Nature of science v.s direct instruction models in achieving senior high school students’ critical thinking and their attitudes in learning physics

Learning physics in senior high school tends to apply direct instruction (DI), not yet concerned with the nature of science (NOS) model. This study aimed to examine the comparative advantage between the NOS and DI models in achieving students’ critical thinking and attitudes. The study utilized the post test only control group design. The study population was 5 classes or 137 students of class XI MIPA senior high school 1 Busungbiu Buleleng. Random assignment techniques are used to determine two classes or 58 students (42.3% of population) as sample. The experimental group was MIPA-1 class or 29 students and the control group was MIPA-2 class or 29 students. Critical thinking data were collected by 12 essays and student attitudes with a questionnaire consisting of 40 items: 20 items measuring social attitudes and another 20 items measuring spiritual attitudes. Data were analyzed by one way MANOVA. The results showed that the NOS model was significantly superior to the DI model in achieving critical thinking and student attitudes in learning physics in Senior High School. The average value obtained by the NOS group was M = 29.66 and the DI group was M = 24.25 on a 100 point scale, which means they fall in the very low category. This is a challenge for the next especially for the NOS application in learning physics.