Integrating Critical Thinking and Digital Literacy into a Transdisciplinary Curriculum: An Evaluation of a Project-Based Learning Framework

Abstract

This study designed and evaluated a transdisciplinary, project-based learning (T-PjBL) framework aimed at developing the 4C competencies, critical thinking, collaboration, creativity, and communication, alongside digital literacy as a unified, interdependent set rather than as separately taught outcomes. Using a Design-Based Research (DBR) approach structured through the ADDIE model, the framework was developed iteratively across five phases, with data drawn from expert validation, classroom implementation, and pre/post competency assessment of 30 secondary-level students. Instruments included validation rubrics, observation checklists, student artifacts, and pre/post tests, analyzed descriptively-evaluatively to assess validity, practicality, and effectiveness. The framework achieved high expert validity (mean 3.7 out of 4 across ADDIE stages). Critical thinking recorded the largest pretest-posttest improvement (from 58.4 to 79.6), while digital literacy showed the highest absolute gain (60.1 to 82.7). These results align with Haryaka et al.'s (2025) call for integrated pedagogical models and extend the scaffolding evidence from single-subject PjBL studies (Amin et al., 2026; Amroni et al., 2024) into a genuinely cross-disciplinary design. The study contributes a validated, replicable model that treats digital literacy not as a technical supplement but as an epistemic resource embedded within disciplinary boundary-crossing.