Developing Critical Thinking with Debate: Evidence from Iranian Male and Female Students

Abstract

This study investigates the difference between the performance of Iranian male and female EFL learners on the five dimensions of the California Critical Thinking Skills Test. Eighty-eight learners, out of 120, selected through a convenience sampling method, participated in this study. The researcher used a quantitative research method with one-group pretest posttest design. This group received "the Meeting-House Debate" strategy. Data analysis involved descriptive and inferential statistics. Results showed no significant difference between males and females on the sub-scales measured; i.e. evaluation, analysis, inference, deductive reasoning, and inductive reasoning. It was concluded that gender did not have a significant effect on the students' critical thinking skills.Résumé: Le but de cette étude était d'employer les cinq dimensions de l'épreuve California Critical Thinking Skills pour étudier la différence entre la performance des apprenants mâles et femelles iraniens de l'anglais comme langue étrangère. 88 des 120 apprenants sélectionnés par la méthode d'échantillonnage de commodité ont participé à cette étude. La méthode de recherche quantitative utilisée consistait d'une conception posttest prétest d'un seul groupe. Ce groupe a reçu un enseignement sous la forme de débats structurés. L'analyse des données a été effectuée à l'aide de statistiques descriptives et déductives. Les résul-tats ont montré qu'il n'y avait aucune différence significative dans la performance des mâles et des femelles selon les sous-échelles de mesure; à savoir l'évaluation, l'analyse, l'infé-rence, le raisonnement déductif, et le raisonnement inductif. On a conclu que le sexe n'a pas eu d'effet significatif sur la pensée critique des élèves.

The Effect of Classroom Debate on Students' Academic Achievement in Higher Education: an Overview

“…Participating in debating activities enhanced students' capacity to reason and defend topics relevant to their subject areas, as discovered by Mike, Berkowitz, Hunt, and Louden (1999). According to Bellon (2000), Tous, and Haghighi (2016), critical thinking is one of the most essential skills because it compels students to engage in rigorous thought processes in an effort to establish connections between phrases and concepts that give them a deeper level of significance. Overall, the students saw the classroom discussion as a beneficial educational exercise.…”

Fostering Sustainability and Critical Thinking through Debate—A Case Study

“…Some of this evidence is related to nursing [17], occupational therapy [18], sociology [19,20], athletic training education [21], dental education [22,23], marketing [24] or accounting [25], but it is a method rarely used in engineering subjects, a fact that this paper intends to mitigate. In addition, another study concluded that gender did not have a significant effect on the students' critical thinking skills developed with debate [26].…”