Implementation of “Magic Trick Physics” learning in the Covid-19 pandemic era to improve the student’s critical-thinking skills

Abstract

The Covid-19 pandemic led to a change in learning patterns to online learning. One of the obstacles in online learning is the students’ lack of understanding of the learning material because students are used to meeting face-to-face and listening directly to the teacher’s explanations. This pattern is used in online learning using a virtual face-to-face platform so that students are reluctant to learn. This situation unconciously makes students feel bored. One of the media that can reduce student saturation is using magic trick physics. The use of magic trick physics will make students try to analyze how this event can happen by applying physics. This is inaccordance with the definition of critical-thinking were critical thinking is a complex process that requires high-level cognitive. Therefore, this study aims to determine the improvement of students’ critical thinking skills after the application of magic trick physics in learning during Covid-19 pandemic era. This type of research is quasi experimental with one group pretest-posttest design. The critical thinking skills test data were analyzed by using the statistical difference test, effect size, and normalized n-gain. The results showed that the use of magic trick physics in learning on the Covid-19 pandemic era was effective in improving students’ critical-thinking skills. Learning magic trick physics has positive benefits for students based on the questionnaire responses that have been filled in by students, including students feel enjoy and are motivated in learning physics, make students think critically and understand the material being taught more easily, and students remain excited to learn even though the learning is done by online. The implication is that magic trick physics can use in physics learning in the learning process.