Debate-Assisted SSI-PBL: Impact on Students' Critical Thinking, Scientific Attitude, and Academic Stress in Chemistry
Abstract
Critical thinking, scientific attitude, and psychological well-being are essential outcomes of chemistry learning, yet Indonesian students' scientific literacy remains low and classroom practice rarely addresses these dimensions together. Problem-Based Learning integrated with Socio-Scientific Issues (PBL-SSI) narrows this gap, and scientific debate was added because claim-evidence-rebuttal argumentation is theoretically expected to sharpen reasoning and ease academic pressure, yet empirical evidence on this combined approach remains limited. This quasi-experimental study (nonequivalent control group design) examined the effect of debate-assisted PBL-SSI on critical thinking, scientific attitude, and academic stress among 68 twelfth-grade students (experimental n=36, control n=32) using tests, questionnaires, and reflections. Both classes showed moderate, non-significant gains in critical thinking (p=0.151) and scientific attitude (p=0.652), but academic stress decreased significantly in the experimental class and increased in the control class (Cohen's d=-1.567; p=0.000). Debate-assisted PBL-SSI shows practical but statistically unconfirmed cognitive benefits, while robustly reducing academic stress, supporting holistic chemistry education.
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References
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.31004/jele.v11i5.3061
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