The Development and Validity of CPS-Based Assessment Instrument for Critical Thinking Ability on Stoichiometry Materials

Abstract Education at schools, especially high schools, has not been handled so well that critical thinking skills of the high school graduates are still relatively low. An assessment is necessary to find out whether the on-going teaching and learning process has achieved the stated learning objectives. Thus, it is necessary to develop an instrument that can evaluate the students’ critical thinking abilities. This study aimed to determine the validity of CPS-based assessment instrument for students’ critical thinking skills on stoichiometry materials. Problem Solving-based learning is one of the learning methods recommended by the government, where the learning process emphasizes the independence of students in solving problems. The assessment instrument was developed to measure students’ critical thinking skills based on 12 indicators of critical thinking according to Ennis and the characteristics of CPS according to Vidal, namely finding problems in general, finding facts, clarifying problems, expressing opinions, finding solutions and implementing them. The method of development adapted from Borg & Gall Model which consists of 10 development steps. However, this study was conducted only in three stages, namely preliminary research and information gathering, planning, and development of the initial product. The results of this study indicated that the CPS-based assessment instrument fulfilled the validity requirements, not only material validity but also language and construct validity. This study was expected to produce a valid instrument so that it could be used to assess the students’ critical thinking ability.