The Effectiveness of Blended Learning in Enhancing Critical Thinking Skills among University Students

Abstract

The present paper is a review of the applicability of blended learning to the creation of critical thinking skills among university students in contemporary environment of the rapidly advancing digital learning landscape. This research relies on constructivist theory of learning, and the Taxonomy of Bloom considering that the integration of face-to-face learning and technology-enhanced learning systems can assist in boosting the higher level of cognitive skills including analysis, evaluation and problem solving. A structured Likert-scale questionnaire was adopted and quantitative cross-sectional survey design was adopted to gather data about 300 students of different academic disciplines in the university. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, reliability testing, normality testing, Pearson correlation, multiple regression analysis and ANOVA to derive robust and reliable results. The results indicate that critical thinking skills and blended learning are positively correlated (r = 0.862, p < 0.01), i.e. the more a student is engaged in blended learning environments, the more they are developed cognitively. The regression analysis also indicates that blended learning is the most significant predictor of critical thinking, demographic factors such as age, faculty and level of study are very insignificant, and there is a slight difference between genders. The findings also indicate the significance of Learning Management Systems in enhancing the processes of interactive learning, collaboration and self directed interaction that when combined, produce improved critical thinking outcomes. However, the challenges such as the absence of interaction, the inability to access the Internet, and time management were identified as the factors that may have a harmful impact on the effectiveness of blended learning unless addressed in a proper way. The work has contributed to the existing body of literature by providing empirical, inter-disciplinary evidence to the impacts of blended learning on critical thinking within a higher education environment, which is particularly relevant in cultivation of educational environments. The findings offer important recommendations to the teachers, policy makers and institutions by emphasizing on the need to develop effective strategies of blended learning that involve the use of technology, interactive approaches to learning and student centered approaches to learning. Overall, the study supports the notion that blended learning is a powerful and efficient pedagogical model to foster critical thinking and prepare students with the competencies that can address the demands of the 21st-century knowledge economy.