Title: Creating a critical culture to cultivate students' critical thinking: a case study of a media literacy course in Japan

Authors: Xiaohong Zhang; Kenichi Kubota; Mayumi Kubota

Addresses: Research Center for Instructional Systems, 2-40-1, Kurokami-Cho, Chuo-ku, Kumamoto-shi, Kumamoto, Japan ' Kansai University, 3-3-35 Yamate-cho, Suita-shi, Osaka, Japan ' Faculty of Informatics, Kansai University, 2-1-1 Ryozenji-cho, Takatsuki-shi, Osaka, Japan

Abstract: The purpose of this study was to examine whether students critically thought about media and how a critical culture influences students' critical thinking in a media literacy course. This research used a media literacy course at a Japanese university as a case study. The authors collected data by participant observation. As a result, the authors found that: 1) the cycle, of thinking activities in the classroom, discussion on LMS and reflection activities, created a critical culture in a blended learning environment during one semester; 2) students improved their critical thinking through extensive experiences of media analysis and production; 3) five factors were important to cultivate students' critical thinking in the critical culture.

Keywords: critical thinking skill; CTS; critical thinking disposition; CTD; critical culture; active learning; media literacy; blended learning environment; higher education in Japan; course design; online discussion; case study; participant observation; Japan.

DOI: 10.1504/IJIL.2022.122070

International Journal of Innovation and Learning, 2022 Vol.31 No.3, pp.369 - 384

Received: 01 Nov 2020
Accepted: 23 Apr 2021
Published online: 08 Apr 2022 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article