The increase of students’ critical thinking abilities on optical instrument topic through PBL-STEM with virtual simulation media

Abstract

The optical instrument topic is considered difficult because of its abstract nature, and it involves mathematics so that it resulted in the low critical thinking abilities (CTA) on students. However, the implementation of PBL-STEM with VSM learning to engage CTA is still limited. This research aims to develop students' CTA through PBL-STEM with VSM learning in the optical instrument topic. The subjects of this quasi-experimental with static-group pretest-posttest design are 78 number of grade XI students at a senior high school in Malang, Indonesia. The research uses the Critical Thinking Abilities Test with the alpha Cronbach reliability of 0.74. Data analysis was done with the Kruskal-Wallis test, ANCOVA, N-gain, and effect size. The results showed that in improving CTA, PBL-STEM with VSM class students are better than PBL and conventional classes, and PBL class' students are better than conventional classes. The conventional class only learns with the usual way of learning every day. PBL-STEM with VSM class has higher N-gain than PBL class, and PBL class has higher N-gain than conventional class. For a practical effect on increasing CTA, the PBL-STEM with VSM and PBL pairs had a medium effect, the PBL-STEM with VSM and Conventional pairs had a large effect, and the PBL and conventional pairs had a small effect.