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Educators believe that learning to utilize technology has opportunities to promote improvement in student learning performance. This optimism is undoubtedly expected to be implemented by students not only in cities but also in rural areas. The setting of this research was at the school in a rural area in Bima, Indonesia. This study explored the impact of blended learning by using the STEM education approach on improving students' critical thinking for physics subject in secondary schools. This research was quantitative research with pretest-posttest control group design. The experimental group was taught with blended learning that used the STEM education approach. The control group was prepared with conventional activities. Covariate in this study was prior knowledge. The dependent variable was critical thinking skills measured using an essay test. The statistical analysis used was ANCOVA which the error margin was 0.05. The research found that blended learning with STEM education approach improved better critical thinking of students than conventional learning. The limitation of this study is that during online learning, students with less digital literacy still need assistance from teachers at the beginning of learning. The contribution in this study lies in a unique framework that is in the process of delivering knowledge using blended learning embedded the STEM education approach for high school physics lessons in the rural area.
Ardianti et al. (Sun,) studied this question.