Students' Difficulties on Science Learning with Prototype Problem-Solving Based Teaching and Learning Material: A Study Evaluation of Development Research

This research intended to develop a prototype of teaching and learning materials on natural science topic of junior high school. The development of learning materials was conducted by using Dick and Carey's Research & Development model. Teaching and learning materials are included syllabus, lesson plan, worksheet, student’s book, test of learning outcome. This study is a deep evaluation to find weakness of prototype from the student's perspective and enhancements to make it better. Research subjects were 32 junior high students taken by simple random sampling. Data collection technique was observation of student’s activity and evaluation of worksheets. The instruments included questionnaire, observation sheets and students’ worksheets. The result showed that the semisummative evaluation of the prototype was success to create a feasible prototype. Teachers can apply well, but students had a bit of difficulties. It was concluded that the weakness of the teaching and learning material prototype from the viewpoint of the students are activities work to do problem solving strategies on the experiment. The teaching and learning material prototype still needs to be enriched in terms of operational definitions of concepts, the tools, and tool laboratory functions as well as a glossary. Keywords— Problem Solving, Science Education, Teaching and Learning Material, Students’ Difficulties