Schema Activation to Promote Students' Critical Thinking in English Reading Comprehension

One of the goals in education is to develop students critical thinking. The study attempted to investigate the activities conducted by the teacher in activating schema to promote students’ critical thinking. The study also investigate the challenges faced by the teacher in activating schema and students’ response in schema activation to promote critical thinking. The qualitative descriptive design was taken in SMP Ma’arif Hasanuddin, the participants were grade 7th students. The data is collected through observation checklist, interview guidelines and questionnaire. The study captured activities of teacher in activating schema, divided into pre reading, while reading, and after reading, schema activation successfully promote students critical thinking in reading comprehension. The students interested in teaching process, pay attention, explore many vocabularies, reflect critically on learning process. However, there are number of challenges for English teacher in activating schema such as varieties of students, less vocabularies, less participation, the material on the students worksheet (LKS) is not suitable with Indonesian learner, and unsupported condition. The solutions to overcome these challenges were also suggested in this study. The respond of students in teacher schema activation needed to know point of view from students, data showed 69,2 % students agree that schema activation can promote their critical thinking in English reading comprehension. So, the teacher can use schema activation to promote students’ critical thinking in English reading comprehension.