Introduction to Critical Thinking Essay
According to Albadry (2018), it is observed that despite students having studied the English language for some years at any level and completed their studies, they are unable to use the target language sufficiently. Similarly, Fahim and Sa’eepour (2011) believed that, in spite of teachers’ efforts to teach a foreign language in Iran, learners are suffering from difficulties in second language learning skills. Yang and Wu (2012) asserted that the key characteristics of learning in the third millennium include access to an abundance of information, increased classroom availability of emerging technologies such as mobile learning devices, online applications, and social media tools, and the capacity to collaborate.
Research Paper on Critical Thinking Essay
Educational researchers have supported critical thinking as an essential item of education and schooling in the 21st century. For instance, Atkinson (1997) believed that the educational system of the united states had used critical thinking for the acquisition of a first language, but nowadays, it has been used significantly for learning and teaching second and foreign languages.
The problematic area seems to be in an educational system where traditional teachers are trying to do their best to teach students what they should think rather than teaching them how to think efficiently about matters, which is called critical thinking (Fahim and Sa’eepour, 2011). While the vast learning opportunities in different contexts and in students’ everyday lives could complement formal learning, it is often neglected by teachers and students (Wong, Chen, & Jan, 2012). One of the key features of technology-enhanced learning, whether through e-learning or m-learning, is the ‘anytime’ and ‘anywhere’ concept of learning. With one device per learner, students can learn whenever and wherever they have the motivation (Chan, Roschelle, Hsi, Kinshuk, Sharples, Brown, & Soloway, 2006; Wong & Looi, 2011).
Purpose of the project for mixed method
The purpose of this sequential explanatory mixed method dissertation will be to study the effect of seamless mobile learning on enhancing critical thinking skills and learners’ perceptions towards MALL through collaborative and personalized mobile-mediated tasks.
In the first quantitative phase, the research questions will address the relationship between mobile seamless language learning, learners’ perceptions towards MALL, critical thinking skills, and integration of collaborative mobile-mediated tasks and personalized mobile-mediated tasks. The results from the critical thinking questionnaire will show the effect of MALL on the enhancement of critical thinking skills.
In the second qualitative phase, the research questions guide the researcher to get results from interviews and observations, which will help the researcher to interpret the perception of the learners and how the perception toward MALL affects the enhancement of critical thinking skills.
Ideas on The research questions and hypothesis
For both the quantitative and qualitative phases of this study, the guiding research questions are:
- What is the relationship between mobile seamless language learning and learners’ perceptions towards MALL?
- What is the relationship between mobile seamless language learning and critical thinking skill?
- Is there any relationship between “integration of collaborative mobile-mediated tasks and personalized mobile-mediated task” and “learners’ perception towards MALL”?
- What is a good mobile seamless language learning design for enhancing higher-order thinking skills?
- How does the perception of the students impact enhancing critical thinking skills?
- How is the perception of students toward MALL?
Argumentative Essay Examples
As briefly stated above, this study will examine the effect of seamless mobile learning on enhancing critical thinking skills and learners’ perceptions towards MALL through a mixed-method approach. According to Creswell (2002), the mixed method approach is a procedure for collecting, analyzing, and “mixing” both quantitative and qualitative data at some stage of the research process within a single study to understand a research problem more completely.
According to Charles & Mertler (2002), in quantitative research, an investigator relies on numerical data. He uses post-positivist claims for developing the knowledge of the research, such as cause and effect thinking, reduction to specific variables, hypotheses, and questions, use of measurement and observation, and the test of theories. A researcher isolates variables and causally relates them to determine the magnitude and frequency of relationships. In addition, a researcher himself/herself determines which variables to investigate and chooses instruments that will yield highly reliable and valid scores.
A qualitative approach is research that deals with understanding and developing a complex, holistic picture in which the inquirer conducts the study in a natural context. In this approach, the researcher makes knowledge claims based on the constructivist perspectives. In qualitative research, data is collected from those immersed in the everyday life of the setting in which the study is framed. Data analysis is based on the values that these participants perceive for their world (Creswell, 2002).
The rationale for mixing is that neither quantitative nor qualitative methods are sufficient by themselves to capture the trends and details of the situation. When used in combination, quantitative and qualitative methods complement each other and allow for a more complete analysis and interpretation (Tashakkori & Teddlie, 1998). That is, there is more insight to be gained from the combination of both qualitative and quantitative research. Their combined use provides an expanded understanding of research problems (Creswell, 2017).
Significance of the study
The technology-based approach makes the students more interested and more frequent in using language on the internet than in the traditional approaches (Kim, 2008). The students can continually experience learning across different contexts in a seamless learning space with one device per learner (Looi & Wong, 2014).
Chan et al. (2006) identify two pedagogical goals for a seamless learning design: First, students can learn whenever they are curious to learn, and second, it is possible for the students to switch between different learning scenarios.
Although some may regard the new advancements as a threat to learners’ actively engaging in the physical world, through proper planning of learning designs with an emphasis on learners’ interactions with the physical world (Rogers & Price, 2008), it is possible that technology strengthens the links between the learners and the physical reality (Wong, Chen, & Jan 2012). With the increasing interest in creating language learning environments in which authentic and mobile-assisted learning encompass, it is proposed that blending the CALL paradigm with mobile learning can be regarded as a proper solution for reconciling learning contexts and real life (Looi & Wong, 2014; Wong & Looi 2010). This leads to an increase in students’ achievement (Looi & Wong, 2014).
This proposal will investigate and understand how perception influences learners’ willingness to use a seamless language learning design and what will be the effect of MALL on enhancing critical thinking skills with an analytic method to analyze the role of artifacts in mediating Iranian EFL learners’ language learning. The study will take a mobile-assisted language learning approach with a focus on contextualized content creation of the students and the process of meaning-making in their daily lives.
Thesis Statement for Critical Thinking: Definition of terms
Critical thinking is “the intellectually disciplined process of actively and skillfully conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and/or evaluating information gathered from, or generated by, observation, experience, reflection, reasoning, or communication, as a guide to belief and action” (Scriven & Paul, 1987, p.25).
Computer-Assisted Language Learning (CALL) is defined as “the search for and study of the application of computers in language teaching and learning” (Levy, 1997, p.1). Davis and Higgins (1982) stated that the word computer means the application of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to foreign language education.
Mobile-Assisted Language Learning refers to any electronic devices such as smartphones, tablets, PCs, and portable MP3 as effective means of transferring learning content (Thornton & Houser, 2005).
Mobile Seamless Learning is defined as a learning model in which students can learn whenever they are curious in different learning scenarios, using a device as a mediator (Chan et al., 2006).
A collaborative task is an assignment in which one or more students must work together to contribute to and complete a common product; a single grade is assessed for the entire group (Homp, 2019).
Delimitation
Delimitations of the study include:
The study will be conducted only in Tehran. The uniqueness of the study with a specific context will make it difficult to replicate exactly in another context (Creswell, 2002).
One of the instruments of the study will be the Watson Glaser Appraisal Critical Thinking questionnaire contains eighty questions that may make students tired of answering such critical questions.
Conclusion
Limitations of the study include: Because convenience sampling will be used in the quantitative phase of the study, the researcher cannot say with confidence the sample will be representative of the population, and she must be cautious about the generalizability of findings (Ary, Jacobs, Irvine, & Walker, 2018). Due to the nature of qualitative research, the data obtained in the second phase of the study may be subject to different interpretations by different readers (Creswell, 2017).
