Visual Thinking Courseware (VTC): Enhancing Critical Thinking Skills Among Spatial Learners

Spatial ability is the concept that generally refers to skill in representing, transforming, generating, and recalling symbolic, non-linguistic information. Therefore, visual imageries play an important role for the Spatial learners. In the 21st century, teaching and learning with technology have diversified to complement the age of digital era where technology is made available to cater for all learning styles. In this study, a Visual Thinking Courseware (VTC) was designed and developed to help solve the problem of teaching Art Criticism by introducing systematic strategies particularly on visuals to enhance students’ critical thinking skills. Built on Gestalt Theory, the objective of this research was to determine the difference in students’ performance in critical thinking skills between High Spatial Learners (HSL) and Low Spatial Learners (LSL). The methodology used in this research was quantitative and qualitative in nature. A quasi-experimental design was applied to collect the necessary data. A pretest and posttest for the two treatment groups was implemented. Four research instruments were used in the research to obtain the data namely, Index for learning Styles Questionnaire (ILSQ), Spatial Ability Test, Pretest and Posttest, and Critical Thinking Rubrics. Sixty-three post degree education diploma students participated in this study. Results showed that both HSL and LSL groups showed ability to critically think better. VTC had a greater impact on LSL critical thinking skills as compared to HSL. Therefore, it can be concluded that the use of VTC enabled spatial students to critically think better.