Analysis of critical thinking skills in virtual academic forums

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to analyze the critical thinking skills through the construction of argumentative and pragmatic dialogues in the virtual academic forums of the Human Ecology course in the Moodle platform of the Corporación Universitaria del Caribe. A qualitative methodology was used, with field work based on the reading of the context of the educational institutions from the analysis of the content of the text, attending to the hermeneutic phenomenological approach, guiding the analysis of the description and interpretation of the experience lived by the students. The analysis of critical thinking skills was carried out through the dimensions proposed by Halpern (2006) [1] verbal reasoning, argument analysis, hypothesis testing, probability of uncertainty, decision making and problem solving through an analysis matrix from the categories related to environmental practices and the articulation of the environmental dimension in the school curriculum. Critical thinking skills were analyzed through the strategy of academic forums in the Human Ecology course, achieving the following considerations: students in the different analyses of the micro-stories make statements that are supported by evidence shown through indicators, which allows generating conclusions mostly justified for decision making and problem solving, evidencing critical thinking skills in the text that is generated through the argumentative dialogue among the participants.