The Impact of The Use of Reflective Picture Storybook Media on Improving Democratic Character among Fifth-Graders

Democratic character is one of the important virtues to be internalized since an early age. Unfortunately, a couple of issues is still facing the efforts to get elementary school students internalized such as character which cannot be developed optimally among students. This research aims to determine the effect of the use of the reflective picture storybook media on improving the democratic character of fifth-graders at elementary schools in Bantul Sub-district that adopted the 2013 Curriculum. The research employed a quasiexperimental method with a pretest-posttest nonequivalent group design. The sample consisted of fifth-graders at elementary schools SD Bantul Timur and SD 1 Bantul. Data were collected using a scale with good validity and reliability. The data were analyzed using ttest with a significance level of 0.05. Analysis results showed that the use of reflective picture storybook media had a greater effect on the democratic character of the students than when using media in form of textbooks with a t-value of 4.691 (sig. (2-tailed) = 0.000 < α = 0.05). Through the use of the reflective picture storybook media, students can reflect on how to internalize the democratic character in everyday life. Keywords—instructional media, reflective picture storybook, democratic character, elementary school