The use of online discussions to foster critical thinking in a teacher education program

During the Spring 2009 semester, a group of students in their first semester of the teacher education program at the University of Texas--Pan American were required to participate in field observations. As part of their field observation assignments, they were required to write reflections on six topics related to learning theory. For each reflection, students followed a specific three part format: 1) observe the theory in question as it was being applied in the classroom, 2) evaluate the mentor teacher's implementation of the theory, and 3) determine what changes they would make to the lesson or strategy to improve its effectiveness. Students then posted each of their reflections on a discussion board, read one other posting by a classmate and responded to it. A rubric based on the higher order thinking skills curriculum (Anderson, 1990) was used to assess the level of critical thinking in each discussion. Results indicated that the majority of subjects did reach the higher levels of critical thinking. Specifically, most students reached the level of analysis (level 4); the mean rating across all six reflections was 4.39, on a scale of 1 to 6 with 1 being recall and 6 being synthesis. The results of the study suggested that the format of the prompts, which required students to not only observe, but also evaluate the implementation of a theory and suggest modifications for improvement promoted the development of students' higher order thinking skills.
INTRODUCTION preparing effective teacher candidates is a challenging and complex undertaking. This is due to the ever changing nature of the classroom. In order to better prepare teacher candidates we [...]