International Journal of
Information and Education Technology

Abstract—Junior high school students in Indonesia often face difficulties in analyzing and communicating scientific issues related to daily life due to limited scaffolding for exploring abstract concepts and insufficient guidance for scientific communication. Inquiry-based learning fosters students’ critical thinking and communication skills, while Augmented Reality (AR) strengthens these processes by enhancing visualization and engagement in science learning. However, no study has yet integrated inquiry and AR to improve critical thinking and communication skills in science learning. Therefore, to address this gap, this study analyzes the effect of the Augmented Reality–Scaffolded Inquiry (AR-SI) model, which combines interactive AR visualization of scientific phenomena with structured scaffolding stages to guide students’ inquiry processes, on students’ critical thinking and communication skills. A quasi-experimental study with a non-equivalent control group design was employed to evaluate the model’s effectiveness. The sample consisted of 60 ninth-grade students from one of the public junior high schools in Semarang City, Indonesia, selected through convenience sampling. The experimental class (30 students) received the AR-Scaffolded Inquiry treatment, while the control class (30 students) engaged in the conventional inquiry method routinely used in the school’s science classes. Data were collected through pre-test, intervention, and post-test procedures. Results show that students in the experimental group demonstrated greater improvement in both critical thinking and communication skills, with N-gain scores of 0.56 and 0.89, respectively, compared to 0.35 and 0.65 in the control group. These findings indicate that integrating AR-SI can effectively enhance students’ higher-order thinking and communicative competence. The AR-SI model thus presents a promising technology-integrated pedagogical framework for fostering essential 21st-century scientific competencies.

Keywords—augmented reality, communication skills, critical thinking skills, scaffolded inquiry learning, science learning

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Cite: Muhammad Syaipul Hayat, Sumarno Sumarno, Noora Qotrun Nada, Ali Ismail, Surya Gumilar, Saprudin Saprudin, Ade Ihtiar, Ghurrotul Bariroh, and Safa Amal Hayati, "Promoting AR-Scaffolded Inquiry Model in Science Learning to Improve Students’ Critical Thinking and Communication Skills," International Journal of Information and Education Technology, vol. 16, no. 5, pp. 1219-1228, 2026.

Copyright © 2026 by the authors. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited (CC BY 4.0).