This study presents the development and implementation of a science project module for vocational high school students, designed using the Four Steps Teaching Material Development (4STMD) method and contextualized through technology-related vocational applications, with a focus on supporting critical thinking skills. The module was created to foster students’ critical thinking skills through a science project module among vocational students. The need to develop such a module stem from the lack of integration of the critical thinking indicators into the teaching modules for the subject IPAS. The current research employed pretest and post-test measures to assess changes in students’ critical thinking skills within the context of a one-group pretest-post-test design. The sample comprised 23 students in the tenth grade enrolled in Automotive Light Vehicle Technology at a Vocational High School. Data was collected using an instrument measuring students’ critical thinking ability based on the model by Norris Ennis. Data analysis used N-gain to assess students’ performance on the pretest and post-test. According to the study, the developed teaching module was perceived as highly feasible by the expert assessors and understandable by students. The overall N-gain was moderate (0.38). Indicator-wise, students exhibited moderate improvements in basic clarification (0.42), basic support (0.39), and strategies and tactics (0.45), but low gains in inference. The findings indicate that the 4STMD-based module is capable of supporting critical thinking skills at the basic and applied level; however, developing higher-order thinking skills requires more explicit and sustained scaffolding. This study underscores the importance of integrating contextual learning with structured cognitive support in the development of vocational science instructional materials.
Anwar et al. (Wed,) studied this question.