Indonesian Journal of Learning and Instruction                      p-ISSN 2614-8250, e-ISSN 2614-5677 

Volume 4, Issue 1, April 2021                                                https://journal.uniku.ac.id/index.php/IJLI 

11 

Abstract: This research aims to see the implementation of open-ended approach based on meaningful 

learning in social studies to improve the critical thinking skills of elementary school students 
Ausubel's open-ended learning model is very appropriate to be applied to improve students' critical thinking 

ability, and this is following the objectives of the open-ended approach based on meaningful learning. The 

formulation of the problem in this study is how to develop, implement, and influence and impact of the 

application of the open-ended approach on social studies learning to improve students' critical thinking 

ability. The method used is research and development. The study sites are four elementary schools in 

Tarakan City, while the subjects of this study are teachers and high-class students (grades 4,5 and 6) using 

purposive sampling technique. The results of this study indicate this approach is appropriate to use based on 

the assessment of peers, expert lecturers, and teachers, effectively improving students' critical thinking 

skills seen from the application during the learning process that is the average value of the experimental 

class students is higher by 83.33 than the average control class students an average of 80.07 in the final 

model validation test. It can be concluded that open-ended learning model based on meaningful learning in 

social studies learning to improve students' critical thinking skills in the City of Tarakan can effectively 

improve the critical thinking skills of Primary School students in the City of Tarakan. 

Keywords: Open-ended approach based on meaningful learning; social studies learning; critical thinking 

ability.  

THE DEVELOPMENT OF AN OPEN-ENDED APPROACH BASED ON 

MEANINGFUL LEARNING IN SOCIAL STUDIES TO IMPROVE THE 

CRITICAL THINKING ABILITY  
 

Ahsan Sofyan 
University of Borneo Tarakan 

Email: ahsan@borneo.ac.id 
 

APA Citation: Sofyan, A. (2021). The development of an open-ended approach based on meaningful learning in 

social studies to improve the critical thinking ability. Indonesian Journal of Learning 

and Instruction, 4(1), pp.11-18. https://doi.org/10.25134/ijli.v4i1.4340 

 
Received: 12-01-2021         Accepted: 02-03-2021              Published: 31-04-2021 

 

INTRODUCTION 

Education is recognized as being able to instill 

new capacity for all people to learn science and 

skills so that productive human beings can be 

obtained. This is in line with Winarso & 

Hardyanti (2019) that education is an important 

role in the quality of human life. As stated by 

Notika (2018), especially in today's global era, 

intense competition cannot leave little room for 

us to improve the quality of our education. 

Education is also believed to be a vehicle to 

expand universal access and mobility in society 

both vertically and horizontally. It is through 

education that humans, in this case, students get 

the ability to manifest themselves and function 

fully by personal abilities in society, and with 

these abilities, students can participate in building 

a nation and state civilization. These goals and 

expectations can be realized if education is not 

only directed at the mastery and understanding of 

concepts or materials but on improving students' 

thinking abilities and skills by involving real 

student activities. One of the students’ thinking 

skills needed to be improved is critical thinking.  

As stated by Nio, Sukestiyarno, Waluya, 

Rochmad, Isnarto, & Manullang (2017), critical 

thinking is one aspect of the quality of 

educational attainment in the context of the 

nation's intellectual life and character 

development.  According to Al-Mubaid (2014), 

critical thinking is the intellectually disciplined 

process of actively and skillfully conceptualizing, 

applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and/or 

evaluating information gathered from or 

generated by observation, experience, reflection, 

reasoning, or communication, as a guide to belief 

and action. Nelson (2013) adds that critical 

thinking needs to be integrated and emphasized 

in the curriculum so that students can learn the 

skills and apply it to improve their performance 

and reasoning ability. 

According to Kowiyah (in Afifah & 

Agoestanto, 2020), teachers can improve 

students' critical thinking skills with one of the 

strategies namely through the activities of asking 

open-ended questions to students or commonly 

referred to as the open-ended approach. 

Moreover, Tuna & Incikabi (in Koriyah & Idris, 

2015) state that critical thinking is needed in 

mailto:ahsan@borneo.ac.id
https://doi.org/10.25134/ijli.v4i1.4340


Ahsan Sofyan 

The development of an open-ended approach based on meaningful learning in social studies to improve the 

critical thinking ability 

12 

order to be success. However, in reality, students’ 

critical thinking is still low. This is due to teacher 

center application rather than students center 

which makes students not involved in learning 

classroom (Sakti, Hartanto, & Dharmayana, 

2016). Besides, one indicator of student success 

in learning is an innovative teacher's teaching 

ability. This is in line with Sapta, Pakpahan, 

Sirait (2019), that the choice of learning approach 

becomes very important and must be adapted to 

students' thinking abilities. Another opinion is 

stated by Rhosyida, Trisniawati, & Putrianti 

(2018) that the main principle of learning is to 

provide a great opportunity so that students can 

develop the ability to think and manage this 

capability so that there is a meaningful learning. 

The intended innovations are: First, the 

teacher is able to design learning strategies to 

improve the ability of individuals to work 

together to build social interaction in the 

surrounding environment that is able to 

communicate well with a sense of empathy; 

second, the teacher is able to design learning 

strategies using learning approaches that are 

appropriate to the learning environment of 

students. As stated by Kayaoğlu & Sağlamel 

(2013), to create such an environment, the 

teachers should be primarily attentive to students‘ 

interests and needs, and also organize teaching 

activities with students by providing 

opportunities to students. 

Learning systems and strategies that are 

thought to improve students' critical thinking 

skills are the application of the open-ended 

learning approach, which is a learning that 

emphasizes the students' efforts to arrive at the 

answers rather than the truth or accuracy of the 

answers alone, students are faced with a problem 

having more correct answers from one, the 

teacher does not limit the way students solve, on 

the contrary, the teacher gives the discretion to 

search for and use various approaches to the 

problem. This is supported by Ibrahim & Widodo 

(2020) that open-ended problems help students 

develop and demonstrate critical thinking skills, 

even if the results are not optimal. Moreover, 

Fatah, Suryadi, Sabandar, & Turmudi (2016) 

argue that the openness which is classified into 

three types; the process is open, end products are 

open, and ways to develop are open, can improve 

students’ critical thinking skills. This is supported 

by Gisbtarani & Rianasari (2021) that open-

ended problems could provide students with a 

rich experience in interpreting problems and also 

allowed students to produce various solution 

methods. Thus, as a follow up, research needs to 

be done to see the improvement of students' 

critical thinking skills, one alternative is to use 

the open-ended learning approach, in Social 

Studies elementary school learning, in terms of 

the development of social abilities, students are 

able to establish relationships with peers because 

at this age, it is powerful peer bond so it is 

considered sufficient to have a general basis of 

knowledge as a learning capital and apply it to 

the community later. As Notika (2018) argues 

that open-ended approach is an approach with the 

nature of openness, so it can more freely develop 

student communication skills.  Based on the 

description above, there are several problems that 

arise, among others: How is the implementation 

of the open-ended approach based on meaningful 

learning in social studies to improve the critical 

thinking skills of elementary school students?  

 

METHOD 

This research is a research and development or 

"Research and development" (R&D). This 

research was conducted in April to December 

2018 in the fifth grade SDN 016, SDN 045, and 

SDN 018 in the City of Tarakan. The research 

subjects consisted of subjects of 

feasibility/validation, limited trials, and extensive 

trials. The subject of the feasibility trial consisted 

of three peers, three expert lecturers, and three 

fifth grade teachers. Subjects for expert trials 

included three peers, one media expert lecturer, 

one material expert lecturer, one instrument 

expert lecturer, and two Primary School Class 

with five Teachers. The subjects of limited trials 

are 23 fifth grade students of SDN 016 Coastal of 

Tarakan City. The subjects of extensive trials are 

34 fifth grade students of SDN 018 as the control 

class, and 23 fifth grade students of SDN 045 as 

the experimental class. The sampling technique 

uses a purposive technique. The development 

procedure used in this study uses ten steps 

proposed by Borg and Gall (1983). The intended 

procedure includes 10 (ten) stages, namely (1) a 

preliminary study, (2) planning, (3) development 

of an initial product draft, (4) initial trials, (5) 

revision of results, (6) extensive trials, and (7) 

refinement of more comprehensive trial results, 

(8) model validation test, (9) refinement of final 

validation results, (10) dissemination and 

implementation. 

In the preliminary study stage, literature 

studies, field observations, and interviews with 

the fifth-grade elementary school teachers are 

carried out. In the planning stage, an analysis of 



Indonesian Journal of Learning and Instruction                      p-ISSN 2614-8250, e-ISSN 2614-5677 

Volume 4, Issue 1, April 2021                                                https://journal.uniku.ac.id/index.php/IJLI 

13 

the structure of content, material, concepts, and 

learning objectives are carried out. The initial 

product preparation phase includes the 

preparation of learning tools in the form of lesson 

plans, standardized test questions, questionnaires, 

and assessment instruments. The devices 

arranged in the future, referred to as the initial 

product (draft one). The product validation stage 

includes the initial product assessment by three 

validators (peers, expert lecturers, and fifth-grade 

teachers). The results of the assessment and 

comments on draft one are then used for product 

revision to produce draft two. The limited test 

phase is carried out by testing draft two on a 

limited scale, as many as 23 students — limited 

trials using the experimental design of one group 

pretest-posttest design (Sugiyono, 2012). The 

results of the limited trial were subsequently used 

for the revision of draft two to produce draft 3. 

The broad trial phase consisted of the trial draft 

three in the experimental class and compared 

with the control class that used learning tools that 

were already in school. Extensive trials using a 

quasi-experimental method with a non-equivalent 

control group pretest-posttest design, which is a 

modification of Sugiyono (2012). The results of 

extensive trials are used for revision of draft three 

so that the final product is then distributed and 

further applied through the dissemination stage. 

Data collection techniques in this study include 

techniques for measuring critical thinking skills, 

including standardized tests and observations. 

The instruments used to collect data are divided 

into three types, each of which is used to meet the 

criteria of eligibility (validity), practicality, and 

effectiveness. The instrument for measuring 

aspects of eligibility uses a product validation 

sheet. The instrument to measure practicality 

consisted of an observation sheet on the 

implementation of the lesson plan and student 

questionnaire responses to the learning model, 

standardized tests, and the learning process. 

Instruments to measure effectiveness consist of 

instruments to measure critical thinking skills in 

the form of standard questions and observation 

sheets, as well as instruments to measure aspects 

of knowledge in the form of questions in social 

studies material. 

Data analysis in the form of comments, 

suggestions, and revisions during the trial process 

is analyzed descriptively qualitatively and 

concluded as input for revising the product being 

developed. Data analysis techniques in the form 

of expert response scores (product eligibility), 

student response scores, lesson plan 

implementation scores, and scores critical 

thinking skills.  

 

Analysis of product validation results and student 

responses  

Data analysis techniques for model validation 

learning is done with the following steps: (1) 

tabulate all data obtained from the validators for 

each assessment item available in the assessment 

instrument, (2) calculate the average total score 

of each component by using formula 1, and (3) 

change the average score into a value by 

category. Reference for changing the five-scale 

score according to Sukardjo (2012) is presented 

in Table 1. 

 
Table 1. Convert actual scores to scale of five 

Score Range (i) Value Category 

X̅i + 1,80 SBi<X A Very good 

X̅i + 0,60 SBi < X ≤ X̅i + 1,80 SBi B Well 

X̅i - 0,60 SBi < X ≤ X̅i + 0,60 SBi C Enough 

X̅i - 1,80 SBi < X ≤ X̅i - 0,60 SBi D Less 

X ≤ X̅i - 1,80 SBi E Very less 

 

Information: 

X̅I = Average ideal score = ½ (ideal max score 

+ ideal min score) 

SBi = The ideal standard score deposit = 1/6 

(ideal max score - ideal min score) 

X  = Actual score 

In this study, the learning model is said to be 

feasible to use for trials if the results of the 

assessment of each learning device are at least in 

the excellent category with a B. 

 

FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 

In connection with students’ critical thinking 

abilities, the following results are described in    

measuring students' critical thinking skills, whose 

results are presented in the following table 2.
 

 

 



Ahsan Sofyan 

The development of an open-ended approach based on meaningful learning in social studies to improve the 

critical thinking ability 

14 

Table 2. Limited tryouts of students' critical thinking skills 

Test 

Limited Trial 

1 2 

N Mean Std N Mean Std 

Pre-test 34 65.2 3.23 23 66.91 2.93 

Post-test 34 75.76 3.26 23 84.86 3.91 
 

Based on Table 2, it can be seen that in a 

limited trial on the mean (mean) of 65.20, 

experienced an increase in a limited trial 2 of 

66.9. As for the post-test in the limited test 1, the 

mean (mean) was 75.76 and experienced an 

increase in the limited trial 2 with a mean 84.86. 

The increase in the limited trial phase 1 and 

limited trial 2 is in the medium category, this is 

because the teacher has just begun testing the 

open-ended learning model based on meaningful 

learning Ausubel which according to the teacher 

is still rigid in the implementation of the class, so 

the learning process in the class has not been 

running in accordance with what is expected to 

implement the learning model in the learning 

plan.  

At this stage, the initial thinking ability of 

teachers and students about social studies 

material with Ausubel's open-ended learning 

model has begun to develop, but teachers and 

students are required to develop thinking skills 

that originate from social studies learning with 

open-ended models based on learning Ausubel 

meaningfully to improve thinking skills critically 

used as a reference in social studies learning, so it 

needs to be fixed at a limited test stage. The 

findings of the limited test 1 and limited test 2, 

aspects of the ability to think subsequently 

improved in the form of providing learning 

resources in the form of questions about open 

problems that are happening and are associated 

with social studies learning material being 

studied so that students are able to reconstruct 

learning materials both individually and in 

groups, this is expected to have an impact on 

students' thinking abilities at a full test stage. At 

the full test stage, the implementation process 

was carried out in three elementary schools in 

Tarakan City, North Kalimantan Province, 

namely more full trials, one at SDN 018, more 

full two at SDN 016, and more full three at SDN 

045. Descriptions of more full trial results are 

presented in Table 3. 

 

Table 3. More full trials 1, wider 2 and 3 

Test More Full Trials    

1 2  3  

N Mean Stdv N Mean Stdv N Mean Stdv 

Post-test 34 81.76 4.22 32 81.40 3.07 28 82.75 3.39 
 

It is referring to table 3. It is identified that for 

a full trial, one a mean of 81.76 was obtained, 

whereas in the broader trial 2 obtained a mean of 

81.40 From a full trial two continued with a 

broader trial three and a mean obtained from the 

test results from students' critical thinking skills of 

82.75, meaning there is an increase from before; 

this shows that the teacher has begun to 

understand how to implement the open-ended 

Ausubel’s learning model. This implementation 

can work well because before entering more full 

trials, teachers are educated on how to develop 

social teaching strategies using the open-ended 

Ausubel’s learning model to improve students' 

critical thinking skills. Findings obtained when 

implementing the test model are limited, meeting 

it back to the teacher. Some notes developed in 

social studies learning use the open-ended 

learning model based on Ausubel's meaningful 

learning theory, including; the teacher is trained 

on how to find open problems that are happening 

in the community, how to relate these problems to 

the social studies learning material in accordance 

with the SKKD, the teacher is given several 

concepts and strategies for teaching social studies, 

then the teacher is trained on how to learn 

meaningful strategies and how to discuss and 

solve open problems together. At the fuller trial 

stage, the results of the mentoring or briefing 

conducted intensively to the teacher have had an 

impact on significantly increasing students’ 

critical thinking skills, this can be seen from the 

comparison of the results of the limited post-test 2 

where the average results of the students' critical 

thinking ability tests are at achievements of 81.40 

whereas in trials broader 3 the average post-test of 

students was at achievements of 82.75. Based on 

the results of an increase in students' critical 

thinking skills at the full testing stage 3, the 

researcher decided to proceed to the final stages 



Indonesian Journal of Learning and Instruction                      p-ISSN 2614-8250, e-ISSN 2614-5677 

Volume 4, Issue 1, April 2021                                                https://journal.uniku.ac.id/index.php/IJLI 

15 

of the model of learning model validation testing. 

It can be illustrated that the final model validation 

test was carried out at four different schools 

namely: SDN 018, SDN 016, SDN 045, and SDN 

029, wherein each school the researchers used two 

classes namely one class as an experimental class 

and one class as a control class to implement the 

final model. 

The final stage in the development of this 

Ausubel open-ended learning model, namely; the 

final model validation test, aims to improve 

students' critical thinking skills on aspects of 

critical thinking, creative, innovative, and soluble 

aspects. The validation stage of the final model 

was designed using the pre-test design post-test 

control group experimental design. Improved 

aspects of students' critical thinking skills at the 

final model validation test stages are illustrated in 

table 4. 

 

Table 4. Validation test final model aspects of students' critical thinking skills (class experiments) 

Test 

Validation Test Final Models (Experiments) 

1 2 
 

3 
  

4 
 

N Mean Stdv N Mean Stdv N Mean Stdv N Mean Stdv 

Pre Test 32 73.40 4.80 28 72.85 5.10 24 65.58 2.93 21 74.66 3.70 

Post Test 32 81.40 3.07 28 82.75 3.39 24 80.33 5.14 21 83.33 3.35 

Table 5. Validation test final model aspects of students' critical thinking skills (control class) 

Test 

Validation Test Final  Models (Control) 

1 2 3 4 

N Mean Stdv N Mean Stdv N Mean Stdv N Mean Stdv 

Pre-test 27 71.66 4.70 20 66 2.31 23 74 4.35 28 72.82 5.36 

Post-test 27 75.88 3.20 20 74.5 3.64 23 77.43 2.17 28 80.07 2.90 

 

The table 4 and 5 show the results of students' 

critical thinking skills tests involving two 

learning groups, where the experimental group 

already used the open-ended learning model 

based on Ausubel's meaningful learning theory 

and the control group used the usual learning 

model. In the final model validation test 1, the 

average post-test of the experimental group 

reached 81.40 higher than the control group, 

which was an average of 75.88. Differences in 

the average test of students' critical thinking 

skills in the final model validation test 2, where 

the average post-test of the experimental class 

was 82.75 while the control group was 74.5. An 

increase also occurred in the final model 

validation test 3, where the average results of the 

experimental group test on the final validation 

test 3 averaged 80.33 higher than the control 

class which obtained an average of 77.43, then an 

increase also occurred in the final model 

validation test 4, where the average post-test of 

the experimental class was 83.33 higher than the 

control class which obtained an average of 80.07. 

Based on the overall results of the final model 

validation test, it was found that there were 

differences in the average test results of students' 

critical thinking skills, where the experimental 

class had higher average scores compared to the 

control class. This is because the experimental 

class is a class that has been trained both in terms 

of teachers and students when implementing the 

open-ended learning model based on Ausubel's 

meaningful learning theory while the control 

class implementing the open-ended Ausubel 

learning model is also developed through 

integration into the lesson plan (RPP). Thus, this 

has an impact on improving students' critical 

thinking skills in social studies learning by 

applying open-ended learning models based on 

meaningful Ausubel learning. To be more 

explicit, it can be seen in Figure 1. The average 

graph of students' critical thinking skills. 
 

 
Figure 1. Average graph of students' critical thinking skills 



Ahsan Sofyan 

The development of an open-ended approach based on meaningful learning in social studies to improve the 

critical thinking ability 

16 

Figure 1 explains that in the final model 

validation test there are differences in aspects of 

students' thinking ability between the 

experimental class and the control class, where 

the experimental class has increased in the final 

model validation test, while the control class in 

the final model validation test does not 

significantly increase the ability aspect students' 

critical thinking. The occurrence indicates that, 

on average, the experimental class using the 

open-ended learning model based on Ausubel's 

meaningful learning is better in terms of 

increasing students' critical thinking skills than 

the control class who did not use the open-ended 

learning model based on Ausubel's meaningful 

learning. In more detail, to see the differences in 

social studies learning outcomes using the open-

ended Ausubel learning model on aspects of 

students' critical thinking abilities, a statistical 

test was carried out using the SPSS test assisted 

by version 24. 

 The results of the first stage (Preliminary 

Study), in the form of interviews, field surveys, 

and literature studies. The results of interviews 

and field surveys show that learning was 

conducted in an interactive lecture and learning 

activities were still teacher center, the learning 

process did not use worksheets, and the dominant 

learning source used was one of the publisher's 

textbooks — literature study results by reviewing 

the curriculum. The following are the results of 

the validation of the final model of the critical 

thinking skills of elementary school students, out 

of 105 elementary students from 4 schools spread 

across the City and Village / Coastal City of 

Tarakan. Data on critical thinking skills of 

students from 4 different elementary schools in 

the city of Tarakan above can be found 

differences in the average ability refers to the 

location of the school (Urban VS Rural) in the 

City of Tarakan, North Kalimantan Province. 

However, that it should be noted that in order to 

test the average difference between the two data 

groups, it is necessary to test the assumptions 

beforehand (Normality and Homogeneity Test) 

so that the selection of test types or statistical 

formulas become appropriate. For this reason, 

each statistical analysis below is presented in two 

assumptions tests and one statistical test in the 

following order: Normality Test, Homogeneity 

Test-t / Mann Whitney U Test. 

 

Normality test 

Statistical Hypothesis 

H0 = Normal Distributed Data 

H1 = Data is not normally distributed 

Significance level 

%5
 

Test Criteria 

H0 is rejected if sig (p-value) 

Analysis Results 

Urban student data 

 
Table 6. Urban student data 

One-Sample Kolmogorov-Smirnov Test 

 Trk_City Trk_Rural 

N 60 45 

Normal Parametersa,b Mean 82.0333 81.7333 

Std. Deviation 3.27273 4.60928 

Most Extreme 

Differences 

Absolute .291 .183 

Positive .291 .097 

Negative -.134 -.183 

Test Statistic .291 .183 

Asymp. Sig. (2-tailed) .000c .001c 

a. Test distribution is Normal. 

 

Interpretation 

Because sig values for urban students = 0,000 < 

0.05 and sig values for rural students = 0.001 < 

0.5, it can be concluded that data from the two 

groups of students are not normally distributed. 

 

Variant Homogeneity Test 

Statistical hypothesis 

H0: The second variant is homogeneous data 

H1: The second variant of the data is not 

homogeneous 

Significance level 

%5
 

Decision-making criteria 

H0 is rejected if sig < a 

Analysis results 



Indonesian Journal of Learning and Instruction                      p-ISSN 2614-8250, e-ISSN 2614-5677 

Volume 4, Issue 1, April 2021                                                https://journal.uniku.ac.id/index.php/IJLI 

17 

Table 7. Test of homogeneity of variances 

Levene Statistic df1 df2 Sig. 

2.979 7 32 .016 

 

Interpretation trk_kota 

Because value of sig = 0,016 < 0,05 means the 

second variant of the data is not homogeneous 

 

Mann Whitney U Test 

Because the data is not normally distributed, a 

non-parametric statistical test was chosen, the 

Mann Whitney U test, as follows: 

Statistical hypothesis 

H0: There is no difference in the distribution of 

critical scores between students in urban 

areas and students in rural areas. 

H1: There is a difference in the distribution of 

critical scores between students in urban 

areas and students in rural areas 

Significance level 

 
%5

 
Decision making criteria 

H0 is rejected if sig 

Test results 

 

Table 8.  Test statistics 

 Critical_Results 

Mann-Whitney U 1312.000 

Wilcoxon W 3142.000 

Z -.250 

Asymp. Sig. (2-tailed) .803 

a. Grouping Variable: Class 

 

Interpretation 

Because sig = 0.803 > 0.05, H0 is accepted, 

meaning that there is no difference in the 

proportion of critical scores between students who 

study in urban areas and students in rural areas. 

Next, to find out the difference in critical average 

scores between elementary schools in cities and 

primary schools in villages, the interpretation is as 

follows: 

 

The T-Test (independent t-test) 

Because the data is normally distributed, then the 

Independent t-test is chosen, as follows:  

Statistics hypothesis 

H0: (There is no difference in the average Critical 

score between Students in the City and 

students in the Village) 

H1:  (There is a difference in the average Critical 

score between Students in the City and 

students in the Village) 

Significance level 

  
%5

 
Decision-making criteria 

H0 rejected if the value of  sig     

Test result 

 

Table 9. Independent samples test 

Independent Samples Test 

 

Levene's 

Test for 

Equality of 

Variances t-test for Equality of Means 

F Sig. t df 

Sig. 

(2-

tailed

) 

Mean 

Differe

nce 

Std. 

Error 

Differe

nce 

95% Confidence 

Interval of the 

Difference 

Lower Upper 

Critical 

Results 

Equal variances 

assumed  

4.022 .048 .390 103 .697 .30000 .76912 -1.22536 1.82536 

Equal variances not 

assumed 
  

.372 75.513 .711 .30000 .80662 -1.30669 1.90669 

  

Interpretation  

Because the value of sig = 0.048 > 0,05, then H0 

is accepted, meaning there is no difference in the 

average Critical score between Students in the 

City and students in the Village. 

 



Ahsan Sofyan 

The development of an open-ended approach based on meaningful learning in social studies to improve the 

critical thinking ability 

18 

CONCLUSION 

Based on the aims of the research and analysis of 

the results of the research development, it can be 

concluded that: (1) the open-ended learning model 

based on meaningful learning in social studies 

learning to improve students' critical thinking 

skills in elementary schools in Tarakan City is 

feasible based on the assessment of peers, expert 

lecturers, and teachers, (2) Open-ended learning 

model based on meaningful learning in social 

studies learning to improve students' critical 

thinking skills in the City of Tarakan can 

effectively improve the critical thinking skills of 

Primary School students in the City of Tarakan 

seen from the application of learning models in 

the learning process during research i.e. the 

experimental class students were higher than the 

control class students. The results of this study are 

expected as input for teachers in finding 

alternative ways of learning to create a situation 

that is conducive to the learning process. The 

results of this study are expected to motivate 

teachers to modify the way they teach. For further 

researchers, the results of this study are expected 

to be one of the bases and input in developing 

research through the open-ended learning 

approach. 

 

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