A Systematic Literature Review: How the Implementation of STEM Enhances Critical Thinking Skills in Chemistry Education?

Students often have difficulty in understanding complex and abstract chemistry concepts, thus requiring an effective learning approach to improve critical thinking skills. Although the STEM approach has been proven to improve critical thinking skills in various fields, no research has specifically explored this approach in chemistry learning to improve students' critical thinking skills. This study aims to analyze how STEM integrated with this model/method/approach can improve critical thinking skills in chemistry learning, as well as in what chemistry materials can apply the STEM approach so as to improve students' critical thinking skills. This study used a systematic literature review method with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analysis (PRISMA) approach adopted for this review. The search was based on the keywords “STEM in chemistry learning”, “critical thinking skills”. All 26 research articles analyzed in this journal were collected from Google Scholar and Scopus databases. Based on the results of the review, it shows that the models/methods/approaches used in the application of STEM to improve critical thinking skills in chemistry learning are Project-Based Learning (PBL)-STEM, Problem-Based Learning (PBL)-STEM, and Inquiry-Based Learning (IBL)-STEM. The chemistry materials applied with the STEM approach mainly include basic chemistry at the high school and university levels. The results showed that the approaches not only deepened students' understanding of chemistry concepts, but also significantly improved their critical thinking skills.