Model-guided instruction for developing students’ key affective dimensions of critical thinking in a computer-supported collaborative learning context

Abstract

Inquiry-based learning can contribute to developing students’ higher order thinking, including critical thinking (CT). Affective dimensions of critical thinking (ADCT) are considered one of the key elements in measuring students’ performance in CT, which is an important objective in education worldwide. Despite its importance, by reviewing literature, the development of and research on instruction of nurturing students’ ADCT are inchoate. To address such a need, synthesizing insights from recent studies, a theoretical model of developing students’ Key ADCT for guiding its instruction systematically and effectively has been formulated (Tse, 2018) and design of model-guided instruction (MGI)can be based on it. Considering that the features of computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) theoretically give it potential to address some hurdles of developing students’ ADCT, CSCL thus is recommended to be applied with a MGI simultaneously for facilitating developing students’ Key ADCT. In the research field, a module in the subject of Liberal Studies was enriched by the formulated theoretical model with a view to developing students’ Key ADCT, becoming a MGI. Quasi-experimental design was adopted. The participants were four teachers and 164 students at Grade 10 at a mainstream high school in Hong Kong. This paper reports one of the research questions of this project: In what way does learning through the MGI, with or without using CSCL, contribute to improving students’ Key ADCT? After learning through the MGI for six months, this study found that the MGI, with or without using CSCL, did contribute to improving students’ Key ADCT (no matter overall results and results of three key natures of ADCT), especially those learning with CSCL.