Effect of Role-Play in Online Discussions on Student Engagement and Critical Thinking

Abstract

Without a strategy in place, online discussions in asynchronous courses rarely rise above the level of information sharing. As a result, it is important to design discussion strategies that push students further in their interactions with both the content and each other. In this case study, the role-play strategy was examined to determine whether it fosters critical thinking and student engagement. Student discussion transcripts were examined from an online, self-paced human biology course using both Garrison et al.’s four-phase model of cognitive presence and Gunawardena et al.’s five-stage model of knowledge construction to look for evidence of higher-order thinking. Furthermore, the transcripts were examined qualitatively for phrasing that signified evidence of student engagement. The findings indicate that the role-play instructional strategy, when used in online discussions, does support student engagement and critical thinking. This strategy places students in authentic, real-world contexts and enables them to explore different perspectives while engaging with the content to discover new knowledge and construct new meaning. The research presented here also supports evidence that written reflection should be incorporated when employing the role-play strategy. Based on the insights from this study, the researchers have developed a framework for students to achieve deeper, more engaging online discussions. This framework is called the “Framework for Student Engagement and Critical Thinking in Online Discussions.”

Improving high school students’ speaking skill through role play strategy: A classroom action research

“…The current study's finding that implementing role-play strategies significantly enhanced the speaking skills of junior high school students in Batam is in line with the assertion that role-play is an effective classroom teaching technique that encourages students to participate actively in the process of learning English (Berry & Kowal, 2022;Hamid, 2021;Kostania et al, 2015;Stevens, 2015). The use of role-play in language teaching provides a context similar to real-life situations, where students can practice the target language in a more natural and authentic way, removing stress and shyness.…”

Critical Thinking Development for 21st Century: Analysis of Physics Curriculum

“…Qualitative content analysis was used to analyze the data with the facilitation of NVivo 12 software. This software easily handles the many pages of the document for text (Bazeley & Jackson, 2019). Moreover, this software was the most suitable since having different tools for addressing the research objectives from different sources (Bazeley & Jackson, 2019).…”

“…This software easily handles the many pages of the document for text (Bazeley & Jackson, 2019). Moreover, this software was the most suitable since having different tools for addressing the research objectives from different sources (Bazeley & Jackson, 2019). To do the analysis, four steps were used in NVivo, i.e., importing data, coding data, creating framework matrices, and reporting the findings (Bazeley & Jackson, 2019).…”

Special Educator Course Format Preferences

“…How do online courses incorporate student to student and student to instructor interaction and how do such interactions fit into the course expectations, assignments, and grades? A recent study suggests that student role-plays could be an effective tool for improving student engagement (Berry & Kowal, 2022). Such role-plays could be useful in teacher preparation programs because it is important that teachers be ready to collaborate with their fellow educators; information about online course interactions could shed light on how teachers are learning to collaborate in online settings.…”