Instructional Design and Facilitation Approaches that Promote Critical Thinking in Asynchronous Online Discussions: A Review of the Literature (original) (raw)

Critical Thinking Skills in Asynchronous Discussion Forums: A Case Study

International Journal of Technology in Education

This study investigated critical thinking indicators of students’ postings on the asynchronous online discussion forums on the learning management system (LMS) at Arab Open University (AOU), Jordan. The models used to diagnose nineteen students’ postings were Garrisons’ (2001) thinking skills and Newman (1995). Results revealed that participants’ postings reflected the critical thinking indicators proposed by Newman like relevance and importance, but students need to enhance skills like justification, and critical assessment. According to Garrisons’ model, participants could identify, and explore problems, but they need support to evaluate the problem and integrate solutions into their existing knowledge. The findings reveal that participants acquire essential critical thinking skills, but they need to focus on higher order skills. Further research should be conducted using different courses issues to impart the critical thinking indicators that students need in higher institutions....

Exercising critical thinking in the online environment

Critical thinking is a reflective mechanism that helps students to evaluate the information and knowledge that they acquire during classes or that they come into contact with in their everyday lives. Critical assessment aids students to ascertain the extent to which these concepts are relevant for and applicable to their lives, careers, purposes and personal experiences. Critical thinking requires students not solely to assimilate information but also to interact with it actively, to evaluate it, to understand whether or not it is accurate, to determine its role and the goal it may serve. Traditional classroom settings foster the development of critical thinking skills through interaction between students engaged in group activities as well as through careful prompting by the instructors. However, this traditional setting is no longer sufficient and does not assist students in developing these skills for the virtual world. This article suggests that the transfer of critical thinking skills to the online environment can be done in several ways in the e-learning process. The possible activities that incorporate these skills could be either individual (the student can interact with the problem or situation on his/her own) or they could be directed towards an already existing or newly formed learning community, in which students interact not only with the given task but also with each other and they stimulate each other to apply critical thinking skills. These types of interactive exercises could be adapted to suit the study domain of almost any student, since the formats are quite flexible and the instructor simply needs to incorporate the specific situation/case/scenario.

The Effect of Instructional Techniques on Critical Thinking and Critical Thinking Dispositions in Online Discussion.

The aim of this research study was to explore the effect of instructional techniques on critical thinking and critical thinking dispositions in online discussion, based on triangulation design. Six Thinking Hats, Brainstorming, Role Playing, Socratic Seminar, and Anyone Here an Expert, were selected as an instructional techniques for online discussion. In the quantitative part, according to the results of ANOVA, except Socratic Seminar, there is no difference between groups in terms of scores of pre-tests and post-tests of critical thinking dispositions. In the qualitative part, according to the results of the analysis of critical thinking in online discussion, the Mixed Techniques group performed as having the best ability of critical thinking, the Anyone Here an Expert group was second and the Brainstorming group was third in terms of performing critical thinking ability in online discussion.

Scrutiny of Critical Thinking Concept

International Education Studies, 2015

Learning critical thinking skills are the goal of educational systems so the term "critical thinking" (CT) is frequently found in educational policy documents. Despite this frequency, however, precise understandings among teachers of what CT really means do not exit. The present study is designed to answer the following question. We can classify critical thinking concept in a conceptual framework. A qualitative content analysis with deductive categorization was used to classify critical thinking concept in a conceptual framework .The research field (statistical population) included all available digital and written sources related to critical thinking. The Research sample was a purposeful homogeneous sample. It is used to describe the sample that includes information based on the qualitative research goals. The results showed that critical thinking concept could be investigated in fields of both psychology and philosophy. While philosophers emphasis on the nature and quality of critical thinking, psychologists focus on cognitive process and components used to investigate the practical problems. So philosophers emphasize critical thinking attitudes while psychologists focus on critical thinking skills.

Critical Thinking: A Literature Review. A Research Report

2011

Critical thinking includes the component skills of analyzing arguments, making inferences using inductive or deductive reasoning, judging or evaluating, and making decisions or solving problems. Background knowledge is a necessary but not a sufficient condition for enabling critical thought within a given subject. Critical thinking involves both cognitive skills and dispositions. These dispositions, which can be seen as attitudes or habits of mind, include openand fair-mindedness, inquisitiveness, flexibility, a propensity to seek reason, a desire to be wellinformed, and a respect for and willingness to entertain diverse viewpoints. There are both general-and domain-specific aspects of critical thinking. Empirical research suggests that people begin developing critical thinking competencies at a very young age. Although adults often exhibit deficient reasoning, in theory all people can be taught to think critically. Instructors are urged to provide explicit instruction in critical t...

Critical Thinking: A Literature Review Research Report

Critical thinking includes the component skills of analyzing arguments, making inferences using inductive or deductive reasoning, judging or evaluating, and making decisions or solving problems. Background knowledge is a necessary but not a sufficient condition for enabling critical thought within a given subject. Critical thinking involves both cognitive skills and dispositions. These dispositions, which can be seen as attitudes or habits of mind, include openand fair-mindedness, inquisitiveness, flexibility, a propensity to seek reason, a desire to be wellinformed, and a respect for and willingness to entertain diverse viewpoints. There are both general-and domain-specific aspects of critical thinking. Empirical research suggests that people begin developing critical thinking competencies at a very young age. Although adults often exhibit deficient reasoning, in theory all people can be taught to think critically. Instructors are urged to provide explicit instruction in critical thinking, to teach how to transfer to new contexts, and to use cooperative or collaborative learning methods and constructivist approaches that place students at the center of the learning process. In constructing assessments of critical thinking,

Developing Students’ Critical Thinking through Online Discussions: A Literature Review

Malaysian Online Journal of Educational Technology, 2019

Critical thinking (CT) is being recognized as an essential skill for students to master in the 21 st century. Previous studies have suggested that teaching CT through asynchronous online discussions (AODs) can be one of the effective ways to equip students with such 21 st skill in the educational settings. The purpose of this article is to review of the empirical literature related to the use of AOD forums for the development of students' CT. Forty-seven articles published from 2000 to the present day are included in the review. The content of the individual study was analysed through the lens of revised Community of Inquiry framework in order to get an up-to-date understanding of the issues pertaining to using AODs as a method for developing students' CT. By drawing on the review of the existing literature, the research on how social presence could serve a critical role in affecting the development of students' CT is relatively few as compared to teaching presence. Therefore, the dearth of empirical evidence needs more research to make the social presence more dominant in the future studies. This article closes with a discussion on current research gaps and possible areas for future research in this field of study.