Enhancing Critical Thinking in Chinese Undergraduates’ College English Courses: A Community of Inquiry-Driven Blended Learning Environment
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Critical thinking is vital for academic and societal success, yet fostering it remains challenging in Chinese higher education, particularly within College English Courses (CEC). While blended learning is increasingly used to boost achievement and advanced thinking skills, existing approaches often lack a strong theoretical base, overlook learners' attitudes toward critical thinking, and struggle to guide learning activities or support judgment. To address these gaps, this study developed a blended learning environment using the Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework. The goal was to enhance both the critical thinking skills and dispositions of first-year CEC students over a 14-week intervention. Results demonstrated that this CoI-driven approach significantly outperformed conventional blended learning. It led to substantial gains in students' critical thinking skills while successfully maintaining their existing positive dispositions. Strong positive connections were found between teaching presence, social presence, and cognitive presence, creating an effective learning system. Learners' critical thinking dispositions were directly linked to cognitive and social presence, while well-structured teaching presence enhanced their engagement and development. This study confirms the effectiveness of CoI-driven blended learning for fostering critical thinking and offers practical guidance for curriculum development.
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