Can Video Lectures on Enthymemes Improve Adult Learners’ Critical Thinking and Clickbait Detection Skills?

Critical thinking is essential when navigating, evaluating, and interacting with media; therefore, it is important to investigate if adults’ critical thinking skills can be trained. This paper describes an experiment investigating the impact of video lectures about enthymemes and critical thinking s...

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Main Authors: Ana Vlah, Lisette Wijnia, Christel Lutz, Michael Burke, Sofie M. M. Loyens
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2024-11-01
Series:Education Sciences
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7102/14/12/1284
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author Ana Vlah
Lisette Wijnia
Christel Lutz
Michael Burke
Sofie M. M. Loyens
author_facet Ana Vlah
Lisette Wijnia
Christel Lutz
Michael Burke
Sofie M. M. Loyens
author_sort Ana Vlah
collection DOAJ
description Critical thinking is essential when navigating, evaluating, and interacting with media; therefore, it is important to investigate if adults’ critical thinking skills can be trained. This paper describes an experiment investigating the impact of video lectures about enthymemes and critical thinking skills on participants’ (<i>N</i> = 176) critical thinking skills, measured by the Watson–Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal (WGCTA) and on their ability to identify clickbait headlines. Participants were adults recruited through the Prolific Platform, and they were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: an enthymeme lecture, a general critical thinking lecture, or a control condition. The results indicated no significant improvement in critical thinking scores across the conditions, as measured by the WGCTA. Similarly, no significant differences were found in the participants’ ability to identify clickbait headlines. However, a significant positive correlation was observed between higher critical thinking scores and better clickbait recognition. These results suggest that a short lecture-based intervention may not be sufficient to significantly improve adult learners’ critical thinking. Perhaps this study indicates the need for more in-depth or interactive interventions to effectively support media literacy. The material presented here is a kind of counterexample of what should be done. For this reason, it may prove useful in future research to avoid certain experimental dead-ends.
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spelling doaj-art-f1e2b96bb28b45a782a233100a680a272024-12-27T14:22:23ZengMDPI AGEducation Sciences2227-71022024-11-011412128410.3390/educsci14121284Can Video Lectures on Enthymemes Improve Adult Learners’ Critical Thinking and Clickbait Detection Skills?Ana Vlah0Lisette Wijnia1Christel Lutz2Michael Burke3Sofie M. M. Loyens4Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences, Utrecht University, 3508 CS Utrecht, The NetherlandsFaculty of Educational Sciences, Open University of the Netherlands, 6419 AT Heerlen, The NetherlandsUniversity College Utrecht, Utrecht University, 3584 ED Utrecht, The NetherlandsUniversity College Roosevelt, Utrecht University, 4331 CB Middelburg, The NetherlandsUniversity College Roosevelt, Utrecht University, 4331 CB Middelburg, The NetherlandsCritical thinking is essential when navigating, evaluating, and interacting with media; therefore, it is important to investigate if adults’ critical thinking skills can be trained. This paper describes an experiment investigating the impact of video lectures about enthymemes and critical thinking skills on participants’ (<i>N</i> = 176) critical thinking skills, measured by the Watson–Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal (WGCTA) and on their ability to identify clickbait headlines. Participants were adults recruited through the Prolific Platform, and they were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: an enthymeme lecture, a general critical thinking lecture, or a control condition. The results indicated no significant improvement in critical thinking scores across the conditions, as measured by the WGCTA. Similarly, no significant differences were found in the participants’ ability to identify clickbait headlines. However, a significant positive correlation was observed between higher critical thinking scores and better clickbait recognition. These results suggest that a short lecture-based intervention may not be sufficient to significantly improve adult learners’ critical thinking. Perhaps this study indicates the need for more in-depth or interactive interventions to effectively support media literacy. The material presented here is a kind of counterexample of what should be done. For this reason, it may prove useful in future research to avoid certain experimental dead-ends.https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7102/14/12/1284critical thinkingenthymemesclickbaitargumentationintervention study
spellingShingle Ana Vlah
Lisette Wijnia
Christel Lutz
Michael Burke
Sofie M. M. Loyens
Can Video Lectures on Enthymemes Improve Adult Learners’ Critical Thinking and Clickbait Detection Skills?
Education Sciences
critical thinking
enthymemes
clickbait
argumentation
intervention study
title Can Video Lectures on Enthymemes Improve Adult Learners’ Critical Thinking and Clickbait Detection Skills?
title_full Can Video Lectures on Enthymemes Improve Adult Learners’ Critical Thinking and Clickbait Detection Skills?
title_fullStr Can Video Lectures on Enthymemes Improve Adult Learners’ Critical Thinking and Clickbait Detection Skills?
title_full_unstemmed Can Video Lectures on Enthymemes Improve Adult Learners’ Critical Thinking and Clickbait Detection Skills?
title_short Can Video Lectures on Enthymemes Improve Adult Learners’ Critical Thinking and Clickbait Detection Skills?
title_sort can video lectures on enthymemes improve adult learners critical thinking and clickbait detection skills
topic critical thinking
enthymemes
clickbait
argumentation
intervention study
url https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7102/14/12/1284
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