C RITICAL THINKING AND PROBLEM SOLVING

Fullan and Langworthy (2014) describe the skills of critical thinking and problem solving as the ability in thinking critically to design and manage projects, solving problems and making decisions using a variety of digital tools and resources. We again see the overlapping of skills, as thinking critically while designing projects also demands creativity, and managing projects and problem solving are also central in collaboration and communication. Erstad (2015) discusses critical thinking in regards to media literacy in being able to navigate and evaluate sources on the Internet (see section 2.3). Critical thinking is also important in self-regulation which will be discussed in section 4.5.1 under character education, as well as in 4.7 under the section discussing transfer. In addition, critical thinking is important as students encounter foreign cultures as they try to understand and reflect on what they learn (Hoff, 2016). This will be looked at in section 4.6 in relation to citizenship. When addressing problem solving the students reported mainly on issues pertaining to deadlines or technical issues, which while not directly an issue in English didactics, can affect students´ abilities to work effectively on projects. It will therefore be mentioned briefly in this section. In addition I will be discussing the opportunities and challenges that arise in terms of decision making in regards to digital resources.

In the questionnaire (Appendix 6), the students were asked to what degree they were able to use the skills of critical thinking and problem solving during the project. 13 of the 17 students reported that they used these skills in every or most of the lessons.

This learning project involved solving problems on two levels. On the overarching level, the

“problem” that was to be solved was the task on hand: using their knowledge to make the videos. On another level, and perhaps the problem solving that the students were referring to in the questionnaire, were the problems that the students reported on in their reflection logs (Appendix 5): not having enough time to finish the task, student absences or unmotivated group members that affected the progress of their work, technical difficulties and either having too little or too much information to process for the final product. As to the question of whether they felt that they had become any better at using their critical thinking and problem solving skills: a majority of the students said that they had, while some said that they had not.

4.4.1 Opportunities

The analysis indicates that many students were able to show some degree of critical thinking in regards to the use of digital resources. As mentioned in chapter 2, the curriculum in English in the Knowledge Promotion describes developing digital skills where the students have a “critical and independent attitude to the use of sources” (2006/2013, p. 4). This demands critical thinking as to which informational resources were reliable sources. Ørevik (2018) points out the importance of the teachers’ roles as mediators between sources and students and guiding the students in their development of critical thinking towards the sources they use on the Internet. Ørevik quotes Buckingham (2007) who explains that:

Informed users of media need to be able to evaluate the material they encounter, for example, by assessing the motivations of those who created it and by comparing it with other sources, including their own direct experience. In the case of information texts, this means addressing authority, reliability and bias…. (p. 245)

I observed through initial class discussions that the students already had quite a bit of knowledge on what made a website reliable and some of the students also questioned the authorship and authority of different sites. In addition, the students were given suggestions for narrowing their searches so as to find web sites where the language could be more understandable; for example using “k-12” or “for kids.”

Some of the students showed critical thinking as to the resources they were using. One of the students, when explaining his searching for information about how religion played a part in teenagers lives in England, explained:

There was like none information about the term we had about (religion), so we didn't fin so much. And on the few pages we found the information was really not neutral.

(Student 6)

Erstad (2015) discusses this ability to critically evaluate sources as an important part of a person ́s media literacy. Being able not only to find appropriate sources of information but assess if the sites are “neutral” requires not only the vocabulary to carry out the search but also the ability to understand and evaluate the site’s bias which this student indicated. It is nevertheless important to help the students navigate the Internet and give them continual guidance as to reliable and trustworthy information sites.

When asked about where they found their information, the students in the social media group all answered this question differently:

I found my information for my project at trustable sources on the internet. (Student 10)

https://learnenglishteens.britishcouncil.org/topics/social-media/term https://social-media.co.uk/list-popular-social-networking-websites https://www.wired.co.uk/article/social-medias-teenage-kicks (Student 11)

We found alot of the information on the internet where there were interviews or texts written by English people. I managed also to get an interview with an English girl.

(Student 12, my translation).

Student 10 made a point out of the fact that he used “trustable” sources. Although he did not elaborate on this, he at least showed awareness that one needs to be critical when choosing sources. Student 11, on the other hand listed up these sources. Student 12 wrote that the sources that were used from the Internet were “written by English people”  showing that he regarded first-hand information as reliable. Each of these students, in varying ways, showed some degree of a “critical and independent attitude to the use of sources” as stated in the English subject curriculum (Knowledge Promotion, 2006/2013, p. 4). Having continual focus on critical thinking towards reliability of sources over time, through for example reflection logs, can help the students on their way to mastering this skill. It is also important that

teachers encourage students to use their critical thinking when assessing the reliability of first-hand sources, especially if the information gained is then used to generalize about cultural aspects.

My observations of the project (Appendix 8) support the students´ self-reporting in the texts that they used their problem solving skills when learning and or using new digital tools. In addition to basic skills, Erstad (2015) categorizes the ability to produce and create different forms of information, as part of a person´s media literacy. The students in this project explained some of the challenges they met in using digital tools. In the weekly summative log after week 1 (Appendix 4), one student described the difficulty in using the app WeVideo:

“We struggle to find out how to use WeVideo even though we have watched the tutorials”

(Student 16). As explained in section 4.2.1, this app allows for the use of several modes in a video, which can lead to enhanced communication of the multimodal text. In the observations of the videos I noted that this group in the end did not use WeVideo but instead relied on Screencastify with a presentation including images and a voice-over. In the summative text at the end of the project the same student wrote, “Our presentation was boring and I wish we could've done more with it” (Appendix 5). This student expresses dissatisfaction with his groups´ ability to solve the problem at hand: using the digital resources available to make an effective informative multimodal text. It does however show that the student is aware of the opportunities that meaning-bearing elements can bring.

4.4.2 Challenges

 In addition to being challenged to use new technology when creating their video, the students were faced with the challenge of deciding which resources they were going to use. Apart from the few groups who had interviews with people from England, the majority of the information came from the Internet. When asked in the summative text (Appendix 5) where they found their information, most of the students wrote “the internet.” The lack of elaborate responses here could be due to the question not specifying for the students to expand upon their choice of sources (see question 6, Appendix 5). However, the challenges in finding and using digital resources is shown where Student 16 wrote “First we found out what we wanted to talk about and then we just searched up some things surrounding that theme and started reading” (Appendix 5). This again shows the importance of teachers being actively involved

in all steps of the learning process to be able to give appropriate guidance especially as to finding and choosing appropriate digital resources.

As mentioned in the beginning of this section, many students reported that time management was the problem that they most focus on in this project. Notably, some of the students discussed how not having enough time affected their ability to be creative, again showing how the 6 Cs are overlapping and intertwined skills: they had used so much time in gathering the data that they did not feel that they had enough time putting the information together in designing the video. This is seen in some of the reflections on the use of creativity and imagination in the summative text (Appendix 5):

I don´t use a lot of creativity because I need more time to do a perfect video.  so if I could get more time next project, I will do this better. (Student 1)

We had one idea but we dident´t get to do that because the time so insted I  feel we did it very boring. (Student 5)

We didn´t get that far. (Student 6)

Experience and reflection around learning processes could lead to better project management skills; which can, in turn, allow learners to develop other skills being used, such as creativity in this case. In a later project these students might remember not having enough time making the video and thus try to be more effective in the data searching process. It is also important for teachers to be aware of this challenge so that they can encourage students to balance time between the different phases of the project work.