Promoting students’ critical thinking and scientific attitudes through socio-scientific issues-based flipped classroom

Science and technology are developing rapidly, causing changes in teaching modes based on different needs and situations. This study aims to determine the effect of the flipped classroom model, integrated with the socio-scientific issues (FCM-SSI) on critical thinking skills and scientific attitudes of junior high school students on additive and addictive substances and to determine the differences in each aspect of critical thinking skills and scientific attitudes after intervention with FCM-SSI. Through quasi-experimental research with a pretest-posttest design, 182 students participated as samples. The experimental group had 91 students exposed to the FCM-SSI, and the control group had 91 students with traditional learning. For data collection, critical thinking skills test with essay questions and a scientific attitude test using a scientific attitude scale were used. Data were analyzed using MANOVA to see the effects of the learning model and ANOVA to see differences in each aspect. The statistical analysis results with a value of sig 0.000 ≤ 0.05 indicate that FCM-SSI affects students' critical thinking skills and scientific attitudes. The most influential aspect of critical thinking skills is the analytical aspect, and openness is the most influential aspect of scientific attitude. Thus, the FCM-SSI model is highly recommended to be used in science learning because it can improve students' critical thinking skills and scientific attitudes.