Developing STEM autonomous learning city map application to improve critical thinking skills of primary school teacher education students

The problem and the aim of the study. Critical thinking is one of the skills that is needed in the current Industry 4.0 era. In PISA 2019, Indonesia is ranked 71st with an average score of 396 points in science performance, which is still classified as low. Therefore, a solution is needed in order to enhance the critical thinking skills of Indonesian students. Integrating technology in the classroom is important in today’s learning. Using technology-based learning media makes it possible for teachers to upgrade and improve the learner-centeredness of their lessons. One of these technology-based media is an application. Seeing how common and usual it is for students to use digital devices and internet in everyday life, the researchers then decided to develop an android-based application called "STEM Autonomous Learning City Map" which aims to facilitate students to learn actively and independently in order to improve their critical thinking skills. With this application, students are expected to face problems they are encountered and find solutions on their own. Research methods. This research was carried out at the PSTE study program, FKIP, Universitas Riau in the even semester of 2021/2022. Using Research and Development (R&D) design, this research applied the ADDIE model which consists of five stages (Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation, Evaluation). At the Development stage, a validation test was conducted with a media expert to determine whether the product that has been developed is appropriate for use or not. Then at the Implementation stage, a field trial was carried out with the subject of 60 PSTE students at Universitas Riau. Owing to this, the type of data obtained in this research is both qualitative and quantitative. Results. The result of the validation test by media expert gained an average score of 79.19, which can be categorized as valid. Then data analysis at the Implementation stage using the Paired Sample T-Test via SPSS found an Asymp (Sig. 2-tailed) value of 0.006, which is less than 0.05. This implies that there is an improvement of mean score in the post-test done by the students. For this reason, it can be concluded that the STEM Autonomous Learning City Map application is valid and feasible to be used as a learning medium, and has a positive influence on students’ critical thinking skills. Conclusion. The STEM Autonomous Learning City Map application that has been developed is valid and appropriate to be used as a medium in the learning process. In addition, based on the results of the paired sample t-test, this application is also proven able to improve students' critical thinking skills. This can be seen from the increase in the average score of students after learning using this application.