Abstract

ELIGIO MENDOZA, Iris Mariel; GOMEZ ZERMENO, Marcela Georgina  and  GARCIA MEJIA, Irma Antonia. Critical Thinking Development Through Asynchronous Discussion in Online Forums in High School. Aleth. rev. desarro. hum. educ. soc. contemp. [online]. 2016, vol.8, n.1, pp.100-115. ISSN 2145-0366.

This study describes a research about the use of online discussion through forums in learning management systems as a tool to promote critical thinking in ninth grade students of high school in Mexico. The research applied a quantitative design for the intervention of online activities and discussions on the Moodle platform by means of a pre-test and a post-test. The instrument was designed according to the reviewed literature to measure five indicators of high-order thinking: interpretation, analysis, inference, explanation and deduction. A series of activities were conducted along with the participation in the forums, and after the second test, results were analysed statistically. The findings showed an overall increase of critical thinking skills, and individual scores showed improvements of deduction and explanation, while the least improved was the ability of inference.

Keywords : Critical thinking; forums in learning management systems; asynchronous discussion.

        · abstract in Spanish | Portuguese     · text in Spanish     · Spanish ( pdf )