Critical Thinking and Participation in an Online Collaborative Inquiry

Abstract

Critical thinking is regarded central to progressive discourse. This paper presents a case study of a humanities course in a secondary school where the teacher places emphasis on critical thinking elements in the curriculum design and is also adopting collaborative inquiry in his teaching. This paper adopts a mixed approach to teach critical thinking which provides a separate mini-lesson on certain critical thinking skills and an immersive environment to foster critical thinking. Two critical thinking tests are employed to measure different aspects of students’ critical thinking, critical thinking skills and dispositions. The scores of critical thinking tests are reported and their relationship with students’ participation in the online discourse is explored.