USING LITERATURE CIRCLES TO IMPROVE CRITICAL THINKING SKILLS IN READING: A CASE STUDY AT A PRIVATE UNIVERSITY IN CIAMIS

Abstract

ABSTRACT This study was conducted to determine the effectiveness of literature circles in improving critical thinking skills in reading among students at a private university in Ciamis. This study uses a qualitative method where the participants consist of a level 2 English Educational Program with a total of 16 students. Using observations which consist of classroom observation and focus group observation as the instrument of gained data. Classroom observation aims to find out the teacher's strategy in applying literature circles as one of the techniques to improve critical thinking skills in reading. During the focus group discussion observation aims to determine the improvement of students' critical thinking skills after applying the literature circles technique in discussing literary works. In analyzing the classroom observation data, the researcher recorded the learning process and then transcribed the data into text. While the focus group discussion after the transcription process, the data was analyzed and interpreted according to the category of critical thinking. The result of classroom observation revealed that the teacher can implement the literature circles technique properly where students can apply the literature circles correctly during the discussion process. In addition, the results of focus group discussion observation also revealed that during discussions with the literature circles the students were able to fulfill all the characteristics of critical thinking. The findings of this study revealed that all categories of critical thinking can be fulfilled by students. It can be concluded that literature circles is effective in increasing students' critical thinking skills in reading.