| The problem. The purpose of the study was to test the theory that the use of computerized library research is a more effective methodology for teaching critical thinking skills than the traditional paper-based process. To test this theory a pretest/post test research design was employed. Evaluation of the results was done using a students t-test for independent groups. It was predicted that the the experimental group using computer assisted library research would show greater improvement in critical thinking skills than the control group using traditional library research methods.; Method. Subjects were pre-existing groups of homogeneously grouped ninth grade social studies students. There were 204 students in the study, 93 students in the experimental group and 111 students in the control group. An analysis of the pretest data indicated no significant differences between the groups. Each group was given instruction in the use of their respective methodology. Equivalent assignments were made to each group participating in the study. Each group received a pretest and post test using the Cornell Critical Thinking Skill Test, Level X, third edition 1985. The data obtained was analyzed for changes in both overall critical thinking skills and in individual sub-areas of critical thinking skills.; Results. The result of pretest/posttest analysis indicate that a significant increase occurred in the overall critical thinking skills of the experimental group, while a corresponding significant increase was not observed in the results of the control group (.05 level of significance). The result of the analysis of the individual subgroupings of critical thinking skills was inconclusive, possibly due to the inability of the research tool to discriminate these individual areas. It was concluded that computer assisted library research is a better methodology for the teaching of critical thinking skills than traditional library research methods. Further research in the area of individual critical thinking skills was suggested. |
