From Classroom to Social Action: The Effectiveness of Integrating Project Citizen and Project-Based Learning in Enhancing Students’ Civic Engagement

Abstract

From Classroom to Social Action: The Effectiveness of Integrating Project Citizen and Project-Based Learning in Enhancing Students' Civic Engagement. This study aims to analyze the effectiveness of integrating Project Citizen and Project-Based Learning (PjBL) in enhancing students' civic engagement, which includes civic knowledge, civic skills, and civic disposition. The novelty of this research lies in the quantitative examination of the effectiveness of integrating both approaches using a quasi-experimental design with a control group, which differs from previous studies that tend to examine only one approach or employ action research designs without comparison groups. Furthermore, this study measures the impact of integration on civic engagement comprehensively and simultaneously across all three dimensions (civic knowledge, civic skills, and civic disposition), rather than focusing solely on one or two specific aspects such as critical thinking or attitudes alone. A quantitative approach with a quasi-experimental design using a nonequivalent control group design was employed, involving 60 students from the Civic Education Study Program at FKIP Universitas Lampung, divided into experimental and control groups. Data were collected through questionnaires, observations, and documentation, and analyzed using validity and reliability tests, normality and homogeneity tests, t-tests, and Normalized Gain (N-Gain) calculations. The results revealed a significant difference between the experimental and control groups, with a significance value of 0.018 (p < 0.05). The experimental group achieved a higher mean score (78.43) than the control group (74.20), with an N-Gain of 0.57 (medium to high category). The integration of these two approaches fosters participatory, contextual, and applicable learning, effectively bridging the gap between classroom learning and real social action. These findings provide an innovative contribution to civic education practices by positioning students as social change agents and offering a strategic learning model relevant to the challenges of the Society 5.0 era.