Effect of Thinking Skill-Based Inquiry Learning Method on Learning Outcomes of Social Studies: A Quasi-Experimental Study on Grade VIII Students of MTSN 6 Tulungagung

The background underlying this study is due to the implementing of instruction methods that have not demonstrated thinking skill. The discussion of Social Studies material is also very broad, demanding students to possess thinking skill (critical thinking and creative thinking). Thinking skill is crucial to deal with problems in doing tasks in order to improve learning outcomes, or even to solve problems that exist in either students themselves or in their environment. In an effort to improve learning outcomes, teachers can adopt thinking skill-based inquiry learning method. The objective of this study is to (1)examine learning outcomes of Social Studies between those who use thinking skill-based inquiry learning method and those who adopt conventional method; (2) investigate the significant effect of using thinking skill-based inquiry learning method; and (3) analyzing the effect size of thinking skill-based inquiry learning method on the Social Studies learning outcomes. This article exploited a perceptible or measurable way, notably an apparent- empirical construction, in which thinking skill-based inquiry learning method was the independent variable and learning outcome was the dependent variable. The instruments used were test and documentation. This study used a saturated sampling technique. The population in this study was all grade 8 students. This study engaged 2 classes as the sample, namely class VIII-H as the control class consisting of 38 students, and class VIII-I as the experimental class comprising of 34 pupils. The statistics were analyzed using the t-test, and the aftermath capacity was calculated by using Cohen’s formula. The outcome of this finding determined as follows(1) the learning outcomes of Social Studies of students who used thinking skill-based inquiry learning method was 80.91 on average, better than the students who used the conventional learning method; (2) it displayed that a significant reaction of reasoning competency-based question and reasoning instruction design or approach on the pupils learning reaction with the value of t count = 6.57, and t table at the 5% significance level was 1.65, indicating that the value of t count > t table , (3) the effect size of thinking skill-based inquiry learning method on the students’ learning outcome was up to 91.9%, which was classified as the high percentage.