Development of ARGEONET integrated with metaverse and M6 learning model to enhance students’ mathematical critical thinking skills

Abstract

Critical thinking is an essential 21st-century competency. Many junior high school students still demonstrate low levels of mathematical critical thinking. This study aims to develop ARGEONET, an integrated augmented reality media resource that supports the MathVerse M6 learning model and is designed to improve students' critical thinking skills in mathematics. The research employed a Research and Development (Plomp's educational design framework). The participants were 30 junior high school students in Banyuwangi Regency, East Java, Indonesia, selected through purposive sampling. Data were collected using expert validation sheets, observation sheets, student response questionnaires, and mathematical critical-thinking tests. The results show that ARGEONET obtained very high validity, with scores of 89% and 93% from validators, and was classified as very practical, with scores of 86.06% from students and 91.43% from teachers. Effectiveness analysis showed significant differences in five critical thinking indicators: focus (sig. 0.004), reason (sig. 0.001), inference (sig. 0.003), situation (sig. 0.050), clarity (sig. 0.481), and overview (sig. 0.042). The effect size from each indicator, namely small (clarity), medium (situation and overview), and large (focus, reason, inference). ARGEONET shows potential as an augmented reality media to enhance students' critical thinking skills.