Promoting Critical Thinking Skills in Language Education through Online Discussions

Defining Critical Thinking

The term critical thinking has been defined by a number of researchers. According to Angelo (1995:6), critical thinking is “the intentional application of rational, higher order thinking skills, such as analysis, synthesis, problem recognition and problem solving, inference, and evaluation”. Scriven & Paul (1996) defined critical thinking as “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”. Facione (1998) described 6 main skills of critical thinking self-regulation, interpretation, analysis, inference, explanation and evaluation as exhibited in Figure 1.

Figure 1.

Core critical thinking skills (Source: Facione, P. A. (1998))