International Conference on Mathematics, Science, and Education 2014 (ICMSE 2014)
DEVELOPING A THEMATIC INQUIRY-DISCOVERY MODULE ON METABOLISM FOR JUNIOR
HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS
Sekar Dwi Ardianti1
Andreas Priyono Budi Prasetyo2
R. Susanti3
1
Science Education, Semarang State University
Department of Biology Education, Semarang State University
3
Department of Biology Education, Semarang State University
2
ABSTRACT
The study was aimed at examining the effect of the use of the thematic inquiry-discovery module on student learning outcomes. This
research and development used the post-test control group design for the field-test of the product. Population used for the field-testing
were all seventh grade students at SMP Negeri 1 Sluke. Cluster random sampling was implemented to devide samples into two groupsthe VII E class as an experimental group and the VII D class as the control group. The t-test showed a significantly different learning
outcomes (cognitive, psychomotoric, and affective aspects), between the experimental and control groups. Students and their teachers
responded positively to the use of thematic inquiry-discovery module. The use of thematic inquiry-discovery module on metabolism
significantly influenced the student learning outcomes. Thematic inquiry-discovery module was then expected to be implemented for
biology teaching and learning activities.
Keywords: thematic module, inquiry-discovery learning, metabolism
created the form of textbooks that presents theories
without attractive presentations and involving students
actively. This caused many students to memorize theories,
but unable to apply them in their everyday life. Trianto
(2010) underlined that learning successfulness heavily
relies on the use of learning resources as well as the
selected instructional materials. Module is the teaching
material that were systematically developed to assist
students in achieving their learning goals independently or
in groups (Daryanto, 2013). Asfiah (2013) added that
module requires students to learn independently so that
students are actively involved in learning. The main
obstacle in the use of modules is what is called as the
saturation of the students. Based on that reason, innovation
was still needed for the development of module to satisfy
the curriculum 2013 and module could be a fun learning
materials and that appeal to students.
Purwanto (2007) argued that the module was
learning materials which was designed systematically on
the basis of specific curriculum and was packaged in the
form of the smallest unit of learning. It enables students to
INTRODUCTION
Based on the school survey using questionaires
distributed to 10 science teachers at SMP / MTs Rembang,
it was found that many teaching materials were not colored
by the thematic and inquiry-discovery approaches in
science teaching, as mandated by the new 2013 curriculum.
Friedman et al. (2010) argued that the inquiry-based
teaching was closely related to the nature of science as a
process of human inquiry and could be used to increase
student achievement. Science was treated as inquiry rather
than collected facts to be studied. However, for Indonesian
teachers, the implementation of science as inquiry was not
easily done due to the lack of school facilities, including
students’ books or learning modules.
Classroom observation conducted at SMP N1
Sluke indicated that the topic ‘metabolism as bioenergy
formation’ was delivered with ‘lecturing methods’ and
was supported by conventional teaching materials.
Instructional materials used as a learning resources were
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International Conference on Mathematics, Science, and Education 2014 (ICMSE 2014)
independently study a certain time unit. Module materials
have some characteristics different from other teaching
materials. According to Daryanto (2013), good and
attractive modules share at least 5 characteristics, i.e. selfinstruction, self-contained, stand alone, adaptive, and user
friendly. Millah et al. (2012) mentioned that a good
module was eligible to satisfy BSNP standards (National
Board of Education Standard) namely having good
content, language, presentation, and graphic.
The thematic inquiry-discovery module was then
developed to encourage students to do science activities
(observations and discoveries) in one unified topic as
whole. This module helped students overcome difficulties,
especially in the topic areas of metabolism. The study was
aimed at examining validity of the thematic inquirydiscovery module and identifying the effect of the use of
the developed thematic inquiry-discovery module on
student learning outcomes.
scientific processes as its learning syntax. Table 1 presents
the module specifications.
Table 1. Specifications of product
No
1.
Aspects of
Module
Title
2.
Content
Materials
3.
4.
Use for
Learning
methods
Assesment
5.
Explanation
thematic inquiry-discovery module on
metabolism
Bioenergy as the learning theme/topics
elaborating energy in physic,
chemistry, and biology world.
SMP students as individual or groups.
Inquiry-Discovery Learning
Both formative assesment used;
students’ skills in laboratory activities.
Sumative assesment focused on the
score post tests.
The inquiry-discovery of students' learning
activities included: (1) "Artikel dan Jelajah Topik"; (2)
"Ingatlah"; (3) "Mari Temukan"; (4) "Telusur
Kesimpulan"; (5) "Catatan Penting"; (6) "Uji Kompetensi";
and (7) "Umpan Balik". "Artikel dan Jelajah Topik " was
designed to help students to be able to formulate problems
within their own language. According to Illahi (2012), the
stimulation was very important to optimize the students’
skills in an actual form. "Ingatlah" was a part of the
learning activities that contained concepts that assist
students to address the formulated problems. The purpose
of this activity was to drive students to collect relevant
data from ‘literature reviews’ to support hypothesis. "Mari
Temukan" was the core activity of the module, namely
students conducted an investigation to discover a new
concept so that learning was more meaningful. This was
supported by Estuningsih (2013) who believed that guided
inquiry worksheets could provide students with the direct
and meaningful learning experiences, because the
structured questions could lead students find a concept.
"Telusur Kesimpulan" belonged to a student
activity who took elaboration, confirmation, conclusion
from their scientific activities. As mentioned by Illahi
(2012) , the process of drawing conclusions may be used as
general principles for all events or similar problems with
outcome-oriented. "Catatan Penting" contained important
concepts related to the concept being studied. An
important note was designed to enable students to find
information quickly. "Uji Kemampuan" was consisted of
questions to be addressed by students who were equipped
with feedbacks to determine the level of their ability. This
activity was intended for students to evaluate themselves
METHODS
This study tried to follow research and
development steps with some modifications. The module
was validated by three validators, two biology lecturers at
FMIPA UNNES and a seventh grade biology teacher from
SMP 1 Sluke. The module was assessed by the use of the
teaching material assessment sheet of the BSNP. Limited
scale trial was conducted on 10 students who provided
some advices of the structure and languages used. This
field-test study used the post-test control group design.
Population used for the field-testing were all seventh
grade students at SMP Negeri 1 Sluke. Cluster random
sampling was implemented to devide samples into two
groups- the VII E class as an experimental group and the
VII D class as the control group. The data collected during
the field-testing were presented, as follows: cognitive
achievement was assessed by post-tests on material
metabolism, psychomotoric skills and affective attitudes
was recorded by the observation sheet. Responses of
students and teachers towards the use of thematic inquirydiscovery module were portrayed by using questionaires.
Data were analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively.
RESULTS & DISCUSSION
The thematic inquiry-discovery module was
successfully created as independent teaching materials,
using a theme to bind core and basic competencies (KI,
KD), and its subjects into a unified topic, and applying
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International Conference on Mathematics, Science, and Education 2014 (ICMSE 2014)
because modules was independent instructional materials.
One of the characteristics of the module, based on
Daryanto (2013), was self-instruction. Self instruction was
an important characteristic of the module as it allows one
to learn on his own speed.
The validation results of the third validator
showing scores 172, 195, and 201 of the total score of 216
with a decent and very worthy criteria (Table 2).
Tabel 2. Validation assessment scores
No
1
2
3
4
5
Aspec
Content feasibility
Language feasibility
Presentation feasibility
Graphic feasibility
Thematic feasibility
Inquiry-discovery
6
feasibility
Total
Persentation (%)
Val 1
23
32
19
53
26
Score
Val 2
26
37
22
62
27
Val 1
26
38
22
63
29
19
21
23
172
79,6%
195
90,3%
201
93,1%
Worthy
Very
worthy
Very
worthy
testing study) to determine its effect on student learning
outcomes.
Cognitive learning results of students,
as
collected from the post-test scores on metabolism was
presented by Table 3.
Tabel 3. Recapitulation post test score of experimental
group and control group.
Post-test score
Experimental
Control
Group
Group
Averrage
82,10
71,47
Max score
83
93
Min score
63
70
T-test results showed that the calculated t value
was 7.722> 2.001 t-table, this meaned that there was a
significant difference between the average post-test scores
of the experimental and control groups.
Psychomotoric and affective learning outcomes
drawn from the activities, interests, and attitudes of the
students during the teaching learning processes were
assessed by the observation sheets. The average of
psychomotoric and affective score of students between the
experimental and the control groups were shown in Table
4.
Tabel 4. Psychomotoric and affective scores from the
experimental dan control groups.
Component
Some disadvantages of the thematic inquirydiscovery module on metabolism, based on the previous
reviews of the validators, were the unproper use of colors,
images and texts. Validators then encouraged the writter to
improve the use of color, images, and texts and to improve
the students' interest in reading. This was also supporeted
by Haryanto (2009) who underlined the clarity of the size
of the image in the learning context of students' reading
and writing skills. The presence of the image in a module
would help students understand the material.
Some advantages of the module were those of
its learning steps (methods) designed as the combination
of inquiry and discovery. The learning syntax trained
students to find themselves concepts that affects their
understanding of the concept. According to Balim (2009),
learning using the inquiry-discovery required students to
comment on the concepts, information, and issues, by
discussing, asking questions, and seeking more
information by themselves to find better solutions.
To improve the quality of the module
feasibilities, it was validated and revised again, on the
basis of limited trial testing with students. Limited scale
trial was conducted on 10 students as respondents. Lowest
score was found on the item questions number 12 (printed
text and clear images). As many as 30% of students stated
that the images used in the module was less clear, and
images used was not attractive. The module was revised
again. It was then used for the large-scale trials (field-
Averr
age
1
2
3
4
total
thitung
t-tabel
Psychomotor Score
Exp
Ctrl
67,1
49,3
71,3
65,3
77,7
65,0
87,1
76,3
75,8
64,0
6,563
2,001
Affective Score
Exp
Ctrl
18,42
17,17
18,26
16,80
18,35
17,03
17,87
16,57
18,23
16,89
3,028
2,001
This table indicated that there were significant
differences between the average scores of students, of both
psychomotoric and affective scores from the experimental
and control groups. It could be concluded that the use of
module brought a significant effect on students learning.
As a whole this table also indicated that there
were significant differences between the experimental and
control groups. Ridwan (2013) mentioned
that the
application of the learning model of inquiry on the theme
of water pollution showed an increase in both the
cognitive, affective, and psychomotor. Teachers also
recorded an increase in student learning outcomes because
students understand the material by using a thematic
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International Conference on Mathematics, Science, and Education 2014 (ICMSE 2014)
inquiry-discovery module. Concepts studied by students
were not just memorization (a call or a rote ), but were
related to their everyday life so that they would gain
meaningful learning. Friedman et al. (2010), stated that the
inquiry learning could
improve students' learning
outcomes because students played a dominant role in
learning. These activities motivated students to understand
the subject matter, and that was why it affected the
learning outcomes. According to Budiada (2011), the
implementation of inquiry supported students to be able to
find their own learning material concepts and make
students learn more meaningfully. Meaningfulness in
study have an impact on memory as well as the students'
understanding of concept. It is powerful to positively
affect learning outcomes.
Students
experienced
directly
through
experiments. Students were able to find their knowledge
by themselves. Learning provided students with real and
meaningful experiences. This claim was also supported by
Justice (2009), who indicated that the inquiry could
improve the quality of the learning as weel as the
performance of students. Jiwa (2013) mentioned that
thematic learning were more related to the application of
the concept of learning by doing something (learning by
doing), and learning was not boring.
Balim AG. 2009. The Effect of Discovery Learning on
Students Success and Inquiry Learning Skills.
Egitim Arastirmalari Eurasian Journal of
Educational Research. 35: 1-20.
Budiada IW. 2011. Pengaruh Penerapan Model
Pembelajaran Inquiry Terbimbing Berbasis
Asesmen Portofolio Terhadap Hasil Belajar Kimia
Siswa Kelas X Ditinjau dari Adversity Quotient.
Jurnal Penelitian dan Evaluasi Pendidikan. 1(2).
Daryanto. 2013. Menyusun Modul. Yogyakarta: Gava
Media.
Estuningsih S, Susantini E, & Isnawati. 2013.
Pengembangan Lembar Kerja Siswa (LKS)
Berbasis Penemuan Terbimbing (Guided Discovery)
untuk Meningkatkan Hasil Belajar Peserta Didik
Kelas XII IPA SMA Pada Materi Substansi
Genetika. Jurnal Bioedu. 2(1): 27-30.
Friedman DB, Crews TB, Caicedo JM, Besley JC,
Weinberg J, & Freeman ML. 2010. An Exploration
into Inquiry-Based Learning by A Multidisciplinary
Group of Higher Education Faculty. Springer High
Education. 59:765-783.
CONCLUSION
Haryanto. 2009. Upaya Meningkatkan Kemampuan
Membaca dan Menulis Permulaan dengan Media
Gambar (Tesis). Surakarta: UNS.
The thematic inquiry-discovery module was
successfully developed, validated and revised to provide
students with meaningful and integrated activities, such as
reading, understanding, and doing science activities
(observations and discoveries) in one unified topic as
whole. This module was positively supported by students
and their teachers, that was why this learning media
could be used to help students overcome their learning
difficulties, especially in the topic areas of metabolism. It
could be also used to improve student’s scientific
approaches in learning natural sciences, languages, and
social sciences integratedly.
Illahi MT. 2012. Pembelajaran Discovery Strategy &
Mental Vacational Skill. Yogyakarta: Diva Press.
Jiwa IW, Dantes N, & Marhaeni AAIN. 2013. Pengaruh
Implementasi Pembelajaran Tematik Terhadap
Prestasi Belajar Ditinjau dari Motivasi Belajar pada
Siswa Kelas IV Gugus Empat di Kecamatan
Gianyar. Jurnal Penelitian dan Evaluasi
Pendidikan. 3.
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