

2.      Does debate technique improve students’ critical thinking?

The Objective of The Study

In this study, the researcher wants to know and describe students’ perceptions on debate technique in improving critical thinking.

DISCUSSION

Definition of Critical Thinking

Critical thinking is kind of general term that has various definitions. According to Moon (2007, p.21) Critical thinking is the ability to judge the information that come from many different sources, to process it into creative and logical thoughts, challenge it, analyze it and generate conclusions from it which can be used and accepted. While Schafersman (2008) defines critical thinking as a way to explain the process of thinking which is reasonable, reflective, responsible, and even skillful thinking that makes a person to determine what to believe and do. From these two definitions the researcher can conclude that critical thinking is the ability to think about the information that has different sources and analyze it into reasonable and creative forms as new ideas that can be used as a solution or conclusion of the problems.

The Characteristics of a Critical Thinker

After seeing the definition of critical thinking, the researcher can that people who have the ability to think critically have the different characteristics as common people. Karakoc (2016) explains that critical thinkers are people who do research, question deeply, reject the information as the way it is, analyze the information, combine the information that they get, evaluate the information and give the conclusion, become an open-minded person or respect the differences. The one who has those features can be called as critical thinker who has amazing skill of thinking. Ennis (1985 as cited in Zare and Othman 2015) provides thirteen characteristics of individuals who benefits from critical thinking skills. Critical thinkers are they who likely to be:

1.      “Open minded

2.      Take or change position based on evidence,

3.      Take the entire situation into account

4.      Seek information

5.      Seek precise information

6.      Deal in an orderly manner with parts of a complex whole

7.      Look for options

8.      Search for reasons

9.       Seeks a clear statement of the issue

10.  Keep the original problem in mind

11.  Use credible sources

12.   Stick to the point

13.  Exhibit sensitivity to others’ feelings and knowledge level”

The Importance of Critical Thinking

Critical thinking is a crucial ability that can help a person to deal with kinds of phenomena that happened in his or her life. Being critical thinker brings the amazing benefits for the person himself. There are some reasons why critical thinking is very important. Chan (2011) indicates the importance of critical thinking as follow:

1.      Critical thinking improves language and presentation skills. Thinking clearly and chronologically can increase the way to express ideas, learn how to analyze the rational structure of texts and it also improves comprehension skill.

2.      Critical thinking creates creativity. To produce the creative solution to a problem, critical thinker not only come up with new ideas but also must have the new ideas which are relevant and useful to the problem being discussed. Critical thinking reacts as important thing of evaluating ideas and choose the best one as a necessary

3.      Critical plays as important thing for self-reflection. In order to live the life, human needs to understand their lives and always to reflect on the values and decisions that they take. That is why critical thinking gives the way for this process of self-assessment so that they can understand each other as the reflection of themselves.

Besides that, Shankapal (2014) adds that critical thinking helps students to reach higher levels in their study and profession and able to become leader in one condition.

Steps to Achieve Critical Thinking

Critical thinking prevents a person from jumping directly to the conclusion of the problem instead come up with alternative ways or different thoughts. This process of thinking can be achieved through the six steps that stated by Elmansy (2017) as follows:

1.      Knowledge

This step identifies the argument or the problem that needs to be solved. Questions should be asked to acquire a deep understanding about the problem. In some cases, there is no actual problem, thus no need to move forward with other steps in the critical thinking model. The questions in this stage should be open-ended to allow the chance to discuss and explore main reasons. In this stage the person should know what the problem is.

2.      Comprehension

Once the problem is identified, the next step is to understand the situation and the facts deal with it. The data is collected about the problem using any of the research methods that can be adopted depending on the problem, the type of the data available, and the deadline required to solve it.

3.      Application

This step continues the previous one to complete the understanding of different facts and resources required to solve the problem by building a connection between the information and resources. This step uses the instruments or data that can be used to apply to the problem discussed

4.      Analyze

Once the information is collected and linkages are built between it the main problems, the situation is analyzed in order to identify the situation, the strong points, the weak points, and the challenges faced while solving the problem. So this step is used to analyze the data found from previous stage in order to know the best

5.      Synthesis

In this stage, once the problem is fully analyzed and all the related information is considered, a decision should be formed about how to solve the problem and the initial routes to follow to take this decision into action. If there are number of solutions, they should be evaluated and prioritized in order to find the most advantageous solution.

6.      Take Action

The final step is to build an evaluation about the problem that can be put into action. The result of critical thinking should be transferred into action steps. This step comes up with a result or solution of the problem and then takes the action. Besides, this is the step where the critical thinkers make a self-reflection toward the action.

Definition of Debate

Debate is one of techniques that teacher uses in EFL class especially when teaching speaking. Debate is mostly used to improve students’ speaking skill. In debate, students are needed to speak up in order to express their thoughts. So, what is debate technique? According to Crocker (1962, p.1) debate is a formal argument in which two sides convey and defend different points of view on chosen motion or topic. In similar view, Akerman and Neale (2011 as quoted in Zeljezic 2017) defines debate as a formal discussion where two opposing sides follow a set of pre-agreed rules to engage in an oral exchange of different points of view on an issue. From these two definitions, so the researcher can say that debate is a formal argument in which there two sides of group or individual that deliver different points of view regarding the topic or motion being discussed.

In EFL class, teacher uses debate as a technique more or less to improve students’ speaking ability. Debate is very motivated in which students are eager to convey their ideas to their opposition and try to strengthen their arguments. Moreover, in the application of this technique, debate seems to be useful way to improve critical thinking. This is because debate needs a debater to analyze what to say and think deeply to how maintain the arguments against the opponents. Zare and Othman (2015) also supported that Debate is used to develop skills in critical thinking, analyzing, synthesizing, and speaking skill. This can be seen that besides it affects students’ speaking skill, it also gives the impact on critical thinking.

METHODOLOGY

Research Design

                  The kind of this study was descriptive study or survey study in which the researcher investigated the students’ perception on using debate in improving their critical thinking. Then, this study used qualitative approach which focuses on the events, phenomenon or data that happens in the reality. Moleong (as cited in Yunita, 2017) states that qualitative research is a research that focuses to know deeply about the phenomenon of what is being experienced by the subject of the study such as motivation, perception, behavior and so on.

Research Setting

                  Research setting talks about the place where the data was collected. This study was conducted in English Education Study Program, at Speaking 3 class in Pattimura University. The reason why the researcher chose this the speaking class because this class had a project named debate so it is relevant with the title of the study.

Sample

The researcher used non-probability sampling technique to choose the sample. He used one of type of sampling in non-probability sampling technique which is purposive sampling. Purposive sampling is sampling technique that chooses the participant based on the purpose or problem that related the study. It chooses the sample based on the certain characteristics which are viewed has the relation to the study or the researcher selects the sample because of his experience and knowledge regarding to the study. From around 50s students who enrolled speaking 3 course, the researchers selected 30 students as the representative of whole students.

Data and Source of Data

1.      Data

The data of this research was students’ perceptions on debate technique in improving their critical thinking of the students who take speaking 3 course.

2.      Source of Data

The source of data of this study was the utterances which were given by the participants.

Data Collection

            In this study, to collect the data the researcher used questionnaire as the instrument. According to Noor (as quoted in Yunita, 2017) questionnaire is the data collection technique by distributing list of questions or statements to respondents which is hoped to give a response to the questions or statements. The researcher created the statements in questionnaire based on the steps of developing critical thinking. If all the steps are answered, it indicates that students have achieved the process critical thinking. The six steps are knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis and evaluation.

            To achieve the purpose of this research, the researcher set a target of criteria of success used to determine the success of survey study were as follows:

1.      Criteria of critical thinking from 8 statements that followed six steps of critical thinking must achieved the score of more than 500 or  more than 50% from total score 800 or 80%

2.      Criteria of interest in using debate is 100 or 10%

3.      Criteria of perception on debate motivates to speak up 100 is

Technique of Analyzing Data

The researcher used Likert scale questionnaire that consist of 10 statements. To analyze the questionnaire, researcher used the formula as follow:

P =    f   x 100

          n

Where:

P: The result

f: Answer frequency

n: Amount of respondent

100: Constant Number

Analyzing Data

After calculating the questionnaire, so the researcher got the result as follows:

No.	Statements	30 respondents
		SD	D	N	A	SA
1	I like debate technique in speaking class	0%	0%	2 7%	18 60%	10 33%
2	Debate technique motivates me to speak up	0%	0%	2 (7%)	11 (37%)	17 (57%)
3	Debate technique could build my comprehension about the issue discussed	0%	0%	6 (20%)	14 (47%)	10 (33%)
4	I learn and explore deeply my motion in debate	0%	0%	6 (20%)	16 (53%)	8 (27%)
5	I use supporting ideas (expert’s opinion, evidence, facts, etc) to develop my motion	0%	0%	2 (7%)	11 (37%)	17 (57%)
6	I combine all the supporting ideas and choose the strongest one to support my arguments	0%	0%	2 (7%)	12 (40%)	16 (53%)
7	Debate technique teaches me to talk logically and chronologically	0%	0%	4 (13%)	12 (40%)	14 (47%)
8	I analyze the opponents’ arguments first before I begin to rebut theirs	0%	0%	4 (13%)	14 (47%)	12 (40%)
9	Debate technique teaches me how to strengthen my arguments	0%	0%	4 (13%)	13 (43%)	13 (43%)
10	Debate technique makes me to become an open-minded person (willing to hear and consider new and different ideas)	0%	0%	3 (10%)	13 (43%)	14 (47%)
TOTAL		0%	0%	113%	350%	347%
Criteria of Success		Disagree 0%		Neutral 103/12.87%	Agree 697/87.12%

Based on the result of questionnaire, the researcher could say that there were 28 of 30 students or 93% of the students like using debate technique and only 2 of 30 students or `7% of the students who said neutral (stated in first statement). There were also 28 of 30 students or 93% of the students said that debate motivated them to speak up and only 2 of 30 students or `7% of the students who said neutral (stated in first statement (stated in second statement) and 87.12% or score 697 indicated that students agreed that debate technique improve their critical thinking. While 12.87% or score 103 of the students who said neutral about debate improve their critical thinking. And there was no response or 0% of students said that they disagreed or strongly disagreed.

Conclusion

After calculating the data above, the researcher found that the result of the survey study based on three criteria of success consist of several conclusions. The first, it was found that the result of criteria of critical thinking was 87.12%. This indicated positive response that more 50% students agreed that debate technique improve their critical thinking. Only 12.87% students who said neutral whether debate improve critical thinking or not. While criteria of interest in debate technique, it was found that 93% of students liked debate technique and there were only 7% of them who said neutral. And for the last criteria of success, it was found that the same number as a second criterion which was 97% of students agreed that debate technique motivates them to speak up and there were only 7% of them who doubt whether it motivated them to speak up or not. And there was no response or 0% of students said that they disagreed or strongly disagreed about the perceptions of debate technique in improving critical thinking. The great effect of this technique to critical thinking can be seen that students strongly believed that debate technique improves their critical thinking and so, this criterion of study was successful.

Suggestion

            Considering the result of survey study showed that debate technique could improve students’ critical thinking of students who enrolled speaking 3 courses at English Education Study Program, Pattimura University, some suggestions were given

            First for teacher, teacher must aware of the impact of this technique toward students’ critical thinking, so this technique can be applied more than one so that it can build and train students’ critical thinking continually

            Second for students, students should use this technique as learning method that they can apply it outside of the classroom with their friends. Besides, this technique helps them to improve speaking ability it also can assist them to develop their critical thinking.

REFERENCES

Chan, J. (2011). What is Critical Thinking and Why is it Important?

Crocker, L. (1962). Argumentation and Debate. American Institute of Banking. New York

Elmansy, R. (2017). 6 Steps for EFFECTIVE Critical Thinking. Retrieved on December 18, 2017 from http://www.designorate.com/steps-effective-critical-thinking

Karakoc, M. (2016). The Significance of Critical Thinking Ability in terms of Education. International Journal of Humanities and Social Science Vol. 6, No. 7; July 2016

Moon, J. (2007). Critical Thinking An exploration of theory and practice. Routledge Taylor & Francis Group. London and New York

Schafersman, S.D. (1991). An Introduction to Critical Thinking

Shankapal. (2014). Critical Thinking and Its Importance

Yunita, D. (2017). Students’ Opinion on Islamic Content-Based Texts Used in Reading Comprehension by English Teacher. State Institute for Islamic Studies Batusangkar.

Zare, P., & Othman, M. (2015). Students’ Perceptions toward Using Classroom Debate to Develop Critical Thinking and Oral Communication Ability. Asian Social Science; Vol. 11, No. 9; 2015

Zeljezic, M. (2017). Debate in the EFL Classroom. University of Ljubljana Slovenia