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
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(2007). Critical Thinking An
exploration of theory and practice. Routledge Taylor
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(2014). Critical
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