The Effect of Project Based Learning (PjBL) on Fourth Grade Elementary Students Science Concept Understanding
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.32493/rdisa.v1i2.63725Keywords:
Project Based Learning, Concept Understanding;, Science (IPAS)Abstract
This study aims to determine the difference in fourth-grade students' conceptual understanding of IPAS (Natural and Social Sciences) before and after the implementation of the Project-Based Learning (PjBL) model, as well as the level of improvement following the intervention. The study was motivated by the students' low conceptual understanding, reflected in a class average of 55 below the Minimum Mastery Criteria (KKM) of 70. A pre-experimental method with a One-Group Pretest-Posttest design was employed. The sample consisted of 49 fourth-grade students from UPTD SDN 2 Segeran,
Juntinyuat District, Indramayu Regency, selected via saturated sampling. The instructional intervention spanned several sessions utilizing the six stages of PjBL, focusing students on specific IPAS topics (such as biodiversity or natural resources) through group projects involving the creation of educational media or mini-museums. Data were collected using a 20-item multiple-choice test, selected from 40 trial items based on validity and reliability testing. Data analysis included descriptive
statistics, the Shapiro-Wilk normality test, a Paired Sample t-test, and N-Gain analysis. Results showed that the average score increased from 54.08 (pretest) to 81.02 (posttest). The Paired Sample t-test yielded a significance value of 0.000 (<0.05), indicating a significant difference between the scores, while the N-Gain analysis produced an average of 0.3741, falling into the moderate category. These findings provide empirical evidence of improved IPAS conceptual understanding following PjBL implementation; however, interpretations regarding cause-and-effect relationships must be approached with caution due to the limitations of the single-group pre-experimental design, which lacked a comparison group.
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