Students’ Characteristics REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE REVIEW

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CHAPTER II REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter contains a discussion of the related literature review. This chapter contains theoretical research which is divided into two parts that are theoretical description and theoretical framework. Theoretical description discusses some theories which are needed in order to be used in implicating the use of Edmodo in teaching and learning activities. It consists of brief discussions of basic theories of students’ characteristic, critical thinking, and Edmodo as online learning media. The theories discussed will be used for the researcher as a basis to establish the theoretical framework of this research. Theoretical framework discusses the main relevant theories that can help the researcher to research the use of Edmodo in facilitating s tudents’ critical thinking of 8 G class of SMPN 2 Yogyakarta.

2.1 Students’ Characteristics

In this study, students’ characteristic is needed in order to know students’ capacity based on their own characteristics or background status. Therefore, the researcher is able to know and adjust the material or the way of teaching related with critical thinking aspects. The concept of learner characteristics is used in the sciences of learning and cognition to designate a target group of learners and define those aspects of 11 their personal, academic, social or cognitive self that may influence how and what they have learned and achieved. According to Drachsler 2010, students’ characteristic is defined as the overall pattern of behavior and the ability of the students as a result of faults and experiences so as to determine the pattern of activity in reaching their own goal. He states that there are three things related with students’ characteristics: 1. Characteristic or situation related with first ability or prerequisite skills. That is the ability which is needed to achieve the learning goals. This ability is the result of some students’ experiences. 2. Characteristic related with background, environmental, and social status socialcultural. 3. Characteristic related with the differentiations of personality. According to Winkel 1998:84, the characteristics include 1 the function of cognitive includes creativities, special talents, cognitive organizations, language abilities, learning styles, learning techniques. 2 conative-dynamic includes learning motivation, attention- concentration. 3 Affective function includes temperament, feeling, behavior, and interest. 4 sensory-motoric function. 5 And the other things related students’ personality such as mental condition, and personality development. According to Drachsler 2010, students’ characteristics are important for instructional designers as they allow them to design and create tailored 12 instructions for a target group. It is expected that by taking account of the characteristics of learners, more efficient, effective andor motivating instructional materials can be designed and developed. In this study context, learner characteristics can be personal, academic, social oremotional andor cognitive in nature. Personal characteristics often relate to demographic information such as age, gender, maturation, language, social economic status, cultural background, and specific needs of a learner group such as particular skills and disabilities for andor impairments to learning which the teachers should know. According to Drachler 2010, academic characteristics are more education andor learning related such as learning goals of an individual or a group, prior knowledge, educational type, and educational level. Socialemotional characteristics relate to the group or to the individual with respect to the group. Examples of socialemotional characteristics are group structure, place of the individual within a group, sociability, self-image also feelings of self-efficacy and agency, and mood. Therefore, based on Drachler 2010 perception above, cognitive characteristics relate to such things as attention span, memory, mental procedures, and intellectual skills which determine how the learner perceives, remembers, thinks, and solves problems. According to Drachsler 2010, there are often large differences between the characteristics of different learners and groups of learners such as children, students, professionals, adults, older people and disabled persons. These groups 13 differ in their motivation, prior knowledge, expertise level, study time, and physical abilities. The differences within the learner characteristics have an impact on the structure of the instruction and the degree of support and guidance of the learning process. Theref ore, the knowledge about students’ characteristic above has important meaning in teaching and learning interaction, especially for the teacher that the information about students’ characteristic will be beneficial in choosing and determining better learning which can ensure good learning for each student. Besides, in this study context, by knowing each student’s capacity based on their own characteristic status, teacher can control or develop students’ ability based on their character. By knowing students’ background status, then, the teacher is able to know their problems. Therefore, the teacher is able to know whether the problem is decrease or not. These critical thinking aspects will be discussed in the next section.

2.2 Critical Thinking