Abstrak
Writing is a productive English skill that many students struggle to master, particularly structured and meaningful exposition text. At SMAN 2 Lintau Buo, students’ writing skill was unsatisfactory. They also showed low autonomy, creativity, and engagement. Thus, innovative model like Project-Based Learning (PjBL) is needed to enhance both writing skills and non-cognitive abilities. So, the purpose of this study is to find the effects of using PjBL on students’ writing skill, autonomy, creativity, and engagement. To achieve this purpose, the research employed quasi-experimental design with pre-test and post-test control and experimental groups. The study examined whether the implementation of PjBL significantly enhance students’ writing skill, autonomy, creativity, and learning engagement compare to the conventional instruction. Involving 65 students as the sample, the data were collected using writing tests, three validated questionnaires; Learners’ Autonomy Questionnaire (LAQ), Students’ Creativity Questionnaire (SCQ), and Task Engagement Questionnaire (TEQ). The prerequisite of data analysis found that the data were not normally distributed (the sig score is lower than alpha of 0.05) and not homogeneous or the sig score was smaller than alpha (0.002 0.05). So, the data cannot be tested by using parametric test. Hence the Mann Whitney test (u-test) was used to test the hypotheses. Statistical analysis, including hypothesis testing, revealed that PjBL had a significant effect on students’ writing scores in experimental group (sig. Score 0.000). However, PjBL did not have a significant effect on improving students’ writing skills compared to conventional teaching. The p-score 0.542 is greater than 0.05. Nevertheless, significant positive effects were found in students’ autonomy (sig. score 0.001 is smaller than the alpha 0.05), creativity (sig. score 0.001 is less than 0.05), and learning engagement (sig. score 0.000 is less than 0.05). These results suggested that while PjBL may not outperform conventional teaching in improving students’ writing scores alone, PjBL was effective in fostering students’ autonomy, creativity, and learning engagement.