21<sup>st</sup> Century Learning: Experiential Learning to Enhance Critical Thinking in Vocational Education

Abstract

Vocational education aims to prepare students to work in certain fields. The profile of graduates of vocational education must have competencies relevant to 21st century competency. 21st century competency is oriented to critical thinking skills. Critical thinking ability is an important skill and must be possessed by students to face the challenges of the 21st century. Critical thinking skills accommodate learning activities that could improve high-level thinking skills (Higher Order Thinking Skills/HOTS). Therefore, learning management needs to be effective, efficient, and relevant to 21st century learning. Learning management aims to manage educational resources to create a learning atmosphere and learning process so that students are actively involved and could develop their potential. One method of learning that is able to engage students actively is experiential learning. Experiential learning uses the student-centered learning approach that starts with the premise that the best way to learn is from experience or learning by doing. The objective of this research was to develop learning design of 21st century learning based on experiential learning in the Basic Mechanical Engineering Design to enhance students' critical thinking skills in vocational education by considering student learning styles. Student learning style preferences were measured using the Felder-Solomon Learning Style Index. This article uses developmental research method by applying ADDIE model. Data was collected through observation, questionnaire, and interview. The results of the validation from the expert learning model showed a validation percentage of 91.48% which meant that the experiential learning model was very feasible to use, while the validation results from learning material experts showed an 88.75% validation percentage which meant the Basic Mechanical Engineering Design material was very appropriate. The initial response of students was positive towards experiential learning. That means students like to be actively involved in a series of experiential learning activities.