Teaching Critical Thinking in Psychology: A Handbook of Best Practices

Report 8

Effectiveness of a Web-Based Critical

Thinking Module

Beth Dietz-Uhler

The importance of understanding critical thinking and the scientific method in psychology

courses cannot be overstated (e.g., Nummedal & Halpern, 1995). Not only does recent

research suggest that critical thinking is a successful predictor of exam performance

(Williams, Oliver, Allin, Winn, & Booher, 2003), but developing critical thinking skills

helps students improve their overall thinking skills (Halpern & Nummedal, 1995). Where

understanding scientific evidence is concerned, research suggests that students with a sci-

ence background performed better in introductory psychology courses than students with

an arts background (Nathanson, Paulhus, & Williams, 2004). If students approached the

study of psychology from a scientific perspective, applying scientific evidence to support

their arguments, then it is likely that they would perform better in psychology courses.

How can students develop a scientific perspective? There is evidence to suggest that

providing students with beginning-of-the-course experiences to improve their understand-

ing of critical thinking is valuable (e.g., Yanchar & Slife, 2004). Thus it seems that faculty

should make efforts to design modules or activities early in the course that promote stu-

dents’ understanding and use of critical thinking. The purpose of this paper is to report

the design and assessment of a Web-based, interactive module to improve students’ under-

standing of critical thinking and the scientific method.

Critical Thinking Module

I developed an interactive, Web-based Critical Thinking Module. The module’s purpose is to

fulfill the goals of promoting students’ confidence in using the scientific method and critical

thinking and to improve their knowledge of both. The module (Dietz-Uhler, 2005) contains

three interactive assignments, one focusing on the scientific method and the other two on

critical thinking, although note that only the first two will be discussed in this chapter.

Teaching Critical Thinking in Psychology: A Handbook of Best Practices Edited by D. S. Dunn, J. S. Halonen, and R. A. Smith