Learning Media as Social Artefacts: How Aesthetic Design and Cultural Relevance Shape Self-Efficacy and Perceived Applied Physics Literacy in Indonesian Mining Engineering Education
This paper examines how learning media function as social artefacts that influence academic self-efficacy and perceived applied physics literacy, and addresses the need to understand the role of aesthetic design and cultural relevance in vocational STEM education.
While interactive and visually appealing media are widely used, their combined impact with culturally relevant content on students’ confidence and students’ perceived disciplinary literacy remains underexplored, particularly in Indonesian Mining Engineering education.
A cross-sectional survey was conducted among 355 undergraduate students in Mining and Geological Engineering programs. Data were analysed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) to test direct and mediating relationships among aesthetic design, cultural relevance, media interactivity, academic self-efficacy, and perceived applied physics literacy.
This study integrates aesthetic, cultural, and functional features of learning media into a unified framework, offering empirical evidence of how these dimensions are associated with motivational and cognitive outcomes in applied STEM learning.
Aesthetic design and cultural relevance were significantly associated with higher self-efficacy, which showed small but statistically significant indirect associations with perceived applied physics literacy. Media interactivity and usability were positively associated with students’ perceived applied physics literacy but were not significantly associated with self-efficacy. Students’ perceived applied physics literacy is therefore associated with both social (cultural and aesthetic) and functional (interactive) media features.
Educators and instructional designers should incorporate culturally aligned, aesthetically coherent, and interactive media to support students’ self-efficacy and perceived disciplinary competence.
Future studies should employ larger, diverse samples and mixed-method designs to explore how culturally and aesthetically informed media may support students’ confidence, perceived disciplinary competence, and engagement with vocational STEM learning.
By supporting students’ confidence, perceived disciplinary competence, and engagement in vocational STEM learning, culturally and aesthetically informed media may enhance students’ learning experiences in vocational STEM education.
Investigate adaptive and AI-driven learning media that integrate cultural and aesthetic considerations to sustain engagement, identity formation, and self-efficacy across diverse educational contexts.
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