EEJ 9 (2) (2019) 164 - 171 
 

English Education Journal 
 

http://journal.unnes.ac.id/sju/index.php/eej 

 

Developing Problem-Solving Based Assessment to Stimulate Critical 

Thinking and Creativity of Students’ Writing Skill 

 

Rifki Nurlaili Hidayat, Dwi Rukmini, Dwi Anggani Linggar Bharati 

 

Universitas Negeri Semarang, Indonesia 

 

Article Info 

________________ 

Article History: 

Recived 19 October 

2018 

Accepted 15 February 

2019 

Published 20 June 

2019 

________________ 

Keywords: 

Assessment, writing, 

problem-solving, 

critical thinking, 

creativity 

____________________ 

Abstract
 

___________________________________________________________________ 

This study was focused on the issues related to the development of problem-solving 

based assessment model especially in term of writing assessment to stimulate the critical 

thinking and creativity of the students. Research and Development (R&D) was used as 

a research design in this study. The subjects of this study were the students of X MIPA 6 

at SMA Sultan Agung 1 Semarang in the academic year of 2017/2018. Questionnaire, 

interview, observation checklist, and tests were used as the instruments in collecting the 

data. In addition, the researchers collaborated with the teacher in developing the 

problem-solving writing assessment module. The result of this study revealed that there 

was a significant improvement of the students’ writing skill, critical thinking skill, and 

creativity skill. It was proven by the mean score results of the pre-test and post-test. The 

students’ score improvement of the writing skill was 47.83 to 70.83, and critical thinking 

and creativity skill was 42.67 to 60.13. Moreover, the paired sample t-test results 

showed that there was significant different between the result of pre-test and post-test. In 

conclusion, the problem-solving based assessment is applicable to stimulate the critical 

thinking and creativity of the students’ writing skill. 

 

 

 

 2019 Universitas Negeri Semarang 

 

Correspondence Address:  

Kampus Pascasarjana Unnes, Jl. Kelud Utara III Semarang 
5023, Indonesia  
E-mail: rifki.nh@students.unnes.ac.id 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 

p-ISSN 2087-0108 

e-ISSN 2502-4566
 

 

 

 

 



 

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INTRODUCTION 

 

Assessment is an important component in 

the implementation of the 2013 Curriculum. 

assessment and learning cannot be separated due 

to the assessment result is also used to enhance 

the learning. As Stiggins (2001) explained that 

assessment is the process of gathering 

information about student learning for 

improvement of learning. Thus, the assessment 

that is applied by the educators (teachers), 

educational units (schools), and government 

should be well implemented based on or 

referring to the 2013 Curriculum. 

The assessment in the 2013 Curriculum is 

closely related to critical thinking skills. 

According to the Fisher (2001), critical thinking 

is that mode of thinking about any subject, 

content or problem in which thinkers improve 

the quality of their thinking by skillfully taking 

over structures inherent in thinking and 

imposing intellectual standards on them. One 

way to develop critical thinking of the students is 

with applying problem-based learning and 

problem-based assessment. As has been stated 

by Shakirova (2007) that with the existence of 

critical thinking skills on students, it may enable 

students to deal effectively with social, scientific, 

and practical problems. It means students who 

are able to think critically are able to solve 

problems effectively. Therefore, merely having 

knowledge or information is not enough. In 

order for students to be able to solve problems 

and be able to make effective decisions in their 

personal lives, they must be able to think 

critically and creatively.  

The terms of assessment can be applied to 

various aspects of language skills, i.e. listening, 

speaking, reading, and writing. One of the four 

language skills that have a level of difficulty in 

learning that is writing skill. This skill involves 

high-level thinking skills because it requires 

students to come up with ideas and creativity in 

the form of works. Brown (2001) claimed that 

writing is a thinking process. Further, he states 

that writing can be planned and given with an 

unlimited number of revisions before its release. 

Thus, to enhance the learning, teachers should 

be able to integrate learning and assessment 

effectively in order to stimulate critical thinking 

and creativity of the students. 

Related to the research on the 

development of problem-solving writing 

assessment to stimulate the students’ critical 

thinking and creativity, several studies had 

become the background as a reference on this 

study. The first previous study was about 

assessment especially about authentic 

assessment that was conducted by Aliningsih 

and Sofwan (2015), Wati, Bharati and Hartono 

(2014), Marhaeni and Artini (2015), 

Nurgiyantoro and Suyata (2009), Wahyuni 

(2010) and Merta et al (2015). In their research, 

they generally stated that authentic assessment is 

an assessment requiring students to use the same 

competencies, or combinations of knowledge, 

skills and attitudes, that they need to apply in 

their criterion situation in professional life. The 

result of the study indicated that the teachers 

need assistance in providing various types of 

authentic assessment instruments that can be 

used in learning. 

The next previous study is about critical 

thinking and creativity itself. Hanurawan and 

Waterwoth (2007), Muhfahroyin (2009), Khoiri 

et al (2017), Areni and Syafri (2015), Zaida and 

Sofwan (2015), Kristanto and Susilo (2015), 

Sulaiman et al (2017), Barnet and Francis (2013) 

had conducted a study on critical thinking and 

creativity in different ways but with the same 

goal, that was to analyze and to enhance the 

critical thinking and creativity of the students. 

Generally, the results of their research stated 

that the ability to think critically and creatively 

was needed by the students to face the real-

world problems today. Therefore, it was very 

important to be owned by every student. 

Their previous studies could be used as 

practical guidance for our study, because it was 

relevant with our present study especially in 

term of assessment, critical thinking and 

creativity related to the 2013 curriculum. 

However, our research was not the same as 

those above who only describe the authentic 

assessment, critical thinking and creativity in 

general as well as the problems faced by the 



 

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teacher, but this research focused more on how 

to develop that assessment especially problem-

solving based assessment model to stimulate the 

critical thinking and creativity on a certain skill 

in English language teaching. 

In conclusion, from the discussion above, 

it can be seen that the assessment model that 

should be implemented by the teacher in the 

teaching and learning process can influence the 

students’ learning outcomes. Therefore, the 

study on the development of assessment model 

was very important to be implemented. Thus, in 

this study, the researchers tried to conduct the 

research about the assessment model that used 

by the teacher and tried to develop it especially 

in the development of problem-solving based 

assessment model to stimulate the critical 

thinking and creativity of the students’ writing 

skill. 

 

METHODS 

 

In accordance with the problem and the 

purpose of the research, this research was 

designed in the form of Research and 

Development (R & D) based on Borg and Gall 

(1983) theory. The steps of research and 

development in this study was simplified into 

three main stages, and every stage have some 

main activities. The first stage was Define and 

Design Stage. This stage consists of two main 

activities; (a) research and collecting information, (b) 

planning to design writing assessment. The second 

stage was Development Stage. This stage also 

consists of two main activities; (a) developing of 

preliminary form of writing assessment, (b) tray out of 

developed product. And the third stage was Final 

Stage; producing final product in the form of a 

set of assessment (module) to develop problem-

solving writing assessment to stimulate the 

students’ critical thinking and creativity. 

In addition, the subjects of this study were 

the English teacher and tenth grade students of 

SMA Sultan Agung 1 Semarang in the academic 

year 2017/2018. The school was chosen because 

the 2013 curriculum has been implemented in all 

classes, especially in tenth grade. Besides 

questionnaire, interview, observation checklist, 

and tests were used as the instruments in 

collecting the data in this study. 

  

RESULT AND DISCUSSIONS 

 

 In this phase, the researchers present the 

findings and discussions of the developing 

problem-solving based assessment model to 

stimulate the critical thinking and creativity of 

the students’ writing skill. The sections in this 

part will follow the statement of the research 

objectives. 

 

Define and Design Stage 

This stage was a stage to identify the 

problems that exist in the learning process and 

assessment and become the basis for designing 

product in the form of a set of assessment to be 

made. There were two main activities that have 

been done by the researcher at this stage: (a) 

research and collecting information, (b) planning 

to design writing assessment. 

 

Research and Collecting Information  

The step that had been done for collecting 

information in this research were observation, 

interview and questionnaire. To get the 

information about the existing assessment used 

by the teacher in order to analyze the students’ 

need, the researchers conducted preliminary 

research by observing the documents relating to 

the writing assessment. Based on the analysis of 

documents, the researchers got the following 

findings: 1) the learning devices used by the 

teacher were complete enough, they were 

syllabus, lesson plan (RPP), textbooks and LKS. 

2) the syllabus and lesson plan used by the 

teacher came from MGMP team that had been 

revised in accordance with the conditions of the 

school. 3) the students’ daily test scores were still 

under the KKM. 4) the assessment that was used 

by the teacher still did not reflect critical 

thinking or creative assessment. Based on this 

analysis, the researchers concluded that the 

documents used and those made by the teacher 

were quite suitable to be used for teaching, 

because if it viewed from the truth of the 

concept, it was included in the good criteria, it 



 

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was in accordance with the curriculum that 

should be used, but unfortunately it was not in 

accordance with the problems that students must 

face in their daily lives, or in the other words it 

had not trained students to be critical thinking 

and creative. 

Besides using the observation, the 

researchers also collected the information 

through interview and questionnaire towards the 

English teacher and the students. Based on the 

result of questionnaire and interview indicated 

that the teacher knew about Problem-based 

Learning (PBL) and he had ever applied PBL for 

assessing writing, but it was not maximal. 

Because there were several obstacles such as lack 

of time in learning and lack of teacher’s 

knowledge about how to assess the students 

using this model of assessment. On the other 

hand, the lack of skills and knowledge of 

students in solving the problem was also one of 

the obstacles faced. This was due to the teacher 

only asked the students to write a text and 

assessed the students’ writing by looking at the 

text structure, and grammar. The students 

seemed to be passive since the activity in the 

teaching and learning process. The students just 

asked to write a text without any stimulation of 

being creative and critical learners. As a result, 

the researcher concluded that the teacher needed 

to develop problem-based writing assessment 

which could stimulate students’ critical thinking 

and creativity. 

 

Planning to Design Writing Assessment  

After collecting information about the 

students’ needs and problems, the next step the 

researchers made a preparation to design 

preliminary draft of the problem-solving writing 

assessment model, which was referred to the 

mapping of core competences and basic 

competences, syllabus, and lesson plan based on 

2013 curriculum. At this planning stage, 

preparations were made relating to the 

preparation of making the problem-solving 

writing assessment model. The planning stages 

that was done in this research included several 

stages as follows: (1) Identification of aspects 

contained in Core Competencies and Basic 

Competencies and identification of material. (2) 

Preparation of syllabus, lesson plan (RPP) and 

questions for evaluation. (3) Preparation of 

validation sheet of expert judgment. 

 

Development Stage 

The next step was the development stage. 

There are two main activities that was done in 

this stage: 

 

Developing of Preliminary Form of Writing 

Assessment 

 In this case, the researchers helped the 

English teacher to develop problem-solving 

writing assessment model with the purpose was 

to improve the students’ critical thinking and 

creativity. Before developing the preliminary 

product, the first thing we did was determine the 

core and basic competence that would be used in 

accordance with the syllabus of senior high 

school. In this study we would use the core and 

basic competence 3.8 and 4.8 which was related 

to the material of Narrative Text. 

After determining the core and basic 

competence, the next stage we made lesson plan 

that was in accordance with the demands of 

2013 Curriculum. In this case, the lesson plan 

we made was focused on writing skill and 

problem-based learning. The implementation of 

the lesson plan was divided into 4 meetings. 

After making the lesson plan, the next stage the 

researchers assisted the teacher in making 

several questions related to the narrative text. 

The arrangement of questions was started from 

the simple questions to the critical questions 

which related to the problem-solving model, so 

that through these questions, it was expected 

that students can develop their creativity and 

critical thinking. In addition, to measure the 

critical thinking and creativity we made the 

rubric for measuring critical thinking and 

creativity. The rubrics were adapted from 

Assessing Outcomes and Improving 

Achievement: Tips and tools for Using Rubrics, 

edited by Rhodes, Copyright 2010 by the 

Association of American Colleges and 

Universities. 



 

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After all the preliminary form of writing 

assessment was made, then it would be validated 

by the expert judgment. The expert judgment 

consisted of two experts, they were Prof. Dr. 

Suwandi, M.Pd (Senior Lecturer at UPGRIS) 

and Farida Fahmalatif, S.Pd., M.Pd (Senior 

English Teacher at SMAN 1 Jambu). The 

validation was carried out in two stages; the 

validation of lesson plan and the validation of 

assessment product. The following are the 

results of validation of two experts. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Figure 1. The Validation Result of Lesson Plan 

 

Based on the figure above, it can be seen 

that the validation result of the appropriateness 

of learning objectives got the mean score 4.2; the 

appropriateness of contents got the mean score 

3.5; the appropriateness of language use got the 

mean score 3.3; and the appropriateness of time 

allocation got the mean score 4. The acquisition 

of scores for each aspect came from the 

acquisition of the average score of each 

indicator. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Figure 2. The Validation Result of Assessment 

Product 

 

Based on the figure 4.2 above, it can be 

seen that the validation result of the 

appropriateness of the contents got the mean 

score 4.2; the appropriateness of the presentation 

got the mean score 3; the appropriateness of the 

language got the mean score 3.4; and the 

appropriateness of the lay-out got the mean 

score 3.6. The acquisition of scores for each 

aspect came from the acquisition of the average 

score of each indicator. 

On the other hand, besides giving a score 

in every aspect they also gave some suggestion 

which their suggestions were very helpful for the 

researchers in perfecting the product. The first, 

Mrs. Farida Fahmalatif said that the main 

activities that were made in the lesson plan must 

be in accordance with the problem-based 

learning model, and students achievement 

indicators must be as detailed as possible. The 

second, Prof. Dr. Suwandi advised us to make 

some questions that lead to the problem-solving 

questions and the steps in problem-solving 

writing assessment module must in line with the 

lesson plan. 

 

Try-out of Developed Product (Field Testing) 

 The try out was conducted in the class X 

MIPA 6 and the class consisted of 30 students. 

A try out or field tasting was conducted to test 

the effectiveness of product that had been 

developed. Product effectiveness testing was 

carried out by using an experimental design 

(Before-after / One Group Pre-test Post-test Design). 

The students were given an initial test 

(pre-test) to find out how far the initial ability of 

the students before being given learning material 

of writing using a problem-solving based 

assessment model. After being given the initial 

test (pre-test), the students were given the 

treatment. Further after being given the 

treatment, the students were given the final test 

(post-test) to determine the extent of the 

influence of the writing assessment based on the 

problem-solving model on the development of 

students’ critical thinking and creativity. The 

following table were the results of the try-out of 

the developed product which include the result 

of pre-test and post-test of writing skill, and the 



 

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result of pre-test and post-test of critical thinking 

and creativity skill. 

 

Table 1. The Result of Pre-Test and Post-Test of 

Writing Skill 

Mean Pre-Test Mean Post Test 

47.83 70.83 

 

The table above shows that the mean 

score of pre-tests was 47.83 and the mean score 

of post-tests was 70.83. It means that the mean 

score from pre-test to post-test has increased. 

From the result above, it can be 

concluded that there was a significance 

difference between pre-test and post-test, because 

the students’ ability was different after got the 

treatment, so the developed problem-solving 

writing assessment model was effective, and it 

can be used as writing assessment in the process 

of teaching and learning process in the class. 

In addition to measure the level of 

students’ writing skill in general, here the 

researchers also measured the level of critical 

thinking and creativity of the students, because 

the main purpose of developing this product was 

to stimulate students' critical thinking skill and 

creativity. The following were the results of pre-

test and post-test of critical thinking and 

creativity skill. 

 
Table 2. The Result of Pre-Test and Post-Test of 

Critical Thinking and Creativity Skill 

Mean Pre-Test Mean Post Test 

42.67 60.13 

 

Based on the results of the statistical test 

above it can be seen that there were significant 

differences in the ability of the students’ critical 

thinking and creativity before and after being 

given the treatment. The mean score of the 

students increased from 42.67 to 60.13. 

Therefore, it can be concluded that the 

developed problem-solving writing assessment 

model was effective to stimulate the students’ 

critical thinking and creativity. 

 

 

 

Producing Final Product 

After the product is tested and revised, the 

last stage in this research and development was 

producing final product. The product of this 

research and development was a set of 

assessment which it was finalized with some 

interface designs (module). 

Based on the findings presented above, it 

can be concluded that the findings of our study 

were in line with some of the findings of 

previous studies. One of the early findings 

presented that High Order Thinking (HOT) 

assessment instrument as assessment for learning 

was effective to train student’s High Order 

Thinking Skill (HOTS) and effective measured 

student's thinking skills in accordance with the 

level of each student's thinking (Kusuma, 

Rosidin, Abdurrahman, Suyatna, 2017 and 

Hairida, 2016).  

In addition, Widana (2017) also stated in 

his findings that HOTS assessment could 

increase the students’ motivation to learn and 

improve the students’ learning outcomes. Their 

findings were in line with our study since the 

results of our findings also produced an effective 

assessment product that can improve the 

students’ critical thinking and creativity.   

 
CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION 

 
Based on the result and the discussion 

above, the researchers concluded that the 

teacher actually had ever applied problem-

solving for assessing writing, but it was not 

maximal. Because there were some obstacles 

faced by the teacher. One of the biggest obstacles 

was lack of the teacher’s knowledge about how 

to assess the students using this model of 

assessment. Thus, here the researchers tried to 

help the teacher to develop problem-based 

writing assessment which is expected to 

stimulate students’ critical thinking and 

creativity. 

After the developed product was 

completely developed by us and validated by the 

expert judgment, then it was tested to determine 

its effectiveness. The results of the test showed 



 

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171 

 

that the problem-solving writing assessment had 

positive effect toward the students’ critical 

thinking and creativity. It can be proven from 

the students’ mean score in pre-test and post-test. 

The results of the statistical tests showed a 

significance value lower than the significance 

level α = 0.05, so it could be concluded that the 

developing problem-solving based assessment 

module was effective to stimulate the students’ 

critical thinking and creativity especially in 

writing skill. 

Furthermore, in order to give contribution 

to research development in the assessment field, 

the results of this study are expected to be used 

as a reference for developing similar research, 

especially the research and the development of 

assessment modules in learning English. The 

other researchers can develop assessment 

modules with different learning model 

characteristics and material. 

 

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