Implementation of Inquiry Learning Strategy in Plant Anatomy Lecture to Equip the Understanding Ability and Concept Reconstruction for Biology Teacher Candidates

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to understand the effect of inquiry learning strategy toward the understanding ability and concept recontruction of plant anatomy to the students. The subject of the analysis is students of biology education at 3^rd semester Faculty of Education and Teaching, Syiah Kuala University. The method used in the research is experiment design of Pretest-Post test Contorl-Group. Inquiry learning strategy is done by giving students structured task, question answers and discussion. Understanding of the concept is measured by a written test, an objective test which has been validated. Concept reconstruction ability of students are measured by comparing the ability of understanding ability concept before and after lecture. Understanding ability data obtained is then analyzed using normalization of gain calculation method. To compare understanding ability and concept reconstruction between groups of student which are equiped with inquiry learning and control groups, they are tested with Independent Sample t-Test. The result of the research shown that there is significant improvement toward concept understanding of students equiped with inquiry learning compare to students not equiped with inquiry learning. Concept reconstruction ability of students equiped with inquiry learning is higher (62%) compare to students not equiped with inquiry learning. Therefore, inquiry laerning strategy is effective to improve understanding ability and reconstruction concepts of plant anatomy.

Keywords: Learning strategy, inquiry, plant anatomy, concept reconstruction