Critical Thinking of Field Independent Students ; which Model of Teaching is more Supportive ?

DOI:10.21009/jtp.v22i2. 16018 Abstract: This study examines whether a certain learning condition as of model of teaching is more supportive to the enhancement of critical thinking of field independent students. To be brief is that whether students with cognitive style of field independent function more superior through particular implemented models of flipped classroom, pure online or direct instruction. The study was a quasi-experiment conducted to 96 English majors divided equally in three different classes and treated with a different model. Data were collected by asking samples to take a critical thinking skills test after the treatment. Data were analyzed by means of two-way analysis of variance. Findings of the study show that the critical thinking skills of field independent students differ significantly after the three models implementation and the flipped classroom model is found to be more supportive.


INTRODUCTION
Critical thinking has been the main issue in every aspect of life so as to be called as a life skill.
Someone who always thinks critically will be more easily to solve a problem and can foster a new innovation. By thinking critically, one can consider information, assess conclusions and make correct conclusions (Christen & Angermer, 1994). Critical thinking skills are needed to support one's life now and in the future economically, socially and culturally (Hayat & Yusuf, 2010). Having the aforementioned condition, language educators such as those in higher 1 FKIP,Halu Oleo Univeristy,Kendari Sulawesi Tenggara,nurnia.68@ 2 SMPN 5 Kendari,Kendari Sulawesi Tenggara,herlinamelay@gmail.c education need to find ways on how to help students possess the skills. Some believe that critical thinking could be developed through a particular learning condition such as through online platform to practice real life condition in this disruptive era. Roberston et.al. (2005) observed that online learning can improve students' thinking skills and learning achievement and are more satisfying than face-to-face or direct learning. Kharat et al. (2015) observed that Flipped Classroom can develop higher-order thinking skills because students can engage in active learning, interact with friends and lecturers, and use the knowledge they have learned to analyze, synthesize, apply their knowledge to evaluate, build, design and create new thing.
Meanwhile, direct learning is seen as effective in teaching students to remember facts or understand concepts, while active learning such as learning activities with friends and problem-based (Bishop & Verleger, 2013) benefits the development of high-level cognitive processes (Hamdan, McKnight, McKnight, & Arfstrom, 2013).
Therefore. this study is aimed to examine whether field independent students differs significantly in their critical thinking after being exposed to three different models of teaching. This study is of essential to see whether the said students are always relevant to develop their critical thinking no matter what models of teaching they are involved in or whether such students need more freedom or self-study through the use of technology to independently develop their critical thinking.

Critical Thinking
Critical thinking is related to the use of mental skills or cognitive strategies that increase the likelihood of getting the desired results.
Various definitions have been proposed by experts. Critical thinking is reflective and reasoned thinking that emphasizes deciding what is believed and what is not (Ennis (1993). Critical thinking is the process of determining the authenticity, accuracy, and importance of information or knowledge in the meantime (Perdamean, 2012). Based on these definitions, we can draw the conclusion that critical thinking is a self-assessment carried out consciously and with a clear purpose in making interpretations, analyzes, evaluations and conclusions, and also provides an explanation on the basis of consideration of evidence, concepts, methods, criteria and context on which to base an assessment.
Experts have developed various concepts about the scope of critical thinking skills. Bloom (1978) revealed that thinking skills must be emphasized in problem solving, application of principles, analysis and creativity which are realized into the higher order thinking skills of his cognitive taxonomy such as analysis, evaluation and creativity. Ennis and Norris (1990) suggested that critical thinking skills are grouped into 5 steps, namely: (1) providing simple explanations, (2) building basic skills, (3) concluding, (4) providing further explanation, and (5) organizing strategy and tactics. Meanwhile, experts in teaching and evaluating education have made consensus and decided on six main critical thinking skills, those are interpretation, analysis, drawing conclusions, evaluation, explanation and self regulation (Facione, 2015). In this study, we applied the latter six skills by Facione (2015) since the skills comparatively cover all concepts proposed by all aforementioned experts. In addition, this category has also included selfregulation which does not well occupied in Bloom's category but might be similar to the skill of organizing strategy and tactics in Ennis and Norris's (1990) term.

Field Independent (Cognitive Style)
Simply stated, cognitive style is the process of how individuals receive and process information. Some experts have provided concuring definitions. Witkin, et.al. (1971) defines cognitive style as a form of displacement in a unique and consistent way that is displayed in one's perceptual and intellectual activities. Messick, et.al. (1976) explains that cognitive styles as attitudes, preferences and strategies are used by individuals in remembering, thinking and solving problems. Furthermore, Riding and Cheema (1991) interpret cognitive style as an individual's way of solving problems, thinking, feeling and remembering. To conclude, cognitive style is a consistent tendency and individual characteristics in receiving, remembering, organizing, and processing information and solving problems. Witkin et.al. (1976) maintains that every individual has their own way of managing and processing information. This means that each individual has a cognitive style that is different from one another. To concur, Kozhevnikov (2014) emphasises that cognitive style represents differences in the cognition of each individual in overcoming their environment. In this regards, Witkin et.al. (1976) identified individuals on two different sides as analytic (Field independent) or global (Field dependent). In this study, we examine specifically how the field independent students develop their critical thinking. Students who have this tendency might approach the environment in an analytical way, that is, separating information separately from its broader part, for example, distinguishing images as the smallest part of the background or the largest part.
According to Saracho and Spodek (1981), field independent individuals have the ability to decipher abstract items and solve problems in different contexts, are actively task oriented, have analytic skills, and enjoy working independently.
In line with this, Garger and Guild (1984) states that these individuals perceive information analytically, developing concepts specifically, individually, independently, and motivated from within themselves. To concur, research by Kannan (1996) shows that individual differences lie in the way they process information. Thus, cognitive style is an important factor to investigate since it might affect the way of learning and the way students interact with lecturers and other classmates.

Models of Teaching
In general term, modes of teaching could be categorized into three ways that is with the use of digital technology or without which and/or with the combination between the two. As such, nowadays we come to know about the purely online learning, the blended learning and the direct instruction or face-to face classroom. These modes of teaching have their own characteristics and advantages which might be appropriately used to certain condition of learning and learners.

Pure Online
Purely online learning is a type of distance education whereby instructors and students are physically separated while the learning process and material are delivered via the internet (Clark, 2008). Clark (2008) states that learning is called online if 51% or more of the learning process is delivered online. As for pure online is an online instruction whereby the whole or most of the learning materials and instructional activities are delivered via internet or online platform and has no face-to-face classroom meetings.
Online learning in universities has often been found either in a blended or full (pure / fully online). Warbington (2001) observed that the use of the internet has provided many benefits so that universities now use distance learning technology.  Secondly, this model allows students to study learning material before meeting in class and achieve progress in learning and allows the learning process according to their learning styles and abilities (Bergmann and Sams, 2012). Third, it can create more time for teachers to interact with students both individually and in groups; thus lecturers better understand learning needs and provide appropriate assistance. Fourth, lecturers provide flexibility and freedom to students so they can learn from activities designed to develop problem-solving skills (Flores, et.al., 2016).

Direct Teaching
The term Direct Instruction (face to face) has been used by many researchers as a learning pattern that includes activities such as instructors explaining new concepts, testing their understanding by practicing under the direction of the instructor (controlled exercises) and encouraging them to do exercises under the guidance of the instructor (guided practice) (Joyce et.al., 2015). Simply put, Direct Instruction (face to face) can be characterized by the delivery of material by the instructor, followed by the provision of guided exercises in class and the provision of independent assignments related to the topic to be done at home. Direct Instruction is a learning model that emphasizes the interaction between instructors and students (Magliaro et al., 2005) which is carried out in a guided manner based on regular learning sequences (Engelmann et al., 1998).

Materials and Instruments
The teaching materials used in the study included six core critical thinking skills on how to interpret, analyze, evaluate, make inference, explain and self regulate towards authentic reading texts. These materials were presented to students through online video or face-to-face lecture relative to the teaching model implemented. Other materials included English reading texts and critical thinking skills exercises.
The instrument employed in this study was a 6question essay test by which students were asked to firstly read several reading texts and then to answer critical thinking questions following each text. The test validity was established by a panel of experts with expertise in critical thinking and language skills. As for its reliability yielded a coefficient of 0.88 subjected to Cronbach's Alpha.

Results
This study shows some results in terms of decriptive statistics and inferencial statistics. The descriptive statistics of the field independent students' critical thinking skills is shown as in However, that for the Pure Online is not different from that for the Direct Instruction (Group 2 = Group 3), even though the average for the first was slightly higher or 3.2118 than the latter). To conclude, there is a significant difference between the critical thinking skills of the independent field students taught with the Flipped Classroom and those of the other two models (Pure Online and Direct Instruction). As for comparing between the Pure Online and the Direct Instruction, a significant difference is not obvious in the students' critical thinking skills.

CONCLUSION
Briefly, this study found that there are significant differences in critical thinking skills between students being taught with varied teaching models such as Flipped Classroom, Pure Additionally, the critical thinking skills of the students are found to be more effective when they are taught through the flipped classroom model. Thus, it is suggested that flipped classroom is to be used to develop critical thinking skills of the English majors.