Effect of Multimedia Module in Enhancement of Critical Thinking Skills among Students at Secondary School Level

Abstract

There are different types of teaching learning technologies, practicing in education, with an objective to facilitate every type and level of students, according to their needs. Among, some of the flourished learning technologies, Multimedia Instruction is the most applied one to personalize learning and prepare students for better future. Effective technology integration is achieved when its application in curricula supports attainment of learning outcomes in the form of inculcation of high order thinking skills which are considered to be the pre-requisites of 21st century skills. Developing critical thinking skills is critical objective of school learning, as supported by National policy on ICT in school education (2012) and CABE report on Universal Secondary Education (2005), but in our science classrooms we leave very little space for argumentations and interpretations. The major thrust area of present experimental research was to explore the effect of multimedia instructional module in enhancement of critical thinking skills of students at secondary level. Gagne’s instructional design model was used as a basis to develop the instructional multimedia module on topic “Reproduction”. Quasi experimental method was employed with ‘non-equivalent control group design’. Modified Watson-Glazer Critical Thinking Appraisal-MWGCTA was used as a tool to determine the critical thinking level of sample group students in terms of five dimensions of critical thinking specified by Watson-Glaser. The results were analyzed using Mann- Whitney μ-statistics and Wilkoxn statistics, indicating that this educational tool is an effective way to enhance critical thinking skills in classroom settings among students.