Use of webcasting and development of critical thinking skills

The present contribution describes the results of a research carried out at the
Laboratory of Experimental Research - Department of Education, Roma TRE
University. Main aim of the research is to assess if it possible to increase
critical thinking skills in university students, through meaningful online
cultural insights in general and webcasting in particular. Students in
Education attended part of the course “Methodology of Research” online,
through a webcasting activity: cultural insights, guided discussions, videos,
built on structured models, prompted reasoning, elaboration of ideas and
knowledge connections. Students had the possibility to deepen knowledge and
abilities linked to the themes of the course, but also to develop argumentation
skill, communication and critical evaluation skill. The data analysis
presented in this report were developed along the double diachronic and
synchronic dimensions; the evolution of critical thinking skills has been
verified by the lexicon-metric analyses of written production.