The Implementation of Interactive Learning Media Pear Deck on Work and Energy to Improve Junior High School Students’ Critical Thinking Skills

This study aims to determine the effect of implementing interactive learning media based on Pear Deck on the critical thinking skills of eighth grade students on the topic of work and energy. Critical thinking skills are one of the higher-order thinking skills that are important to improve in science learning, but are still relatively low due to monotonous, non-interactive science learning. Although interactive digital learning media have been widely developed, studies on the effect of Pear Deck on the critical thinking skills of junior high school students are still limited. The study used a quantitative approach with a quasi-experimental type and a post-test only control group design. The research sample consisted of class VIII.3 as the experimental class and class VIII.4 as the control class selected using a simple random sampling technique. The research instrument was a critical thinking skills test consisting of 15 multiple-choice questions arranged based on Ennis indicators. Data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential analysis. The results of the descriptive analysis showed that the average post-test score of critical thinking skills of the experimental class was 81.43 in the high category, while the control class was 71.92 in the medium category. The Mann-Whitney U test results showed a significance value of 0.036 (p < 0.05), which means there is a significant difference in critical thinking skills between the experimental class and the control class. Thus, it can be concluded that the application of Pear Deck interactive learning media has a positive and significant effect on improving students' critical thinking skills in the material of work and energy.