Activity Design for Cultivating Students’ Critical Thinking Dispositions in a Blended Learning Environment Through a Case Study of Media Literacy Course

Abstract

A blended learning environment including interactive activities was designed to encourage students to analyze media with multiple views. The purpose of this study was to examine whether the design of interactive activities cultivated students’ inquiry-mind and objectiveness of Critical Thinking Dispositions (CTD). This research used a media literacy course in a Japanese university as a case study. The authors developed the questionnaire items which examined interactive activities and the CTD scale for Japanese university students. As a result, the authors found that (1) students highly evaluated activities where they analyzed media with inquiry-mind and objectiveness, (2) the activities positively correlated inquiry-mind and objectiveness, and (3) there were significant differences of inquiry-mind and objectiveness in the low, middle and high groups of participation in LMS activities. The cycle, of thinking activities in the classroom, discussion on LMS and reflection activities, created a critical culture in the blended learning environment in a semester.