A Method for Measuring and Evaluating Critical Thinking Skills by Using Video Contents Showing Science Learning

Abstract

In this study, we aimed to develop a method to evaluate and measure critical thinking skills by using video content to exercise metacognition in real time. Based on Nigorikawa and Ogura (2022), we defined the state of acquiring critical thinking skills as “being aware of various ‘uncertainties’ by using metacognition.” By watching a video showing science leaning and pointing out the “uncertainties” found on a worksheet while watching the video, we developed video content that requires real-time metacognition and evaluates whether the participants are able to notice “uncertainty” and, from this content, we created two videos with different contexts. To confirm whether it is possible to evaluate and measure critical thinking skills using this method, we conducted a survey on sixth-grade elementary school students and analyzed the results. The results showed that the video content developed in this study can be used to estimate critical thinking skills that exercise students’ metacognition in real time while encouraging their own critical thinking and judgement. A high correlation was observed between the measurement results using the two videos, demonstrating reliable measurement. We calculated the standardized score based on the average score and standard deviation of the subjects of this survey, which made it possible to evaluate the results of future surveys in comparison with the subjects of this survey. It was also suggested that future studies of teaching with the aim of developing critical thinking skills can evaluate the effectiveness of the method by using this video content before and after the study.