Summarising the Research

Below, I have summarised research and articles in relation to my inquiry.

According to research compiled by the Education Hub, there are are range of soft skills that can be taught when social media is utilised in the classroom. Although our children are too young to use social media, our children are fortunate to have their own individual blogs which is a way they can interact and share their learning online.

These skills listed in the Education Hub's summary of research are:

- collaboration
- communication
- digital literacy
- citizenship
- creativity
- productivity

through...

- deep thinking
- reflection
- conversation
- thinking critically

The Education hub explains that "...it is essential that [teachers] continue to scaffold students’ critical thinking skills in order to help them learn how to evaluate the information that is accessed through social media for accuracy and objectivity."

This links really well with my inquiry which focuses on making a connection between critical thinking and interpersonal skills when working in a digital environment. Early on through my initial data, I also recognised the importance of being explicit with cybersmart teaching in the classroom - something that fits well with the final quote above.

This research is all about "developing cognitive and social skills in digital environment." The three "21st century skills" they focused on were "cognitive, intrapersonal and interpersonal." This study also explained why it is important to teach these skills and the benefits of of having these skills to their successful futures.

This links really well with my inquiry which focuses on critical thinking (which could fall under a cognitive skill) and interpersonal skills. What I need to do now is find out what the interpersonal skills are that were seen as important through the Developing in Digital Worlds study, and use these to help plan my digital took for this inquiry.

Interpersonal skills (as used in Developing in Digital Worlds):

- Peer help
- Showing concern
- Perspective taking
- Collaboration
- Empathy (cognitive & emotional)
- Pro-social skills - relationship with others

This article from the Victoria State Government begins in a positive way however when you read the listed suggestions for learning to be covered, they are mostly written quite negatively. My thought is how these sorts of scenarios can be turned around into a positive scenarios for explicit teaching to match with our kaupapa .

One of the 'behaviours' which they believe is essential to teach is critical thinking. This matches with the above pieces of research as well.

My inquiry and teaching of cybersmart lends itself well to flexible grouping (Christine Rubie-Davis). What this looks like could change from week to week.

In this blog post, Fiona Grant emphasises the importance of focusing on the positive.

This article lists the following interpersonal skills which could also be seen as important when working in a digital environment:

- listening
- questioning
- team work
- Persuasion
- Problem solving

Critical thinking includes:

- Researching
- Asking questions
- Making judgements
- Challenging ideas
- Planning
- Reasoning
- Finding information from a range of sources
- Thinking about how others feel - implications of actions
- Giving and receiving feedback
- Reflecting

Critical thinking includes:

- Problem solving

- Making comparisons

- Drawing conclusions

- Efficiency and effectiveness