Volume 15 (2025) Download Cover Page

Project-Based Learning: Improving Scientific Writing Skills with the Integration of Ecological Literacy among Students

Article Number: e2025123  |  Available Online: March 2025  |  DOI: 10.22521/edupij.2025.15.123

Hera Septriana , Sarwiji Suwandi , Sumarwati

Abstract

Background/purpose. This study examines the influence of project-based learning on the writing of scientific papers that have ecological literacy. This research is important because ecological literacy is a key competency in facing the environmental challenges of the 21st century.

Materials/methods. This study uses an experimental method. The main data is students. Experimental and control groups were selected based on the average score of students in each class. The analysis used data from the experimental group and the control group, with data normality, data homogeneity, and t-test. Data were analyzed with the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test.

Results. The results showed that there was a significant difference between the results of the post-experimental and control groups. Project-based learning is effective in improving students' ability to write scientific papers that contain ecological literacy. The experimental group showed a more consistent improvement in the structure of the writing and the depth of the ecological content. In addition, students in the experimental group were better able to integrate local environmental issues into their scientific work.

Conclusion. This research underscores an epistemic transformation in which students are not only involved in the acquisition of knowledge but also participate in creating an understanding of ecological consciousness as the ethical foundation of their intelligence. The implication of this research is that project-based learning can help students improve ecological literacy. 

Keywords: Ecological literacy, ecological education, project-based learning, writing scientific papers, writing skills

References

Akili, W. (2014). On engineering design education: Exposing students to design knowledge. Retrieved from https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-84905176781&partnerID=40&md5=edd91d997f509caca9e224ed498ebbdb

Alotaibi, M. G. (2020). The Effect of Project-Based Learning Model on Persuasive Writing Skills of Saudi EFL Secondary School Students. English Language Teaching, 13(7), 19. https://doi.org/10.5539/elt.v13n7p19

Asteria, D., Herdiansyah, H., & Apriana, I. W. A. (2016). Women’s Environmental Literacy As Social Capital in Environmental Management for Environmental Security of Urban Area. IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science, 30(1). https://doi.org/10.1088/1755-1315/30/1/012014

Barau, A. S., Stringer, L. C., & Adamu, A. U. (2016). Environmental ethics and future-oriented transformation to sustainability in Sub-Saharan Africa. Journal of Cleaner Production, 135, 1539–1547. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2016.03.053

Bekiryazıcı, M. (2015). Teaching Mixed-Level Classes with a Vygotskian Perspective. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 186, 913–917. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.04.163

Bell, S. (2010). Project-Based Learning for the 21st Century: Skills for the Future. The Clearing House: A Journal of Educational Strategies, Issues and Ideas, 83(2), 39–43. https://doi.org/10.1080/00098650903505415

Björk, L., Bräuer, G., Rienecker, L., & Jörgensen, P. S. (2003). Teaching Academic Writing in European Higher Education: An Introduction. (2003), 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1007/0-306-48195-2_1

Creswell, J. W. (2012). Educational Research: Planning, Conducting, and Evaluating Quantitative and Qualitative Research (Forth Edit). Boston, Columbus, Indianapolis, New York, San Francisco, Upper Saddle River, Amsterdam, Cape Town, Dubai, London, Madrid, Milan, Munich, Paris, Montreal, Toronto, Delhi, Mexico City, São Paulo, Sydney, Hong Kong, Seoul, Singapore, Taipei, Tokyo: Pearson.

Creswell, J. W. (2014). Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Method Approaches. New Delhi: Sage Publications, Inc.

Davis, N. R., & Schaeffer, J. (2019). Troubling Troubled Waters in Elementary Science Education: Politics, Ethics & Black Children’s Conceptions of Water [Justice] in the Era of Flint. Cognition and Instruction, 37(3), 367–389. https://doi.org/10.1080/07370008.2019.1624548

DeVries, R. (2000). Vygotsky, Piaget, and education: A reciprocal assimilation of theories and educational practices. New Ideas in Psychology, 18(2–3), 187–213. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0732-118X(00)00008-8

Filiz, Y., & Hablemitoglu, S. (2013). Ecological Literacy for a Sustainable Future: Proposal of an Ecp-Sociological Model. Rural Environment,Education,Personality, (1986), 46–50.

Gall, M. D., Gall, J. P., & Borg, W. R. (2003). Educational Research An Introduction (Seventh Ed). Boston, New York, San Francisco, Cape Town, Dubai, London, Madrid, Milan, Munich, Paris, Montreal, Toronto, Delhi, Mexico City, São Paulo, Sydney, Hong Kong, Seoul, Singapore, Taipei, Tokyo: Pearson Education.

Gall, M. D., Gall, J. P., & Borg, W. R. (2007). Educational Research: An Introduction. In Nuevos sistemas de comunicación e información (Eighth Edi). Boston, New York, San Francisco, Cape Town, Dubai, London, Madrid, Milan, Munich, Paris, Montreal, Toronto, Delhi, Mexico City, São Paulo, Sydney, Hong Kong, Seoul, Singapore, Taipei, Tokyo: Pearson Education.

Gobster, P. H., Ribe, R. G., & Palmer, J. F. (2019). Themes and trends in visual assessment research: Introduction to the Landscape and Urban Planning special collection on the visual assessment of landscapes. Landscape and Urban Planning, 191. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landurbplan.2019.103635

Gobster, P. H., & Rickenbach, M. G. (2004). Private forestland parcelization and development in Wisconsin’s Northwoods: Perceptions of resource-oriented stakeholders. Landscape and Urban Planning. Retrieved from https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-2142813944&doi=10.1016%2Fj.landurbplan.2003.09.005&partnerID=40&md5=b2bbda9081b364d32bd8820869ca7ccd

Grant, S. (2017). Implementing project-based language teaching in an Asian context: a university EAP writing course case study from Macau. Asian-Pacific Journal of Second and Foreign Language Education, 2(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40862-017-0027-x

Ha, C., & Dong, S. (2023). Identifying the Most Ecoliterate Inhabitants in a Top-Ten Ecologically Advanced City of China: A Sociodemographic Perspective. Sustainability, 15(4), 30–54. https://doi.org/10.3390/su15043054

Hall, T. E., Piso, Z., Engebretson, J., & O’Rourke, M. (2018). Evaluating a dialogue-based approach to teaching about values and policy in graduate transdisciplinary environmental science programs. PLoS ONE. Retrieved from https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85052849705&doi=10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0202948&partnerID=40&md5=d9d81df4594ef62ab07016b3b3526def

Illes, K. (2019). Spirituality in management development. In The Routledge International Handbook of Spirituality in Society and the Professions. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315445489_31

Isnanda, R., & Rinaldi, R. (2021). Indonesian Language and Literature Learning Insightful Ecological Intelligence as a Container of Environmental Education. … : Jurnal Pendidikan Bahasa Dan Sastra …. Retrieved from http://journal.unj.ac.id/unj/index.php/aksis/article/view/20067

Kapan, R., & GÜREL, T. Y. (2022). An Evaluation of the Environmental Literacy Levels of Nursing Students in Turkey. Health Sciences Quarterly, 2(3), 139–148. https://doi.org/10.26900/hsq.2.3.03

Kokotsaki, D., Menzies, V., & Wiggins, A. (2016). Project-based learning: A review of the literature. Improving Schools, 19(3), 267–277. https://doi.org/10.1177/1365480216659733

Lee, C., Park, S., & Jeong, J. (2016). Comprehensive Comparison of Normality Tests: Empirical Study Using Many Different Types of Data. Journal of the Korean Data and Information Science Society, 27(5), 1399–1412. https://doi.org/10.7465/jkdi.2016.27.5.1399

Lochmiller, C. R., & Lester, J. N. (2015). An introduction to educational research: Connecting methods to practice. Sage Publications.

Mendeş, M., & Pala, A. (2003). Type I Error Rate and Power of Three Normality Tests. Information Technology Journal, 2(2), 135–139. https://doi.org/10.3923/itj.2003.135.139

Mergendoller, J. R., & Thomas, J. W. (2000). Managing project based learning: Principles from the field. Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, 1–51.

Miller, J. H. (2005). Literature as conduct: Speech acts in Henry James. Literature as Conduct: Speech Acts in Henry James, 1–350. https://doi.org/10.1353/saf.2007.0008

Odlerova, E., Caganova, D., & Stefankova, J. (2010). Ecological rationality and the priorities of an environmental politics in the period of globalization. Retrieved from https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-84938704881&partnerID=40&md5=c974eb2c0bf64a13ef1b940f183883cc

Palmer, B. (2019). Restoration ecology: the study of applied optimism. Restoration Ecology, 27(6), 1192–1193. https://doi.org/10.1111/rec.13044

Pamungkas, O. Y. (2021). Eko-Sufisme Jawa: Representasi Ekokritik dalam Sastra [Javanese Eco-Sufism: Representations of Ecocriticism in Literature]. Yogyakarta: Lintas Nalar.

Payne, P. G. (2018). The framing of ecopedagogy as/in scapes: Methodology of the issue. Journal of Environmental Education, 49(2), 71–87. https://doi.org/10.1080/00958964.2017.1417227

Piaget, J. (1995). Strukturalisme. Jakarta: Yayasan Obor Indonesia.

Rabbianty, E. N. (2023). AI in Academic Writing: Assessing Current Usage and Future Implications. Insania Jurnal Pemikiran Alternatif Kependidikan, 28(1a), 14–35. https://doi.org/10.24090/insania.v28i1a.9278

Richards, J. C., & Miller, S. K. (2006). Doing Academic Writing in Education. In Doing Academic Writing in Education. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781410613417

Rosdiana, R., Maknun, D., & Roviati, E. (2020). The Relationship Between Self Efficacy and Environmental Literacy in Pollution and Environmental Changes Learning Material. Biosfer Jurnal Tadris Biologi, 11(2), 159–168. https://doi.org/10.24042/biosfer.v11i2.7337

Samudro, B. R., Bloch, H., & Salim, R. (2015). The Uneven Regional Pattern of Ecological Capital in Indonesia: A Political Economy Perspective. International Journal of Green Economics, 9(3/4), 258–267. https://doi.org/10.1504/ijge.2015.075200

Sudigdo, A., Pamungkas, O. Y., Hastangka, Suprapto, Sumarni, Abdurrahman, O., & Mastiyah, I. (2024). Children’s Voices in Poetry: The Illustration and Re-Imagination of National Identity. Journal of Language Teaching and Research, 15(5), 1581–1592. https://doi.org/10.17507/jltr.1505.19

Taufik, O. A., & Pamungkas, O. Y. (2025). Mapping Determinants of Success through Information Systems in Higher Education : A Structural Equation Modeling Approach. Educational Process: International Journal, 33(5), 505–519.

Tauro, A., Ojeda, J., Caviness, T., Moses, K. P., Moreno-Terrazas, R., Wright, T., Zhu, D., Poole, A. K., Massardo, F., & Rozzi, R. (2021). Field environmental philosophy: A biocultural ethic approach to education and ecotourism for sustainability. Sustainability (Switzerland). Retrieved from https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85105019834&doi=10.3390%2Fsu13084526&partnerID=40&md5=54108aa636a6bdcbb6cd632bb2eb4e7a

Tong, C. (2014). Ecology without scale: Unthinking the world zoom. Animation, 9(2), 196–211. https://doi.org/10.1177/1746847714527199

Tsybulsky, D., Gatenio-Kalush, M., Abu Ganem, M., & Grobgeld, E. (2020). Experiences of preservice teachers exposed to project-based learning. European Journal of Teacher Education, 43(3), 368–383. https://doi.org/10.1080/02619768.2019.1711052

Verma, P., Vaughan, K., Martin, K., Pulitano, E., Garrett, J., & Piirto, D. D. (2016). Integrating indigenous knowledge and western science into forestry, natural resources, and environmental programs. Journal of Forestry. Retrieved from https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-84994537864&doi=10.5849%2Fjof.15-090&partnerID=40&md5=3f7d6e85c4758b30f5ae7b7ad493aea2

Vital, A. (2008). Toward an African ecocriticism: postcolonialism, ecology and Life. Research in African Literatures, 39(1), 87–106. https://doi.org/10.2979/RAL.2008.39.1.87

Wafula, N., & Ongunya, R. O. (2016). Project Based Learning on Students’ Performance in the Concept of Classification of Organisms among Secondary Schools in Kenya. Journal of Education and Practice, 7(16), 25–31.

Wurdinger, S., Haar, J., Hugg, R., & Bezon, J. (2007). A qualitative study using project-based learning in a mainstream middle school. Improving Schools, 10(2), 150–161. https://doi.org/10.1177/1365480207078048

Yousuf, R. (2024). Essential Steps in Writing and Publishing a Scientific Research Paper. Bangladesh Journal of Medical Science, 23(1), 12–17. https://doi.org/10.3329/bjms.v23i1.70663

Announcement

EDUPIJ Citation Metrics

EDUPIJ News!

ANNOUNCEMENT

Message from the Editor-in-Chief,

We would like to inform our authors, reviewers, and stakeholders that EDUPIJ has entered Scopus’s re-evaluation process, as officially communicated (dated 2025-12-09). This assessment is a standard quality assurance practice applied to indexed journals and aims to ensure sustained editorial quality, ethical integrity, and alignment with Scopus’s evolving evaluation framework.

EDUPIJ welcomes this process and views it as an opportunity to further consolidate its editorial governance, strengthen publication ethics, and enhance peer-review rigor.

Strengthening Editorial and Ethical Standards

To ensure full compliance with international best practices and to proactively address Scopus evaluation criteria, the following measures have been formally implemented:

1. Selective Acceptance Policy for 2026 and Beyond

In response to increased submission volume in 2025 (see Journal Metrics: https://edupij.com/index/sayfa/18/journal-metrics), EDUPIJ will adopt a more selective acceptance policy starting in 2026 and continuing in the years ahead. In doing so, the geographic distribution of authors will also be taken into account to ensure that editorial decisions are informed by transparent, year-to-year submission and authorship patterns. Acceptance rates will be carefully aligned with editorial capacity to ensure a rigorous double-blind peer review process supported by active reviewer engagement and uncompromised editorial oversight. This policy reflects our commitment to quality-driven growth rather than volume-based expansion, and it directly addresses observations that the geographic spread of authors has changed significantly during the same period by ensuring that any such shifts are systematically monitored and considered within our quality assurance framework.

In line with this approach, we have adopted a Publication Volume Policy, enacted on 2025-12-07, which establishes clear upper limits on annual publication volume and defines a framework for maintaining EDUPIJ’s output at sustainable, long-term levels, comparable to pre-2025 volumes under normal conditions. This policy is also publicly available at https://edupij.com/index/sayfa/41/publication-volume-journal-metrics-policy.

From 2026 onwards, our objective is to maintain a moderate and stable annual volume, prioritising quality and selectivity rather than growth.

2. Enhanced Author and Manuscript Integrity Screening

All submissions now undergo mandatory integrity checks, including automated screening for retraction history and potential ethical risks prior to peer review. These procedures are designed to safeguard originality, research integrity, and transparency at every stage of the editorial process.

3. Establishment of a Publication Ethics Review Committee

A dedicated Publication Ethics Review Committee has been constituted to evaluate high-risk submissions, oversee ethical investigations when necessary, and ensure consistent adherence to COPE guidelines and internationally recognized publishing standards. All ethical decisions are documented and managed through a structured, transparent process.

Ongoing Commitment:

EDUPIJ remains firmly committed to rigorous double-blind peer review, transparent editorial policies, responsible scholarly communication, and the advancement of high-quality educational research at an international level.

Our journal continues to demonstrate steady progress in terms of international visibility, indexing coverage, and citation performance. We are confident that the Scopus re-evaluation process will further support the journal’s long-term sustainability and academic impact.

We sincerely thank our authors, reviewers, and the broader scholarly community for their continued trust and contribution to EDUPIJ.

Sincerely,
Prof. Turgut Karaköse, Editor-in-Chief

 

Posted: 2025-12-09