Using Shared Inquiry to Develop Students' Reading, Reasoning, and Writing in the Disciplines

It is commonly accepted in the academy that developing a critical thinking capacity and related capabilities will make students more effective thinkers and writers, and that these are desirable traits for graduates to have no matter what path they take after graduation. While most academics agree that critical thinking is an essential component of university education, they are less clear about what constitutes critical thinking and how it is, or can be, incorporated within their own teaching and assessment practices without displacing disciplinary content (Moore, 2011). This article discusses how the Shared Inquiry (SI) discussion method can be deployed to teach disciplinary content and critical thinking simultaneously. Qualitative evidence from the method’s application in a Screen & Media Studies subject taught at Flinders University, South Australia, is presented to demonstrate the benefits of SI in developing critical thinking among undergraduate student cohorts.