THE STEM APPROACH: THE DEVELOPMENT OF RECTANGULAR MODULE TO IMPROVE CRITICAL THINKING SKILL

Abstract

The objective of the study is to find out: 1) how rectangular module with the STEMapproach to improve valid and practical critical thinking skill; 2) the effectiveness of therectangular module development with the STEM approach to improve critical thinking skill.It is a research and development (R & D) study. This research consists of two phases, namelypreliminary study and product development. Product development consists of product testingusing one group pretest - posttest design experimental research. The population in this studyis the students of one State Junior High School in the Kebumen region by taking five studentsas the sample for individual tests, 32 students for limited scale tests, and 64 students forwide-scale tests. The results of this study indicate that 1) the rectangular module with theSTEM approach on the aspects of content, presentation, graphical, and language feasibilityare excellent, the STEM approach feasibility and components of critical thinking skills aregood category; 2) the effectiveness shows that the rectangular module with the STEMapproach to improve critical thinking skills is proven effective which can be seen from theaverage value of N-Gain in the experimental class of 0.37 with the category of mediumimprovement, while N-Gain in the control class is 0.03 with low increase category.