Blended learning and critical thinking : identifying the issues related to the development of critical thinking skills through a blended model in Brazilian low-income students

Abstract

The context of this research is a social institute that works with low-income students in high school in São Paulo, Brazil, in a moment of searching for scalable solutions given Brazil's dimensions and population number. Since then, the institute designed and has been running an online platform aiming improvements in language and math skills, and also a comprehensive social and emotional development program, as an adaptation of the in-presence pro-gram with the same objectives. Due to time constraints, critical thinking was the skill chosen to be the focus of the research.

The general objective of this present work is to study the perception of the stu-dents related to their critical thinking development within a blended model. Specifically, other objectives are to point out possible issues in the use of a blended model to develop critical thinking, and to identify special aspects (if any) considering that these students are low income.

Narrative inquiry was the method used to analyze the virtual interviews with 2 students from the social institute. The findings suggest that the major support for the development of critical thinking skills were the in-presence meetings, and the interaction with other students focused on intentional themes that generate critical analysis.

In addition, the online platform was mentioned more as a tool to help in this process, but the emphasis concerning effectiveness and meaningful experi-ence was in the in-presence meetings. According to the participants’ narra-tives, interaction appeared important for developing critical thinking skills. Therefore, this should be considered when developing an online platform.

Confidential information regarding the specific institution, schools and the re-search participants has been removed from this report.