MANAGING COGNITIVE LOAD IN A BLENDED LEARNING ENVIRONMENT TO IMPROVE STUDENTS’ CRITICAL THINKING SKILLS: AN EXPERIMENTAL STUDY

Abstract

Critical thinking is recognized as one of the core skills of 21st century. It fosters knowledge construction and enhances students’ performance and learning outcomes by encouraging them to question assumptions and draw meaningful conclusions. In order to process information mental effort is required. This mental effort is known as cognitive load. learning is affected without effective cognitive load management. Although technology is integral part of blended learning, there are challenges in balancing cognitive load with technology use to foster critical thinking without causing cognitive overload. The current study examines how students' critical thinking abilities are improved in a blended learning environment through cognitive load management. This study employed a true experimental research design. All educational institutions in District Abbottabad, Hazara Division, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, constituted the population of this study. From a sample of 32 students, 17 were randomly assigned to the control group, while 15 were assigned to the experimental group. To accurately measure the effect, only the experimental group received a treatment comprising of worked examples, completion tasks, scaffolding and instant feedback, whereas the control group did not. Two valid and reliable instruments, adapted from NASA-TLX and WGCTA were used to assess cognitive load and critical thinking skills. Data analysis included paired sample t-tests, Mann-Whitney U-tests, Welch's t-tests, Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test, independent samples t-tests as well as descriptive statistics. The critical thinking skills were found to improve more in an experimental group (p < 0.05) as compared to control group. It was concluded that in the absence of effective cognitive load management, learning is hindered. This study recommends that cognitive load management is crucial in a blended learning environment to facilitate the cultivation of critical thought among learners.

Keywords: Cognitive load Management, Blended Learning, Critical Thinking, Scaffolding.