Monday, June 20
2:10-2:35 PM
EDT
Liberty 1&2

Exploring the critical thinking and engagement of TESOL students in a community of inquiry: American online and Malaysian blended contexts

F2F Full Paper: Research Based ID: 60831
  1. aaa
    Esther Smidt
    West Chester University
  2. aaa
    Rui Li
    West Chester University
  3. Paige Gardner
    West Chester University
  4. Meng Huat Chau
    University Malaya

Abstract: The arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic has necessitated that countries worldwide embrace the idea that the virtual environment was an effective tool for learning—educators were thus tasked with creating a community that allowed for quality educational transactions to occur in this environment. The Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework assumes that learning occurs within a community through the interaction of three essential Presences—Cognitive, Social, and Teaching. However, the CoI experience is influenced by context, whether among users of Global Englishes (GE) and speakers for whom English is their home language, or in online and blended contexts. As such, this paper compares two qualitative studies consisting of students taking (1) an online course in the United States and (2) a blended course in Malaysia. The research questions are: 1. How frequently do participants employ the four phases of Cognitive Presence in asynchronous discussion boards? 2. How is the Community of Inquiry constructed in one week’s discussion posts? Results demonstrated that participants in both studies employed the four phases of Cognitive Presence is a similar manner and lower-level thinking was implemented more frequently than higher-order thinking. Furthermore, while all three Presences were implemented in both contexts, the blended Malaysian context yielded better Teaching Presence and Social Presence, while the online US context yielded more high-level Cognitive Presence at the applicator phase.

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