Puput Wanarti Rusimamto, Endryansyah Endryansyah, Rina Harimurti, Nurkholis Nurkholis
Strong critical thinking abilities must be developed as part of an electrical engineering curriculum that prepares students for life in the industrial environment. The aim of this research is to assess how using a PLC (programmable logic controller) training kit affects electrical engineering students' critical thinking abilities when it comes to PLC programming. In this study, a control group of 31 students and an experimental group of 36 students each participated in a pre-test, post-test control group design. While the control group employed simulation, the experimental group used a PLC training kit to learn. The data analysis results indicate that the experimental group significantly outperformed the control group in critical thinking abilities related to PLC programming. According to this study, using the PLC Training Kit improves electrical engineering students' critical thinking abilities when it comes to PLC programming. PLC training kits help students learn by helping them analyze and solve problems, apply theory to real-world situations, and gain a deeper grasp of PLC system. These results suggest that including the PLC Training Kit into the Electrical Engineering Education curriculum can be a smart move to help students become more adept at using critical thinking when programming PLCs. © 2025 Puput Wanarti Rusimamto et al.; published by UIKTEN. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 License.
Universitas Negeri Surabaya, Surabaya, Indonesia
