Linking Words, Linking Minds: Conjunctions as Cognitive Markers of Critical Thinking in Indonesian Junior-High Essays.
In the contemporary information age, critical thinking is a vital competency for navigating complex, dynamic knowledge environments. This study examines how Indonesian junior-high students deploy conjunctions in descriptive essays and how these micro-linguistic choices index dimensions of critical t...
| Published in: | International Journal of Humanities Education Vol. 24; no. 1; pp. 71 - 98 |
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| Main Authors: | , , , , |
| Format: | Article |
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Common Ground Research Networks
Jun2026
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | View this record in EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hlh&AN=194661847&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: hlh uiTerm: 194661847 longDbName: Humanities International Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 23270063 HE57 jtl: International Journal of Humanities Education issn: 23270063 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Jun2026 vid: 24 iid: 1 pid: 22359 pub: Common Ground Research Networks artinfo: ui: 194661847 10.18848/2327-0063/CGP/v24i01/71-97 ppf: 71 ppct: 27 formats: tig: atl: Linking Words, Linking Minds: Conjunctions as Cognitive Markers of Critical Thinking in Indonesian Junior-High Essays. aug: au: Wahid, Abdul Syamsuri, Andi Sukri Muhsin, Muh. Arief Rahim, Abd. Rahman Hasrianti, Andi affil: University of Muhammadiyah Makassar, Indonesia Alauddin Islamic State University, Indonesia su: Critical thinking Conjunctions (Grammar) Teaching models Cognitive linguistics Essays Discourse analysis Literacy sug: subj: Critical thinking Conjunctions (Grammar) Teaching models Cognitive linguistics Essays Discourse analysis Literacy keyword: Conjunctions Critical Thinking Essay Writing Middle-School Students ab: In the contemporary information age, critical thinking is a vital competency for navigating complex, dynamic knowledge environments. This study examines how Indonesian junior-high students deploy conjunctions in descriptive essays and how these micro-linguistic choices index dimensions of critical thinking. Ninety-six Grade-VIII students at SMP Negeri 1 Balikpapan wrote essays under standardized classroom conditions; after plagiarism (<30%) and length (>100 words) screening, eightythree texts were analyzed. Using an iterative qualitative content analysis, conjunctions were coded as additive, adversative, causal, temporal, or conditional, and surrounding clausal units were mapped to ten critical-thinking categories. Inter-rater reliability on 20% of the corpus reached κ = 0.82. Information synthesis dominated (22.3%), followed by evaluation (16.0%) and cause-and-effect (14.9%); argument construction (9.6%), problem-solving (8.5%), exemplification (7.4%), analytical reasoning (6.4%), generalization (5.3%), aspirational expression (5.3%), and creativity (4.3%) comprised the remainder. To contextualize aggregate patterns, we report descriptive (non-inferential) subgroup summaries by writing proficiency (lower/medium/higher--27/28/28), which indicate monotonic increases in conjunction density and type--token ratio with proficiency. We interpret conjunction use as a candidate, context-sensitive indicator--a trace of cognitive organization--rather than a causal determinant, noting the limits of the singlesite, observational design. Pedagogically, the findings support an integrated framework that embeds explicit attention to conjunctions within genre-based writing and reasoning scaffolds (e.g., criteria-based evaluation, counterargument routines, reflective dialogue). Future work should triangulate these indicators with psychometric measures (e.g., Cornell Critical Thinking Test), extend to multimodal/genre-comparative analyses, and pursue longitudinal or multi-site designs to test generalizability. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: Y dt: @attributes: year: 2026 holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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