Using Media Resources in Education to Develop University Students’ Critical Thinking Skills

Abstract

This article explores the use of media resources in education to develop critical thinking (CT) skills. In the modern job market, being competitive requires a range of competencies, including “soft skills,” one of which is critical thinking. We discuss the connection between media education and critical thinking, identifying effective strategies for developing students' CT skills by incorporating media resources into university education. While numerous studies have focused on methods for fostering critical thinking, the development of structured, individualized tasks – such as task cards with varying levels of complexity for working with media resources – has been insufficiently explored. Therefore, we propose a series of strategies for critically analyzing scientific articles, digital materials, and media content (video and audio materials), which includes structured, multi-level tasks aimed at developing critical thinking skills among university students. Through these strategies, students learn to analyze and evaluate information, including data from media sources. In our study, we identified critical thinking skills such as analysis, synthesis, causal reasoning, argumentation, and evaluation. We applied L. Starkey’s Critical Thinking Test, adapted for a Russian-speaking audience, to assess the level of CT development among students. The study involved n=218 students from psychology and pedagogy-related courses. For statistical analysis of the data, we used the Cramér-Welch criterion, which revealed statistically significant differences between the control and experimental groups. Thus, the use of the proposed media resource strategies not only promotes the development of critical thinking skills but also enhances media literacy among university students.