The critical thinking skills of biology teacher candidates toward the ethical issues

The critical thinking skills of biology teacher candidates toward the ethical issues Yuyun Maryuningsih a, b,1,*, Topik Hidayat b,2, R. Riandi b,3, Nuryani Y. Rustaman b,4 a Department of Biology Education, Faculty of Education and Teacher Training, IAIN Syekh Nurjati Cirebon, Jl Perjuangan By Pass Sunyaragi, Cirebon, West Java 45132, Indonesia b Science Education, School of Post Graduates, Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia, Jl. Dr. Setiabudhi No.229, Bandung city, West Java 40154, Indonesia 1 yuyunmaryuningsih2014@gmail.com *; 2 topikhidayat@upi.edu; 3 rian@upi.edu; 4 nuryanirustaman@upi.edu * Corresponding author


INTRODUCTION
The role of teachers as educators is very important in guiding students as future generation to be aware of problems in life related to genetics such as gene therapy, cloning, and stem cell research which are currently becoming a social issue. Freidenreich, Duncan, and Shea (2011) stated that genetic literacy is to understand three integrated models: genetic models (genetic inheritance patterns), meiosis models, and molecular models (the mechanisms of connecting genotypes with phenotypes). Teaching genetics to teachers candidate is very important so they will have genetic literacy, it would be usefull to solve the future life problems (Gottheiner & Siegel, 2012). Genetic literacy requires not only a good understanding of genetic concepts such as the genetic material, patterns of inheritance, gene expression and regulation, genetic variation, and evolution but also an The critical thinking skills are needed by biology teacher candidates to deal with the nowadays ethical issues arisen among society. The aim of this research was to observe the critical thinking skills of biology teacher candidates toward the ethical issues especially in genetic field through online discussion. The subjects of this experimental research were 104 biology teacher candidates who took the Genetics Course in an institution in West Java. The subject were devided into three groups consisted of two experimental groups and one control group which conducted online discussion by using Gen-21cs application. The experimental groups discussed the topics given by the both instructor and students, while the control group only discussed the topics given by the instructor. The topics discussed were cell cloning, Genetically Engineered Products, stemcell and inbreeding. The online discussions have been done for four weeks. The biology teacher candidate responses were measured using the critica thinking measurement developed by Facione.The critical thinking scores gained were analyzed using descriptive statistic in term of mean. The results showed that the critical thinking skills of the biology teacher candidates tended to increase in each discussion sessions. Online discussion can be used to ensure the other thinking skills. ability to overcome various problems related to genetics (Boerwinkel, Yarden, & Waarlo, 2017). Moreover, a teacher's pedagogical ability is influenced by his knowledge and attitude in genetic literacy on various issues related to genetics. Taking a solution as an answer to the problems of life is a critical thinking skill, especially when dealing to genetic problem related to the ethical issues such as the use of Genetically Engineered Products (GEPs) in human life, which is interesting to be discussed and debated in the alternative learning process in science classes.
Improving the critical thinking on students by creating a learning model is a challenging task for teachers (Wang, 2013). One of biology teaching materials that has difficulty in increasing students' critical thinking is genetic course. Genetic material is developing rapidly with a number of socio-saintific issues globally (Freidenreich et al., 2011). Conventional learning is not considered sufficient to improve students' critical thinking skills, because there are many sub-discussions in genetics to understan. This fact shows that teacher candidates must be equipped with steps to increase the student critical thinking skills on various ethical issues of genetic with a religious approach characterized by the ability to question controversial issues (Wang, 2013). In the end of day, the teacher candidates is expected to have the critical thinking skills based on the knowledge and religion approach, so they can also implement this way in the future to increase the student critical thinking skill.
One of alternative learning activities to improve the critical thinking skills in accordance with 21 st -century learning is online discussion (Luterbach & Brown, 2011;Sun, Lin, Wu, Zhou, & Luo, 2018;Swart, 2017;Uijl, Filius, & Ten Cate, 2017). This activities covered discussion about the risk factors, advantages and disadvantages of the use of GEP, and allows discussion members to improve their assessment and critical thinking skills about genetic problems. It can be done through responses in the online discussion by interpreting problems, analyzing several possible solutions, evaluating various references as a basis for making decisions, referring to the decision to be taken, and providing an explanation by describing the alternative solutions as the best answer to the problems in the online discussions (Kendal, Kirk, Elvey, Catchpole, & Pryjmachuk, 2017). Preliminary studies have been carried out on learning through online discussion forums in social media groups to discuss the basics of inheritance chromosomes, and the results show that the use of online discussion forum can increase the profile of critical thinking skills (CTS) in prospective biology teachers (Maryuningsih, Hidayat, Riandi, & Rustaman, 2019).
Learning through online discussion forums by discussing ethics in the use of GEP is one example of bioethics education and one of the genetically literacy in the post-genomic era (Stern & Kampourakis, 2017). Bioethics education through argumentative processes that focus on critical thinking skills needs to be trained through discussion forums on ethical issues in the use of GEP (Chowning, Griswold, Kovarik, & Collins, 2012). The debate over ethical issues related of the use of GEP is interesting activity in a learning process, to find out the critical thinking skills possessed by members of the discussion. The study of ethical issues in the use of genetic engineering products is an effective way to provide experiences for teacher candidates, about genetic consultation (Cantor, Hippman, Hercher, & Austin, 2019) compared to genetic learning in a classical way which is only focused on providing material about the concept of genes (Burian, 2013). Exploring students' understanding of the three conceptual models in genetics can enhancing the teacher candidate conception of genetic phenomena (Haskel-Ittah & Yarden, 2018) and also can enhance students' conceptions of research about stem cells, and cloning (Concannon, Siegel, Halverson, & Freyermuth, 2010). Moreover, by genetic literacy would develop the knowledge, attitudes, and perceptions of science teacher candidate in a learning process, as welll as critical the thinking skills of teacher candidate (Cebesoy & Oztekin, 2018;Cebesoy & Tekkaya, 2012).
Firstly, the teacher candidates need to understand about the religious values related to genetic issues, due to the most of the Indonesia citizens are moeslem. They must gather the information and evidence on various social issues and religion related to ethical issues on genetic (Freidenreich et al., 2011). They assess the truth and suitability of information and evidence for possible solutions to answer the problem by religious approach (Chattopadhyay, 2005). There are some research that linked between the truth or religion with a science, like the christiany teachers' belief related to evolution science, the result showed that teachers' beliefs regarding evolution and their Christian faith were mixed and complex (Barnes, Elser, & Brownell, 2017;Mangahas, 2017;Van Huyssteen, 2017). Moreover, there are not so many study about religion linked to the genetic, like the research conducted by Anderson et al(2017) and Scully, Banks, Song, and Haq (2017) that find the correlation between faith and genetic course, but there is no study coreelate between faith and especially in GPE, stem cell, cloning and inbreeding. In the other hand, Islam as one of the majority religion in Indonesia, have a rules related to the genetic product (Salehudin and Iksan, 2017), so this research is really important to conduct due to the fact that there is no study before about critical thinking skills of teacher candidate toward the ethical issues related to the genetic field. In addition, the result of this study can also provide comprehensive information about the response and perspective of the teacher candidate about ethical issues related to the genetic field through online discussion. The information obtained can be used as a basis for policy and a basis for improving the quality of learning, as well as input for further research. Therefore, the purpose of this research was to describe how the critical thinking of teacher candidates related to the ethical issues related to genetic field.

METHOD
This research was conducted with an experimental method by implementing an online discussion forum on Genetics. The population in this study was students who took the Genetics course in the 2017/2018 academic year at one of the teacher training with total one hundred and four teacher candidates. The sample in this study was the total population divided into three discussion groups (Table 1)   Research samples, the teacher candidates, are divided into three large online discussion groups, namely group 1, group 2 and group 3. Each of these groups is divided into small groups totaling seven until ten people. The online discussion was carried out for four weeks on the Gen-21cs application. In large group discussions, online discussion forums are conducted by discussing themes that have been determined by educators. Group members then respond to each problem given by the instructor to the large group. Otherwise, in small group, teacher candidates who are divided into small groups discuss the review of articles on several themes on the use of GEP. They also debated about the ethical dilemmas during the online discussion period, each opinion from the group member were monitored. The trigger questions and follow-up questions are intended so that all parties involved play a role in the online discussion to sharpen the critical thinking skills of teacher candidates related to ethical issues in Genetic. The following discussion themes are given to online discussion forums in all discussion groups using the Gen-21cs application, shown in Table 2. And what about halal law and the illegitimacy of these products by including the proposition of the Koran and authentic hadith to support your opinion 3 STEM Cell What is your opinion based on Islamic law considering that the tissue taken originates from an embryo. What is your opinion if the stem cells are mass produced to replace damaged human organs and the stem cells used are derived from animal embryonic tissue? 4 Inbreeding In Islam there are known three groups of women who are forbidden to be married who are called "mahram", among them are women with the same lineage as mentioned in the Qur'an An Nisa verse 23 which reads:

Data collection and analysis
Data collection techniques in this study were done by observing the critical thinking skills of teacher candidates on their responses to the online discussion forums using the application Gen -21cs. The aspects of critical thinking skills according to (Facione, 1990(Facione, , 2011 are as follows: Interpretation, Analysis, Evaluation, Inference, Explanation, and Self-regulation. In this study, limit the critical thinking skills to five indicators only namely: Interpretation, Analysis, Evaluation, Inference and Explanation. These indicators are in accordance with the topic of genetics (Maryuningsih et al., 2019). Critical thinking skills of teacher candidates are measured according to the CTS with Facione Frame work as seen in the Table 3.
Online discussion forum members' responses on ethical issues related to the genetic were observed then analyzed for their critical thinking skills using observation sheets with discussion and rubric assessments as seen in Table 3. Then the total scores were calculated in each online discussion forum activity with 1-3 scales for each CTS sub-indicator, so the total score is 30.

Evaluation
Assess the credibility of the claim, assess the quality of the arguments that have been made with deductive and inductive reasoning.
5. Assess the credibility of a statement or other representation of someone's opinion CTS 3

Inference
Questioning statements, thinking of alternatives, drawing conclusions 7. Identify the elements needed to make rational conclusions, taking into account information that is relevant to an existing problem CTS 4 8. Identify the elements needed to make rational conclusions, taking into account relevant information and its consequences based on available data Explanation State the results, explain the method, and forward arguments 9. Give reasoning CTS 5 10. States the reasoning based on evidence, concepts, methodologies and logical criteria based on information

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
In large groups, there were three group that divided into control group, experiment group 1 and experiment group 2, the discussions include major themes relating to ethical laws and theoretical studies of GEP and genetic as general. The small group discussions were consist of seven until ten people per groups, in the small group teacher candidates discuss the review of articles on several themes on the use of GEP. The teacher candidate in each group discussion feel free to response the issues anytime without waiting for their turn like in conventional group discussion. Moreover, due to the using of online discucssion forum they also could expand their knowledge to find any source in the internet related to the specific issues of the genetic. The result show that every teacher candidates responses the issues based on reading source from the internet, Figure 1 describe how the eacher candidates' responses to ethical issue in genetic. The instructor role as the observer to monitor the interactions between students and educators discussing several examples of specific ethical issues in genetic field. The topics selection was appropriate to build the critical thinking of teacher candidates, in line with the (Cooling et al., 2010) stated that the most appropriate topic to discuss was the controversial issues related to the religion. The responses were then analyzed for their critical thinking skills based on the CTS framework of Facione described in Table 4. In addition, Islam rejects cloning because Islam highly upholds a relationship including marital relations which are based on legal marriages. Children from the marriage will automatically produce offspring with genetic traits inherited from both parents. With the cloning, it will disrupt the inheritance law based on blood ties. The cloning process can also make a genetically modified child not have a clear lineage, for example the child is produced from his mother's somatic cells so automatically in the child's body there is only DNA from his mother without any combination of his father's DNA so that the child is like not his father's child. The lineage is related to inheritance and marriage rights CTS5 6 The responses of teacher candidates was measured, so the average CTS scores could be obtained as seen in Table 5. The increase in the critical thinking skills of teacher candidates in each group for all discussion activities carried out online through the Gen 21 cs application was illustrated in Figure 2.  Table 5 and Figure 2 explain the average score of critical thinking skills of teacher candidates in each online discussion group. Online discussions related to the ethical issues of genetics are an appropriate way to describe the critical thinking skills of teacher candidates compared to offline discussion in class. The offline discussion in class have a limited time and the student alternately to deliver their opinions, while in online discussions people are free to express their opinions without waiting for their turn and without any limited time. This proves that online discussion forums provide wider space for discussion participants. The highest CTS score lies in Groups two and three which apply online discussions with Problem Based Learning compared to Group one.The online discussion forums in Groups two and three, that the problems come from instructors and teacher candidates, can increase the active participation of the group members in responding to the issues raised by other group members.
The study of genetic concepts, especially the use of genetic engineering products as a topic of discussion in the learning process is an effective way to provide experience to teacher candidates about genetic literacy (Cantor et al., 2019). This can be seen from the responses of teacher candidates, they were more active to provide any critical answer in each session on online discussion forum when compared to classical learning in class. The study conducted by (Burian, 2013) who states that classical learning is only focused on providing material about the concept of genes. The understanding of teacher candidates on genetic field is really important because it will have an impact on theit social life (Chattopadhyay, 2005). Teaching techniques as a framework to improve genetic literacy in the post-genomic era need to be improved (Stern and Kampourakis, 2017), so the teacher candidates can understand about the three conceptual models in genetics (Freidenreich et al., 2011) and enhance the teacher candidates conception of genetic issues (Haskel-Ittah and Yarden, 2018). This activity also can increase the student specific conceptions about stem cells and cloning (Concannon et al., 2010). The understanding of teacher candidates about genetic literacy was meassured from their responses in online discussion forums, it could describe the knowledge, attitudes and perceptions of teacher candidates to the various issues especially in genetics field (Cebesoy and Oztekin, 2018;Cebesoy and Tekkaya, 2012).
Perception of Teacher candidates also show their understanding, belief and competency as a provision for their teaching activities later (Mangahas, 2017). This perception need to be built by synchronize laws in science education that have a basis from epistemology and science ontology on several topics of social-science issues regarding the genetic issues (Mansour, 2010). The molecular genetic through online discussion was a learning progress for better understanding of genetic concepts (Todd and Kenyon, 2013) because by using electronic journal or book as references the biology teacher candidates can be a fast learner in this 4.0 revolution industry era (Todd and Romine, 2017). The most recommended learning is by learning that supplies the future needs, that known as online learning through online discussion (Shalev-Shwartz, 2011). The online discussionn is a model for authenticating knowledge transfer by understanding cognitive skills in a constructive learning environment (Akyol and Garrison, 2011;Brown, 2014;Tucker, Gonzaga, and Krause, 2014).
The result showed that critical thinking skills of teacher candidates was presented from their responses, perceptions and ethical norms by using religious perspective related to genetic field. This was indicated by their responses in several cases related to the genetic field such as cloning, stem cell, GPE and inbreeding by quoting several verses of the Koran and hadith. Teacher candidates cite a number of Qur'anic verses and hadiths related to the themes discussed according to the islam norms. Discussing issues related to religious studies is something that needs to be done (Cush and Robinson, 2014). Moreover, this activitiy is an important part as an effort to increase religious beliefs for adherents (Cooling, 2012). Controversial themes such as cloning, stem cells were much debatable in the world, especially about ethical use, so the teacher candidates can explore the right information about Islamic laws in presenting their opinions (Fink, 2002). (Scheitle and Ecklund, 2017) explained that the role of religion is needed in developing thought patterns in addressing various social problems related to genetic knowledge, genetic determination and applications in daily life. All these ethical issues are linked to religion (Gericke et al., 2017), so the religious knowledge possessed by teacher candidates greatly influences his thinking patterns and is reflected in his opinion exposure. As a Moeslem majority, the study of Islamic perspectives in addressing the ethical issue (Grine, Bensaid, Nor, and Ladjal, 2013), especially health risks, perceptions of modern food like GEP (Haukenes, 2004).This study describe the dogmatic in moral education and religious studies that both of them should be present in the learning process especially Genetic learning in teacher candidates (Muchnik, 2018;Nie, 2019;Podoprigora, 2018).

CONCLUSION
Critical thinking skills on ethical issues in the genetic field can be trained and improved through online discussion forums. The result of this study was describe that not only critical thinking skills possessed by teacher candidates, but also other skills such as communication skills, group collaboration and creative thinking by religious approaching that appear in the online discussion forum.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The author thanks IAIN Sheikh Nurjati Cirebon for funding in this study as stipulated in the Chancellor's Decree in 2019. The author also thanks the Research Institute and Community Services of IAIN Sheikh Nurjati, Dean of the Faculty of Tarbiyah and Teacher Training for author authorizing research in Biology tadris. The author also thanked the Biology student of IAIN Sheikh Nurjati Cirebon as a participant in this study and the team from bausir.net who assisted the writer in creating the Gen 21-CS application as a smartphone-based online discussion forum.