Abstract
Critical thinking skills are one of essential employability skills for graduates when entering the workforce. The lack of critical thinking skills among Malaysian graduates is a concern as these skills are important for success in the 21st century. Therefore, this paper aims to study the effects of online reciprocal peer tutoring (RPT) through Facebook discussion on students’ critical thinking. In this study, the online RPT approach in Facebook was used to nurture students to think critically. In RPT, the tutor role is switched between participants in each task, giving equal opportunities to all learners to benefit from the tutor and tutee role. This approach was integrated into their learning for 4 weeks to increase students' critical thinking. During the learning process, they need to involve in 4 critical thinking tasks based on Bloom's taxonomy. 29 undergraduate students from the school of education, Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia completed the validated instrument, Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal test (inference, assumption, deduction, interpretation, evaluation arguments) before and after the treatment. The findings show that it is significantly different in making inference (Z=-3.85, p=.000
Highlights
Developing critical thinking (CT) has been the most crucial issue for improving education in Malaysia [1]
This study investigated the effects of online reciprocal peer tutoring (RPT) through Facebook discussion on students' critical thinking
These findings suggest that students who engaged in the online RPT environment showed positive improvements in CT's Making Inferences and Deduction criterion after the treatment
Summary
Developing critical thinking (CT) has been the most crucial issue for improving education in Malaysia [1]. In the Malaysian context, based on Malaysia Education Blueprint 2015-2025 [1], graduates lack critical thinking skills that are essential for success in the 21st century. Developing students' CT is crucial to be infused in higher education curriculum regardless of whether the learning happens in classroom discussions or online discussions. The development of students' CT can be achieved by implementing reciprocal peer tutoring (RPT) strategy through online discussions using the Facebook platform. Since many youngsters are familiar and more proficient with social media platforms, educators need to implement these technologies in teaching and learning. This study uses Facebook as a discussion platform to enhance students' critical thinking
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