Fostering students’ problem solving skills and environmental literacy through PBL with natural environmental exploration approach

Abstract

Education has an important role in creating the next generation that is able to handle world problems, one of which is environmental problems. For this reason, problem-solving skills and environmental literacy in students are needed in the learning process. Fostering of problem-solving skills and environmental literacy can be done by applying appropriate learning in the classroom, such as PBL with natural environmental exploration (NEE). PBL can trigger students’ problem- solving skills because it involves problems that are not structured and non-routine situations, so there is no clear source as a solution to solve it, and students must find their own solutions to solve it. While NEE can trigger students’environmental literacy because through it, students can directly interactwith their environment to be able to identify any environmental problems that occur and find the solutions. This study aims to determine how PBL with NEE can improve students’ problem- solving skills and environmental literacy. The type of research used inthis research is Classroom Action Research. Research data in the form of problem-solving test results by Greenstein Assessing 21st Century Skills and environmental literacy test result by McBetch-Volk Environmental Literacy Survey. The results showed that the average value of problem-solving indicator in the first cycle was 81.43%, and the second cyclewas 90.9% with an increase of 9.47%. Meanwhile, the average value of environmental literacy has increased from the first cycle to the second cycle by 10.4%. The conclusion is that PBL with NEE can improve students’ problem-solving skills and environmental literacy.