The relationship between critical thinking and the community of inquiry model: a quantitative study among EFL university students in China

This research seeks relationship between critical thinking and community of inquriy (CoI) model among EFL university students in Gansu province of China. Adopting probability sampling, questionnaire including 39 items is distributed to 542 EFL university students of thirteen universities in Gansu. CoI survey is selected to measure students' perception on three presences, while critical thinking is measured by the MSL. SEM is applied to determine and test the certain relationship. Results show that SP and TP influence CP positively. Also, the findings suggest that critical thinking is positive mediator of the relationship between SP and CP, between TP and CP. Specifically, EFL university students who perceive higher SP and TP with higher critical thinking level experience greater CP. In conclusion, this study highlights the significance upon critical thinking as a mechanism in community of inquriy framework.