Use of webcasting and development of critical thinking skills

The present contribution describes the results of a research carried out at theLaboratory of Experimental Research - Department of Education, Roma TREUniversity. Main aim of the research is to assess if it possible to increasecritical thinking skills in university students, through meaningful onlinecultural insights in general and webcasting in particular. Students inEducation attended part of the course “Methodology of Research” online,through a webcasting activity: cultural insights, guided discussions, videos,built on structured models, prompted reasoning, elaboration of ideas andknowledge connections. Students had the possibility to deepen knowledge andabilities linked to the themes of the course, but also to develop argumentationskill, communication and critical evaluation skill. The data analysispresented in this report were developed along the double diachronic andsynchronic dimensions; the evolution of critical thinking skills has beenverified by the lexicon-metric analyses of written production.