Examining the relation of open thinking, critical thinking, metacognitive skills and usage frequency of open educational resources among high school students

The acquisition of cognitive, metacognitive, and noncognitive skills is essential for high school students, fostering academic success and personal and lifelonggrowth. Utilization of Open Educational Resources (OER) emerges as critical factor that can significantly influence these skills. Previous studies have examined the effect of OER use in enhancing students' cognitive abilities (e.g., critical thinking), metacognitive skills (e.g., self-regulated learning), or noncognitive skills (e.g., open thinking) in a separate manner but failed to explain the dynamic relationship between OER, cognitive, metacognitive and noncognitive skills. This study investigated the relationship between the three skills and how using OER as a supplement material besides textbooks can predict those skills among high school students. To address those issues, 612 Egyptian high school students completed a survey on their frequency of using OER and their skills (critical thinking as cognitive skills, metacognitive skills, and open thinking as noncognitive skills). Findings from Structural Equation modeling analysis indicated that the utilization of OER had a positive relationship with cognitive and metacognitive skills. No direct relationship was found between OER and noncognitive skills; however, the relationship between OER and noncognitive skills was fully mediated by cognitive and metacognitive skills. This explained that when students engaged with OER, they experienced a positive enhancement in their critical thinking ability and metacognition,which directly contributes to their open thinking. This study supports the role of OER in high schools to understand the relationship between OER and their skills. Educators need to design curricula that allow students to use OER to develop their critical thinking and metacognition, leading them to be open thinkers. Future experimental studies are needed to measure the actual use of OER on students' skills.