The Effectiveness of Contextual Inquiry-Based Worksheet on the Matter of Fungi on Food Towards Students‘ Higher-Order Thinking and Science Process Skills of Biology Education

Learning material is one of the main components for students to achieve their learning purposes in higher
education. Nowadays, the most innovative learning material commonly used is a student’s worksheet. This study aimed to find out the effectiveness ofworksheet on the matter of fungi on food based on the contextual inquiry learning model towardsstudents’ higher- orderthinking skills of Microbiology in Muhammadiyah University of South Tapanuli (UMTS). The research method applied in this study was a quasi experimental technique. The population was all the fourth semesterstudents of
biology education program in UMTS. The sample consisted of two classes, namely: class A (control group)was taught by applying a conventional learning strategy with a conventional worksheet and class B(experimentalgroup) was taught by applying a contextual inquiry-based worksheet and they wereselected by a cluster random sampling technique. The results showed that students’ higher-order thinking skill of group treated by using a contextual inquiry-based worksheet were better than the control ones, in which the score was 83.33 compared to 73.33 on the standard deviation of 14.76. Furthermore, students who were given the treatment have also affected their own science process skills, it was proved by achieving a higher score of experimental group, (89.44 compared
to 73.45) on the significance level of α = 0.05. It was clearly revealed that the contextual inquiry-based worksheet was very effective on students’ higher-order thinking skills and science process skills of Microbiology as well.