Volume 26, Issue 1, Spring 2011
Idolina Hernandez
Pages 55-61
Critical Thinking and Social Interaction in the Online Environment
Critical thinking is often assumed to be an integral part of learning in higher education. This learning increasingly takes place in the online environment, where students and faculty are challenged to engage in a collaborative project of critical thinking. This paper seeks to explore the process of critical thinking that is currently taking place online and proposes that social interaction and the social construction of knowledge are integral parts of this process. Discussion boards from economics, history, and sociology are discussed as examples of how critical thinking is developed in the online environment.