Divergent thinking of students teachers' through problem-based learning in environmental science

Abstract

Although project-based learning (PBL) has been well documented in the past few decades in diversified higher education: medical education, engineering, and law, there were a few studies touching upon PBL and its effectiveness towards student teachers' problem-solving skills. The purpose of the present study was to examine the influence of PBL in teacher education on student teachers' problem-solving skills related to environmental concern. Informed by experimental design, pretest posttest design, the participants of this study were second-year student teachers (treatment = 30, control=30) in one of universities in Indonesia, faculty of teacher education at a primary level, based in West Java. Data were collected through the objective tests, 50 multiple choice items, which aimed to examine student teachers' comprehension towards the impact of pollution on people's health. The statistical procedure, ANOVA, was used for repeated measures which played as data analysis. The result of this study was that PBL within the high divergent thinking has effectively influenced their problem-solving skills, compared to the conventional teaching method, lecturing. The Implication of this study was furthered discussed in this article.