Do Electronic Discussions Create Critical Thinking Spillovers

I. INTRODUCTION The importance of teaching critical thinking skills is gaining increased attention in the economics literature. This attention can be traced back to Fels (1969), who identified it as an area ripe for teaching and exploration by researchers. A number of articles propose specific methods for promoting critical thinking in economics, including Cohen and Spencer (1993), Elliot et al. (1998), Feiner and Roberts (1995), Palmini (1996), and Peterson and Peterson and Bean (1998). Although the value of critical thinking may be taken for granted in higher education, there have been few attempts to assess the extent to which any of these exercises achieve this goal. One reason for the lack of assessment is the difficulty of measuring students' critical thinking. (1) In recent work we developed a methodology for using electronic discussions to teach critical thinking in economics courses (Greenlaw and DeLoach 2003). In that article we constructed a taxonomy for defining levels of critical thinking, as well as a procedure for using that taxonomy to assess postings in an electronic discussion. While our earlier article focused on developing the methodology, the purpose of the present study was to test the effectiveness of this new pedagogy for teaching critical thinking. Generally speaking, electronic discussion can be defined as any collaborative class activity organized to explore an issue using an electronic medium such as electronic mail or Web-based discussion lists. In our work we require students to use a Web-based threaded discussion list, over a period of 2 weeks, to investigate and develop a consensus about an open-ended economics question. The asynchronous nature of the threaded discussion provides participants with time to reflect on what others have said and how they wish to respond, while the discrete time frame of the discussion focuses students' attention and participation. Students make multiple postings over the course of a typical discussion, usually averaging about six posts per student. Ideally these postings will provoke other students to weigh in with their own opinions or challenge the logic of previous arguments. As a result, this interaction leads to complex discussions that typically range from students trying to define terms and interpret the question to ultimately evaluating competing opinions, based on both economic theory and empirical evidence. The use of electronic discussion should be particularly effective because it increases the efficiency of the learning process. (2) While the medium is often viewed simply as an out-of-class equivalent to standard classroom discussions, electronic discussions also possess many of the advantages of "writing-to-learn" assignments. However, in electronic discussions the students' peers are providing crucial feedback rather than the instructor. Students are constantly challenged to improve their answers by providing relevant backing for their opinions. Simply put, there appears to be a critical thinking spillover effect. In this article we investigate whether student interaction in a typical electronic discussion in upper-level macroeconomic courses (Intermediate Macroeconomics and Money and Banking) leads to higher levels of critical thinking. Specifically, we test whether or not critical thinking spillovers exist. Using the taxonomy of critical thinking skills outlined in Greenlaw and DeLoach (2003) and estimating an educational production function along the lines of Davisson and Bonello (1976), it is possible to test this hypothesis directly. In addition to assessing the effectiveness of this particular technique, we also hope to shed light on a related issue that has been debated in the economics education literature: the degree to which using the Internet enhances teaching and learning. We think that, implicitly, the critical thinking spillover effect appears to be at the core of much of the literature touting the advantages of online activities. …