CRITICAL THINKING ASPECTS IN THE ENGLISH TEXTBOOKS OF MERDEKA CURRICULUM FOR SEVENTH GRADERS AT SMP ISLAM AL ULUM TERPADU MEDAN

This research aims to look for critical thinking aspects of two textbooks, namely
"Bright an English Course published by Erlangga" and "English Starter published
by Intan Pariwara" for seventh grade of the Merdeka Curriculum used at SMP
Islam Al Ulum Terpadu Medan and the reasons why critical thinking is included
in textbooks. This research uses Facione's theory, where in this theory there are
six acpects of critical thinking, namely interpretation, analysis, evaluation,
inference, explanation, and self-regulation. Apart from that, it also uses the theory
of Paul and Elder's Critical Thinking Framework which consists of elements of
thought (reasoning), intellectual standards, and intellectual traits. Data analysis in
this research uses Miles and Huberman modes with four stages, namely data
collection, data reduction, data presentation, and drawing conclusion. This study
found that (1) in the first textbook there were five critical thinking aspects, namely
Interpretation (23%), Analysis (19%), Evaluation (23%), Inference (19%), and
Explanation (16%). Meanwhile, in the second textbook there are four aspects of
critical thinking, namely Interpretation (8%), Analysis (42%), Evaluation (25%),
and Explanation (25%). In both textbooks there is no self-regulation aspect. (2)
There are five reasons why aspects of critical thinking are included in textbooks,
namely: so that students are able to understand meaning and express it in
answering questions; able to overcome the complexity and problems of questions;
able to ensure the correctness of information and assess the credibility of
questions; able to make appropriate conclusions, and able to express the results of
reasoning conceptually.