A Simple but Powerful Way to Enhance Critical Thinking Skills among Undergraduate Social Work Students in Online Class

As online education grows rapidly in social work, there are growing concerns about teaching critical-thinking skills in online environments. This retrospective case study shares experience of an online course that employed a strength-based instructional method to enhance critical-thinking skills among undergraduate social-work students. Twenty-two student assignments were reviewed from an online Human Behaviour and Social Environment course offered to undergraduate social-work students. Three approaches were adopted to learn the impact of instructional practices on critical-thinking skills: 1) students’ course evaluations; 2) the number of words written in students’ responses to written assignments; 3) the quality of students’ prompts. The study found that using a strength-based approach and providing individualised feedback were effective in enhancing critical-thinking skills in online courses. Limitations and suggestions for future research were discussed.