The Effects of “Argument Mapping and Concept Mapping in University Textbook Development” on Critical Thinking

This study aims to investigate the effectiveness of argument mapping method and concept mapping method in introducing textbook material on the critical thinking of students. In doing so, three texts for three personality courses have been prepared and introduced to the students throughout a semester. The text, in the first course, was introduced in each session with a mapped argument. The text, in another class, was introduced in each session with a concept map of that session’s material. The text, in the third class, was presented to students with both a mapped argument and a concept map. These classes that included the graduate students of Islamic Azad University have been selected non-randomly and assigned randomly to one of the above-mentioned conditions. Students, at the beginning of the semester and after the final exams filled out the “California Critical Thinking Skills Test”. The results showed that students’ score on final exam were positively correlated with their critical thinking. Among the three groups, only the third class (i.e. “argument mapping with concept mapping”) showed an increase in all aspects of critical thinking (except deduction). While showing the association of critical thinking and educational achievement, this study revealed that using argument mapping and concept mapping methods in writing university textbooks could help improve critical thinking of university students.