ORCID

https://orcid.org/ 0000-0002-8700-6370

Date of Award

2025

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Education (Ph.D)

Department

Education Specialties

First Advisor

Rachael Helfrick

Second Advisor

Aly McDowell

Abstract

This study will encompass research on how and why a void has evolved in students' critical thinking skills between the secondary and higher education realms. The research questions that will be addressed are whether instructional methods, tools, and strategies meet the demands of our 21st-century students and how assessments facilitate students' analytical and critical thinking beyond content. The participants for this study will be four English professors from a suburban area private university. The design for this research will be a qualitative methods approach using an interpretative phenomenological design. Qualitative data will be collected through the use of interviews asking the English instructors to define the strategies and tools they implement into their courses and the types of assessments used in the classroom. Transcriptions will be made from the recordings using rev.com. I will then analyze the collected data and use emergent coding to seek out common themes and correlations between the instructor-provided responses. Further address will be given to not only the change in literacy that now exists (New Literacy Studies; NLS) but also the processing skills our students bring with them, including diversity (learning disabilities, language, and culture) and digital experience.

Keywords: critical thinking, literacy skills, digital literacy, and critical media literacy

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