Enhancing Students’ Conjecturing Skills Through RBL-STEM with Antimagic Coloring and Geometric Transformation in Batik Design

Students’ conjecturing refers to the process wherein students make educated guesses or hypotheses about a problem, situation, or concept based on their prior knowledge, observations, and reasoning skills. It is an essential aspect of problem-solving and critical thinking skills. This research aims to enhance students’ conjecturing thinking skills by implementing RBL-STEM using the (a,d)-edge antimagic coloring technique and geometric transformation to develop Batik motifs. A mixed methods approach was used, combining quantitative and qualitative analyses. Using an independent sample t-test, the quantitative analysis examined differences in conjecturing skills between the experimental and control classes. Qualitative analysis, through in-depth interviews, provided a triangulation of the quantitative findings. The results indicated a significant improvement in the students' conjecturing skills after the implementation of RBL-STEM. Statistical analysis at a confidence level of 5% showed a t statistic with Sig. (2-tailed) = 0.036 < 0.05, confirming the rejection of H0. The novelty of the study lies in integrating the (a,d)-edge antimagic coloring technique and geometric transformation into classroom research with STEM activities. These findings suggest that RBL-STEM has the potential to improve students' conjecturing abilities, particularly in the development of batik motifs rooted in local wisdom. Doi: 10.28991/ESJ-2025-09-02-019 Full Text: PDF