Higher education hold strategic and important role in enhancing the quality of human resources in 21st century. One of the aims of higher education is to enhance critical thinking skills, since it is considered as an integral part of reasoning and important for the development of scientific knowledge. The empowerment of critical thinking skills in biology learning can be conducted through the implementation of Experiential Learning Model with Scaffolding (MELS). The study is a type of descriptive research to describe the effectiveness of MELS which had been developed and had been tested for validity and practicality. The study was conducted in Biology Department, Mathematics and Natural Science Faculty, Universitas Negeri Makassar, Indonesia. The subjects were biology department students registered in General Biology Subject of 2015/2016 academic year. The result showed that MELS is effective in empowering critical thinking skills of students. Students� critical thinking skills can be empowered through several phases of MELS, including motivation and orientation, concrete experience, reflective observation, abstract conceptualization, active experimentation, and networking.

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