INTEGRATED STEM PROBLEM-BASED LEARNING APPROACH: A STUDY ON MALAYSIAN UNDERGRADUATES’ ACHIEVEMENT IN LEARNING GENETICS CONCEPTS

Abstract

Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education should focus on producing scientific and innovative society as emphasized in the Malaysia Education Blueprint for Higher Education (2015-2025). The blueprint states STEM education to be practised at higher education institutions to produce competent graduates. This study echoed the initiatives of implementing STEM at higher education institutions. Hence, STEM education module integrated with Problem Based Learning (PBL) approach was developed. PBL approach was chosen as means to deliver STEM education because PBL approach fosters teamwork and engagement in learning. The Integrated STEM-PBL module was used to measure the achievement towards genetic concepts. A pre-experimental research design with one group-posttest design was applied. A total of 50 participants who are first-year undergraduates from the faculty of biology from a public university in Malaysia were studied. Genetics Concepts Achievement Test (GCAT) was used to measure the achievement towards genetics concepts in this study. The GCAT was validated by experts with Kuder-Richardson 20 (KR-20) internal consistency reliability measure. The administration of GCAT at pretest and posttest showed that the integrated STEM-PBL module enhanced and retained the students’ achievement in genetics concepts