EFFECT OF PROBLEM-BASED LEARNING ON PRESERVICE TEACHERS' CRITICAL THINKING IN MICROTEACHING

Abstract

Critical thinking is a foundational competence for effective lesson planning, decision-making, and adaptive instruction, yet many preservice teachers in Nigerian Colleges of Education continue to demonstrate weak critical thinking during microteaching practice. Traditional lecture-based instruction, constrained by limited resources and passive learning routines, has proven inadequate for cultivating the analytical reasoning that microteaching demands. This paper reports on the problem-based learning (PBL) dimension of a larger study that embedded PBL within a technology-mediated instructional framework (Microteaching Augmented Learning Activities, MTALA) designed to strengthen preservice teachers' critical thinking and microteaching competence. A convergent mixed-methods design was adopted, involving 60 NCE II preservice teachers assigned to an experimental group (treated with the PBL-infused MTALA framework) and a control group (treated with the conventional Teach-Reteach approach) over one academic semester. Quantitative data on the three RED Model dimensions of critical thinking - Recognize Assumptions, Evaluate Arguments, and Draw Conclusions - were collected using a structured observation rubric and analyzed using the Quade test, while Spearman's rank-order correlation examined the relationship between critical thinking and microteaching scores. Semi-structured interviews supplied qualitative data that were analyzed thematically. Results showed statistically significant and large-effect gains (Kendall's W between 0.48 and 0.54, p < .001) favouring the experimental group across all three RED Model dimensions, although the correlation between critical thinking and microteaching scores was weak and not statistically significant (rho = 0.097, p = 0.611). Thematic analysis, however, revealed that problem-based tasks fostered diagnostic thinking, strategic planning, and informed instructional decisions among participants. The paper concludes that problem-based learning, even when delivered as part of a blended instructional design, meaningfully strengthens preservice teachers' critical thinking and offers a scalable strategy for improving microteaching preparation.