The Effect of STEAM Project-Based Learning Assisted by Artificial Intelligence on Elementary Students' Creativity and Innovation Skills

Abstract

The growing demand for creativity and innovation in twenty-first-century education requires instructional approaches that integrate interdisciplinary learning, authentic problem solving, and emerging technologies. However, empirical evidence regarding the combined implementation of Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics (STEAM), Project-Based Learning (PjBL), and Artificial Intelligence (AI) in elementary education remains limited. This study investigated the effect of AI-assisted STEAM Project-Based Learning on elementary students’ creativity and innovation skills. A quantitative quasi-experimental design employing a pretest–posttest nonequivalent control group design was used. The participants consisted of 60 fifth-grade students, including 30 students from SD Negeri Batucina as the experimental group and 30 students from SD Negeri Blokang as the control group. Data were collected through performance-based assessments of creativity and innovation skills and analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. The results revealed that the experimental group demonstrated substantially greater improvement than the control group across both outcome variables. For creativity, the experimental group’s mean score increased from 58.73 to 82.47, whereas the control group improved from 59.10 to 69.83. For innovation skills, the experimental group’s mean score increased from 57.90 to 84.20, while the control group improved from 58.37 to 70.57. Independent-samples t-tests indicated significant posttest differences between the groups for creativity (t = 7.24, p < .001, d = 1.87) and innovation skills (t = 8.11, p < .001, d = 2.09). These findings suggest that integrating AI-assisted learning within a STEAM-oriented project-based environment can provide meaningful opportunities for students to generate, evaluate, and refine ideas while transforming them into functional solutions and products. The study contributes to the growing body of research on AI-enhanced learning by providing empirical evidence from an elementary education context and highlights the potential of AI-assisted STEAM Project-Based Learning as an instructional approach for fostering creativity and innovation in primary schools.