USING STEM INTEGRATED APPROACH TO NURTURE STUDENTS’ INTEREST AND 21ST CENTURY SKILLS

Year 2016, Volume: 4 , 313 - 319, 01.09.2016

Mohamad Sattar Rasul Lilia Halim Zanaton Iksan

Abstract

This
study aimed to identify the changes of 21st century skills among students after
participating in integrated Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematic (STEM)
education programme. The learning activities in this programme applying Project
Oriented Problem Based Learning approached as a fundamental pedagogy. A total
of 125 secondary school students age 13-14 from four different zone of FELDA
regions were involved as respondents. This study employed one group
quasi-experimental and survey design to identify student’s 21st century skills
before and after the programme. The data were analyzed using SPSS 21.0 for
descriptive analysis, which later followed by inferential analysis to compare
the means (t-test) between pre and post groups. The findings from this study
revealed that, the level of 21st century skills among students significantly
increase. Interestingly, one of the 21st century skills components namely ‘high
productivity skills’ shows positive changes, from moderate to high level
skills.  The outcome of this study
provide evidence that the application of Po- PBL in STEM education could help
students to enhance their 21st century skills by learning how to solve the real
world problems based on the authentic and real life experience  through project work.

Keywords

21st century skills, Po-PBL, STEM education, project based learning, problem based learning.digital age literacy, ınventive thinking, effective communication, high productivity, spiritual values

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