The Impact of Meaningful Learning with Contextual Approach on Students^ English Learning Outcomes Husni Mubarok, Nina Sofiana, Danang Mahendra
Universitas Islam Nahdlatul Ulama Jepara
Abstract
With the start of post-pandemic learning, the Indonesian government implemented the Merdeka Belajar (independent learning) curriculum in 2022 where the curriculum was previously used as an emergency curriculum during the COVID-19 pandemic. The implementation of the new curriculum requires teachers to be able to apply learning methods that really facilitate students^ learning to gain meaningful learning experiences. The purpose of this study is to examine the effectiveness of the meaningful learning method with a contextual approach. This study used an experimental research design with a randomized Solomon four groups design. The population of this study were all 8th grade students in three junior high schools in Central Java, Indonesia. Due to the large population, the researchers took a random sample with a total sample of 120 students. The data were obtained through a test which was then analysed quantitatively using the t-test formula. The results of the analysis showed that meaningful learning with the contextual approach was effective to use in English learning where the results of the t-test were greater than the t-table with the t-test of groups 1 and 2 of 3.433 and the t-test of groups 3 and 4 of 3.644 with t-table of 0.678. These results indicate that although applied to different schools, meaningful learning methods with a contextual approach are still able to improve students^ English learning outcomes.
