Creative learning technologies that enhance critical thinking skills in a smart E-classroom

Summary form only given. The paper discusses the second phase of a teaching/learning model utilizing interactive smart e-classrooms in higher education. This phase includes the administering of two tools: the California Critical Thinking Skills Test (CCTST), and a modified satisfaction survey. The pilot testing was issued during a 6-week session to students taught by the same professor and having identical course numbers. In the subsequent semester, the CCTST was administered during a 14-week semester session again, to 2 sections of the same course. In both instances, the experimental class met in a smart classroom while the control group only met in a traditional classroom with blackboards. Our goals were to increase critical thinking skills through a good facilitator, adequate planning, design, and proper support of interactive smart e-classrooms. Evaluations and informal interviews of the faculty and students utilizing the e-classrooms reflected a positive, enthusiastic outcome. However, research is still continuing to further breakdown the factors influencing critical thinking components such as analysis, evaluation, inference, deduction, and induction.