The Effect of Project-Based Learning on Critical Thinking Skills across Students’ Cognitive Styles

Abstract

Increasing students’ critical thinking skills has become an important challenge in 21st-century primary education, particularly in implementing student-centered learning within the Merdeka Curriculum. This study aims to analyse the effect of the Project-Based Learning (PjBL) model on students' critical thinking skills in terms of field-independent and field-dependent cognitive styles. The method used was a quasi-experiment with a 2×2 treatment by level design. The research sample consisted of 80 fourth-grade students divided based on learning model (PjBL and expository) and cognitive style. The research instrument was a critical thinking ability test covering the indicators of interpretation, analysis, evaluation, and inference. Data analysis used two-way ANOVA and Tukey's test at a significance level of 0.05. The results showed a difference in critical thinking skills between students learning with PjBL and expository learning, with the average PjBL score (73.85) higher than the expository score (69.90). There was an interaction between the learning model and cognitive style. Field-independent students who learned with PjBL obtained the highest score (78.40), while in the expository model, field-dependent students performed relatively better (72.10). It was concluded that PjBL was effective in improving critical thinking skills, particularly for field-independent students, and has important implications for differentiated instructional strategies in primary education.