SUPPORTING STUDENTS' CRITICAL THINKING WITH A MOBILE LEARNING ENVIRONMENT: A META-ANALYSIS

In the current 21st century education ecosystem, the explosive growth and benefits of mobile technology are changing the face of education for the betterment. As tablets and Smartphone become ubiquitous, schools and teachers are beginning to embrace the power of mobile technology for more involved and tailored learning experience. Digital textbooks and interactive apps have emerged from this new mobile-centric pedagogy. Not only do it allows students to get access to the content at anytime and anywhere, but it also has a number of unique characteristics that teachers can take advantage of it in the classroom. However, discussions about mobile learning are often centre on the technology and its capabilities which are impressive. But treating mobile technology as simply a novel tactic for classroom engagement is to overlook the real potential of mobile technology. Mobile technology has been identified as one of the technology in raising students' motivation and achievement (Sung et al., 2013; Falloon, 2013; Zhang et al., 2015.). It also has a potential to be perceived in higher-order thinking skills of students such as critical thinking skills (McCann, 2015). An applicable critical thinking's learning strategies to be integrated with mobile technology need to be ascertained by educators since a good pedagogical practice is a key to a successful mobile learning implementation (Motiwalla, 2007). Hence, this paper will discuss the meta-analysis of how mobile technology plays a role in improving students' critical thinking focusing on learning strategy used, critical elements aspect and main characteristic of mobile learning has been used. Several limitations of earlier research will be discussed and the outcomes of the meta-analysis will guide further researches in exploring the trend of learning strategies used to support critical thinking in a mobile learning environment.