The Effects of Reciprocal Observation of Thought on Critical Reading and Writing Skills with the “Digital Pen” Information Sharing System

Abstract

This study proposes a new framework for teaching programs, introducing the practice of “Reciprocal Observation of Thought”, and subsequently examines its effect on fostering children's practice of observing others' thought reciprocally, we used the “Digital Pen” system, an ICT (Information and Communication Technology) system used to share information between all children in a classroom. Using this system, we conducted a five-day program for 35 fourth-graders. In each class, lectures about how to read and write critically were provided first; then, students worked independently on the given questions, presented their ideas to the others, and observed others' work using the Digital Pen system. After the program, it was found that the students who had evaluated others' ideas effectively during the program developed their skills to write essays with more objective and effective arguments, and also to make appropriate counterarguments against others' essay including problems of logical structure. These results were interpreted in terms of the function fo the meta-cognition framework.