M.A Candidate : Akram Jabar Najim-Methods Of Teaching English Supervise by Asst. Prof. Dr. Elaf Riyadh Khalil

1. University of Baghdad
Collage of Education / Ibn Rushed for Human
Sciences
Department of English
M.A. Study
Case Study In creative /critical thinking.
A Week Paper
Submitted by:
M.A Candidate : Akram Jabar Najim
Methods Of Teaching English
Supervisor by Asst. Prof. Dr.
Elaf Riyadh Khalil
2020 H.A 1441 A.

2. Studies have shown that electronic discussion can be used effectively to teach critical
thinking and can achieve greater understanding. The use of online discussions is
common in polytechnics and universities, and many schools have begun to introduce
online forums for discussion beyond the classroom. This research investigates lower
secondary school students' critical thinking in an asynchronous online discussion
environment. The findings show that the students in this age group have only
minimally exhibited critical thinking skills during the online discussion. However,
investigation into students' perception of online discussion shows positive attitudes.
Some enhanced scaffolding strategies for online discussion participants and guides on
designing good questions are recommended to foster critical thinking skills in this
environment.
Slavin adds that teachers can encourage the knowledge construction process by
conducting learning process that can make information becomes very meaningful and
relevant for students, by giving the students opportunities to discover and apply their
own ideas, and by inviting the students to become aware of and in intensed awareness
of their own learning strategy. Cheong dan Cheong conducted a research on critical
thinking of high school students in the lower level within online asynchronous
discussion environment. In the research, Cheong dan Cheong finds out that students'
perceptions of online discussion indicate positive attitude and existence of critical
thinking skill during the online discussion. Cheong dan Cheong conducted a research
on critical thinking of high school students in the lower level within online
asynchronous discussion environment. In the research, Cheong dan Cheong finds out
that students' perceptions of online discussion indicate positive attitude and existence
of critical thinking skill during the online discussion. Milne et al. conduct a research
on application of e-learning instruments in supporting assignment evaluation... .
...Also, application of e-learning tools is very potential for expansion, as well as for
related approaches. Based on findings of Cheong dan Cheong and Milne et.al. it is
discovered that the use of web technology for learning has advantages in improving
the study outcome.
In other words, these environments focus on students' understanding and how to
interact with other people or ideas meaningfully (MacKnight, 2000). Moreover,
conversations and discussions can be stored as the forum is web-based (Cheong &
Cheung, 2008), and can be accessed by users everywhere and at any time. ...

3. Bach, Haynes and Smith (2006) state that online discussion relieves reluctant, shy and
quiet students in oral class discussions. However, Cheong and Cheung (2008) indicate
that these environments can decrease the shyness that students have with regard to
face-to-face discussions as they are web-based, and that they also provide students
more time to think and express themselves more clearly before answering. Markel
(2001) suggests that courses with online discussions maximize learning and develop
students' involvement. Gokhale states that the active exchange of ideas between small
groups promotes critical thinking in cooperative learning. That is why online
discussions can be used effectively to teach critical thinking and can provide a high
level of understanding. MacKnight (2000) asserts that critical thinking is available in
many online discussion groups, providing the opportunity for students to practice and
participate.
The goal of school education in the twenty-first century is to prepare students for a
deep understanding of domain knowledge, and at the same time a competent
demonstration of the twenty-first century skills, such as critical thinking skills, to cope
with the challenges in the ever-changing society (Chan, 2010;Kang, Heo, Jo, Shin, &
Seo, 2010;Kong, 2014). This article shares experience of a three-year study which
aimed to foster junior secondary students in Hong Kong to develop critical thinking
skills when they learn domain knowledge in flipped classrooms. ...
In the digital age, the idea of flipped classrooms has gained prominence due to
advancement in digital technology which enables students to ubiquitously access
resources and connection with peers (Davies et al., 2013;Flumerfelt & Green, 2013).
For flipped classrooms in the digital aged the digital classrooms, students use personal
computing devices, especially mobile devices that are wirelessly interconnected, on
their own or with a small group of peers for learning proposes (Chan, 2010;Wong &
Looi, 2011). Such flipped classroom strategy moves passive learning tasks of
knowledge delivery beyond formal class time; and uses classroom learning activities to
prompt knowledge construction through the access to additional learning information
from sources other than textbooks, and the extensive interactions with peers and
teachers within formal class time (Bergmann & Sams, 2012;Missildine, Fountain,
Summers, & Gosselin, 2013). ...
These learning tasks in flipped classrooms often require students to properly process
and then critically assimilate information from different sources for knowledge
construction (Chan, 2010;Kang et al., 2010;Kong, 2014). Students are therefore
enabled to progressively develop a deep understanding of domain knowledge through
the convenient access to appropriate and sufficient resources and the extensive sharing
of useful information (Kong, 2011(Kong, , 2014. ...

4. Moreover, Slavin (2000) added that lecturers can help the knowledge construction
process by organizing a learning process that make information more meaningful and
relevant for the students, giving the opportunity for the students to find and implement
their own ideas, also stimulating the students to realize and utilize their own strategies
to learn. Cheong and Cheong conducted a research about critical thinking for early
year students in high school in an online asynchronous discussion environment. In
their research, they found that student's perception about online discussion is positive
and that there was a critical thinking skills throughout the online discussion .
Cheong and Cheong conducted a research about critical thinking for early year
students in high school in an online asynchronous discussion environment. In their
research Cheong dan Cheong (2008) found that student's perception about online
discussion is positive and that there was a critical thinking skills throughout the online
discussion. Milne et al. conducted a study toward the use of e-learning tools to support
assessment of assignments .
So far, this advantage is only used by a small number of scholars and there is a huge
potential for further application of e-learning tools and other related approaches. These
findings, found by Cheong dan Cheong (2008) and Milne et.al. (2008), show that the
use of web in learning has advantages in improving the learning outcomes.
A number of definitions of CT emerge from the literature. Cheong and Cheung (2008)
claim that individuals who think critically can ask questions, collect relevant
information, search through the information in an efficient and creative way, reason
logically from gathered information, and arrive at a valid and truthful conclusion that
enables her/him to live and act successfully in the world. In fact, CT refers to
examining a statement by considering its assumptions, supportive evidence accuracy,
and logical reasoning to come to a reliable conclusion (Paul, 2003.)
This claim enhances the understanding that central to CT are thoughtful questions that
invoke individuals' higher level of thinking (Yang et al., 2005). Therefore, instigating
critical questions from students tends to be more important in stimulating their minds
than suggesting provocative questions to them (Seiferth, 1997;Yang et al.,
2005;Cheong & Cheung, 2008;Teo, 2009). Their study concluded that the volume of
student and instructor postings in forums did not necessarily indicate how well the
forums were going-the more instructors posted, the fewer postings were made by
students and the shorter were their discussion threads on average, and instructors who
attempted to increase the amount of discussion by initiating new postings did not
succeed (Mazzolini and Maddison 2007).

5. Cheong and Cheung's case study of 35 above-average secondary students involved in
online, asynchronous discussions in the area of information technology showed that,
after they were given instructions to post their answers with justifications and
examples, the students demonstrated significantly greater levels of both surface-and
higher-level information processing than baseline face-to-face discussions. There were
no instructions to ask each other questions.
The interactions that reflected higher-level information processing were comments
which identified the advantages and disadvantages of conclusions arrived at by others
and which were backed up with relevant facts or personal experience. However, the
students did not fully engage with each other and Cheong and Cheung concluded that,
to elevate the level of discussion, the students needed to ask each other Socratic
questions-questions that seek clarification; probe assumptions, viewpoints and
perspectives; call for reasons and evidence; and examine implications and
consequences.
Yet, studies have shown that most tertiary students do not know how to think
critically. In a traditional classroom, teachers try to stimulate students' CT by
providing strategies designed mainly around the limited class time and the growing
class size. These two major constraints create barriers to integrate instructional
strategies which can enhance students' learning and CT effectively. Besides, applying
different strategies are not sufficient in enhancing students' thinking critically. Some
other factors may affect critical thinking such as experience, age, independency, and
attitudes toward online learning.
Nevertheless, although children are theoretically not born with an inherent ability to
think critically. yet critical thinking skills can be taught through various approaches,
one of which is online discussion. This approach is deemed to solve the problem of
such interaction in the traditional classroom and benefits students in terms of
developing critical thinking skills..
Asynchronous communication has been identified as the most convenient and
appropriate means for instructors to explore their use in promoting learning in online
environments and provide an opportunity for the instructor to moderate or scaffold
student discussions. Moreover, it has been suggested that AODF, which is one of the
widely used communication tools in the learning management system (LMS) is
increasingly seen as one of the most powerful tools for creating online learning
communities to develop students' critical thinking skills. some researchers have
confirmed that virtual reality will be the decisive medium for the design of EVA in the
coming years. In any case, social networks such as Facebook or Twitter have been the
latest tools to be claimed by teachers, pedagogues and researchers, not only because of
the participatory and instantaneous nature that defines them, but also for its ability to

6. improve both student-teacher relationships and critical thinking through participation
in group discussions. In this regard, Parry (2008) recognized more than a dozen
reasons why introducing Twitter into his class had been worthwhile. Students acquire
the concepts from several facts that found over scientific activities which can be such
as observation, experiments, demonstrations and other relevant activities. Data
collected from scientific activities improve students' curiosity about the phenomena of
science and encourage students to hold discussions.
The best students were those who wrote in an analytical manner, using evidence, and
anticipated potential problems. Studies have also been conducted on written online
discussions these studies reveal that good texts contained more elaborated
justifications, whereas poor texts had more statements that included prejudices or
assumptions. Similarly, Liu and Yang (2012) found a lack of critical-thinking skills
and argumentative reasoning among senior university students. A case study by
Cheong and Cheung on the effectiveness of online discussion to teach critical-thinking
skills in lower secondary students found that students only minimally exhibited such
skills during the discussion. The data from the online discussion threads were analysed
using the Thinking Model by Cheung and Hew to evaluate the level of information
processing of students.
According to Cheong & Cheung, one of the challenges faced by students in a face-to-
face classroom environment is the limited amount of time for critical thinking and
consequently discussions in class tend to be shallow. Although it is possible for the
students to continue their discussion after class it is difficult if not impossible to get
everyone to stay back after school on a regular basis. It is believed that students are
able to think critically about the subject content and they have more time to structure
and organize their thoughts before asking questions or making statements in this kind
of platform. Therefore, students are expected to make high level cognitive
contributions rather than just rote memorization of content . However, previous
researchers found that the proportion of the posting messages from the AODF platform
indicating critical thinking engagement were rather low cal thinking. It also stimulates
students to provide thoughtful answers for these questions by sharing their viewpoints.
See. According to Socratic questions can be classified into five categories:
Many instructors report that online discussions benefit shy or native students by
allowing them an opportunity to read and develop their remarks and to think critically.
In addition, discussion boards store a permanent record of interaction that is easy to
archive, search and evaluate.

7. Asynchronous communication has been identified as the most convenient and
appropriate means for instructors to explore their use in promoting learning in online
environments and provide an opportunity for the instructor to moderate or scaffold
student discussions. Moreover, it has been suggested that AODF which is one of the
widely used communication tools in the learning management system (LMS) is
increasingly seen as one of the most powerful tools for creating online learning
communities to develop students' critical thinking skills.
Dennen (2013) notes the asynchronous nature of online forums supporting critical
thinking through fostering depth and reflection in students. The use of online
discussion forums can provide students with "anytime and anywhere" teaching and
learning, capacity to store written dialogue, time to process learning and sharing of
reflected thoughts, and counter in-person shyness with the online "unseen" forum.
Similar with the use of the classroom response system, the potential of online
discussions in fostering critical thinking is influenced by the quality of the facilitation
and questions generated. Students with high levels of motivation tend to exert more
effort in the learning activity, use more cognitive strategies, and exercise higher order
thinking skills to find effective solutions to learning problems. Contrastingly, those
with lower levels of motivation are likely to end up with superficial learning, and
shallow and less critical contributions.
Having said that, several researchers pointed out that in order to obtain success in the
using flipped learning in classrooms, lecturers need to give students sufficient time to
understand the topic which is going to be discussed in class as well as sufficient time
to think about the problem solving questions. Lecturers are also recommended to give
sufficient time for students to discuss the problem solving questions with their group
members during the discussion sessions handled during class (Cheong & Cheung,
2008;McMahon, 2009;Yang & Chung, 2009). Without sufficient time given for the
students particularly for them to watch the video prior to class, there will be reversing
impact on the success of the flipped learning method, which also impact on the
motivation and enthusiasm of the students to actively participate during the class
activities run by the lecturers.
One type of external factor is scaffolding towards a better quality of reasoning through
the use of written instructions to prompt students' discussions step-by-step. Research
on this type of organization of group discussion has been done using analogous
(Ratcliffe, 1997), as well as digitally presented, prompts (Cheong & Cheung, 2008;Lin
et al. 2012). In general, both forms of scaffolding seem to enhance the quality of
students' reasoning, but there are no in-depth analyses of the group interactions
regarding how conversations on SSI progress

8. References
Online discussion and critical thinking skills: A case study in a Singapore secondary
school
Article in Australasian Journal of Educational Technology 24(5):556-
573 · November 2008 with 124 Reads
DOI: 10.14742/ajet.1191