Effect of Team Games Tournament Learning Model With Experimental Activities on Students’ Learning Interest and Critical Thinking Skills in Newton’s Laws

Abstract

Physics education continues to face challenges related to low students’ learning interest and insufficient development of critical thinking skills, particularly in abstract topics such as Newton’s Laws. This study aims to investigate the effect of the Teams-Games-Tournament (TGT) learning model integrated with experimental activities on students’ learning interest and critical thinking skills in Newton’s Laws, as well as to examine the profile and relationship between learning interest and critical thinking skills following the implementation of this model. A quasi-experimental method with a pretest–posttest control group design was employed, involving 67 eleventh-grade students from SMA Negeri 1 Prambanan Sleman, consisting of 36 students in the experimental class and 31 students in the control class. The experimental class was taught using the TGT model integrated with experiments, while the control class received conventional instruction. Data were collected using learning interest questionnaires and critical thinking tests and were analyzed through descriptive and inferential statistical methods. The results indicated that the TGT model integrated with experiments has a highly significant effect on students’ learning interest, with an N-gain of 0.57 and a Cohen’s d effect size of 2.69, as well as on critical thinking skills, with an N-gain of 0.67 and a Cohen’s d effect size of 2.12. Additionally, Pearson correlation analysis reveals a significant positive relationship between learning interest and critical thinking skills (r = 0.596, p = 0.001). These findings demonstrate that the TGT learning model integrated with experimental activities is highly effective in enhancing both affective aspects, namely students’ learning interest, and cognitive aspects, particularly critical thinking skills, in physics education.