<![CDATA[STEM-based learning has become a central pedagogical strategy for cultivating problem-solving skills among primary school students, yet the evidence base remains fragmented across disciplines, designs, and cultural settings. This study conducted a systematic literature review guided by the PRISMA protocol to synthesize findings from 25 empirical and conceptual studies published between 2021 and 2026. Articles were identified through Scopus, ERIC, ScienceDirect, SpringerLink, Google Scholar, and DOAJ, then screened and assessed for eligibility based on relevance to primary/elementary education, STEM-based intervention, and measured problem-solving outcomes. Thematic synthesis revealed that STEM-based learning models particularly project-based learning, problem-based learning, engineering-design activities, and educational robotics consistently enhance both cognitive problem-solving sub-skills (identifying problems, generating alternative solutions, evaluating outcomes) and accompanying dispositions such as collaboration, creativity, critical thinking, and entrepreneurial mindset. Implementation effectiveness was moderated by teacher scaffolding quality, authenticity of real-world problems, structured design cycles, and access to low-cost or robotics-based tools. Persistent gaps include limited attention to early-childhood and religious-based school settings, predominance of quasi-experimental designs restricting causal inference, and inconsistent measurement instruments. This review contributes an integrative conceptual model linking STEM pedagogical components to specific problem-solving sub-skills and proposes a contextualized implementation pathway for Indonesian elementary and madrasah classrooms, an area largely absent from the reviewed literature.]]>
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