Journal of Educational Sciences
Vol. 9 No. 6 (2025): Journal of Educational Sciences

The Effect of Group Discussion Learning on Improving Students' Critical Thinking Skills in Essay Writing

Musoffa, Laylatul (Unknown)
Anggraeni, Astri Widyaruli (Unknown)
Citraningrum, Dina Merdeka (Unknown)



Article Info

Publish Date
15 Nov 2025

Abstract

This study aims to evaluate the impact of the group discussion learning approach on improving students' critical thinking skills in writing essays for Indonesian language subjects at SMP Negeri 1 Tempurejo. This study uses a quantitative approach with a pretest-posttest design with a non-equivalent control group. The participants consisted of two classes: IX B as the control group and IX D as the experimental group, each containing 20 students. Data were collected using essay writing assessments and direct observation to evaluate student engagement during classroom learning, after which they were evaluated using a paired sample t-test. The results showed an increase in the average score of the experimental class from 77.5 to 91.3 (an increase of 13.8 points), while the control class increased from 56.8 to 66.9 (an increase of 10.1 points), indicating a significant difference between the two classes. The experimental class experienced a percentage increase of 17.81%, indicating a relative effectiveness that was 36.63% superior to the standard learning method. As a result, the group discussion method significantly improved students' critical thinking skills in essay writing.

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Journal Info

Abbrev

JES

Publisher

Subject

Religion Humanities Education Library & Information Science Other

Description

JES publishes original articles on the latest issues and trends occurring regionally and internationally in the educational sciences with the aim to advance our knowledge both in term of theory and practice. Moreover, this journal also covers the issues concerned with the following special sections: ...