Testing the effectiveness of a critical thinking skills intervention for initial teacher education students in Pakistan

• Main Author: Mahmood, Shumaila
• Other Authors: Bokhove, Christian ; Bhopal, Kalwant
• Published: University of Southampton 2017
• Subjects: 370.71
• Online Access: https://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.722913

This study investigates the effectiveness of an intervention designed to develop critical thinking skills in an Initial Teacher Education (ITE) institution in Pakistan. The study carried out an explanatory sequential mixed-methods approach in which a quantitative inquiry phase was followed by a qualitative inquiry phase. A CT skills intervention was designed for a educational psychology module to be taught in an MA Education programme. The students' motivation and self-regulation and classroom learning environment were studied as confounding variables. The intervention teaching lasted for four weeks and used a mixed approach (explicit and embedded) to teach CT skills. An explanatory qualitative phase was conducted as a follow-up to seek understanding and explanation after the intervention. The implementation observations were made to gauge the fidelity of the implementation, followed by qualitative interviews with participants. The results show a non-significant effect of the instructional intervention on students' learning of CT skills at this time. The study found that of all motivational learning strategies, students' extrinsic and intrinsic goal orientation and metacognitive self-regulation positively predicted learning of CT skills. Also, the gain in CT skills was predicted by students' metacognitive self-regulation and learning environment. Factors such as unsystematic intervention implementation, ineffective role of the teacher as an interventionist, interaction between learning and instruction as well as students' motivation/self-regulation, the poor learning environment and the short time, in terms of the length of the instructional intervention, appeared to be most influential in holding back the effectiveness of CT skills intervention. The study concluded that the effectiveness of CT skills learning and instruction is closely associated with classroom- level interactions, the learning environment and how instruction is delivered within a wider organizational culture. Moreover, the dynamic relationship between the students and teacher, the CT skills approach and the professional development of teachers need further attention.