Relationship between selected discourse strategies and student critical thinking.

This study investigated the relationship between use of selected discourse strategies and level of student critical thinking in nursing clinical post-conferences. Selected discourse strategies included: (a) teacher high-level questions, (b) teacher elaboration of student ideas, (c) teacher probing questions, (d) student participation, and (e) student-to-student participation. The level of student critical thinking was defined as the quartile ranking of students (N = 57) on the Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal summative measure. It was hypothesized that greater use of discourse strategies would be associated with high-levels of student critical thinking. All discourse strategies were significantly associated (p < .0001) to student quartile ranking for one taping session (Conference II). Further analysis, however, revealed ambiguous patterns of two-way associations. The more consistent findings suggested a conceptual relationship between less student talk and student-to-student talk and high-levels of student critical thinking.