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Improving Inquiry Questions to Foster Critical Thinking and Reflective Practice in a Journalism Capstone

Education researchers have long been interested in helping students develop effective inquiry questions to guide research projects. In this study, students in a journalism senior capstone used writing-studies informed practices such as middle-stakes, iterative writing prompts to enhance metacognition and critical thinking. Using prompts to guide students to periodically revise their inquiry questions and working thesis statements, students showed improvement in their written products as measured through holistic writing assessment measures. Despite measurable improvement, students’ thesis statements were still lackluster, suggesting that programs should develop connected curricula that sequentially scaffold research methods, critical thinking, and writing skills across the major.