PENSAMIENTO CRÍTICO EN AMBIENTES DE APRENDIZAJE SEMIPRESENCIALES

Abstract

The Organic Law of Education (2009) establishes the exercise of critical thinking as the guiding principle of University Education. The Simon Bolívar National Project assumes as Public Policy in education the UNESCO recommendation to prioritize the development of personal competencies and skills to think critically, as well as to train teachers to use face-to-face and virtual teaching modalities. To determine the critical thinking skills and abilities developed by the student in the blended modality, at the José Antonio Páez University the subject Statistics II, Fifth Semester, Industrial Engineering Career, section 305I2, night shift was designed, consisting of 32 students, using the Acropolis platform. Readings of illustrative materials were assigned for synchronous and asynchronous discussion and type exercises-problems linked to real and everyday life situations were proposed for the students. The descriptive naturalistic method, an interpretive paradigm, was used to listen to and evaluate the voices and tones of the students in their interventions in the electronic discussion forums and face-to-face sessions. The students used respectful language when making observations to their peers, they reviewed formulas and presented data citing the sources of information, they argued and counterargued their own observations and those made to their classmates, they showed open-mindedness and receptivity to the suggestions or corrections received whenever were founded (Paul and Elder, 2008), they adopted an analytical attitude that they transferred to their work and socio-personal context.