Digital synergy in the face of the challenges of 21st-century education: collaborative learning and critical thinking

Castañeda Fuentes J.G. · Clio. Revista de Historia, Ciencias Humanas y Pensamiento Critico. (2026) · DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.16491232

Resumen

The impact of new technologies on educational processes has generated a significant debate, occupying a significant amount of intellectual output. There is fear of the homogenization of instructional processes in diverse environments, which jeopardizes the strengthening of a critical perspective that must be inherent to every pedagogical process. The objective of this research was to demonstrate that collaborative learning mediated by technologies favors the strengthening of critical thinking in students. The exploration was guided by a quantitative and quasi-experimental design, for which the Mann-Whitney U test was used. The result of the experimental group obtained a significant gain after the intervention compared to the control group (U = 0.000, p < 0.0001). This small P value indicates that the difference in scores is probably not due to chance, so the null hypothesis of no differences between groups was rejected. The mean range (22.5) was higher in the experimental group. In conclusion, this perspective on educational work mediated by the use of technology contributes to the creation of dynamic environments that strengthen cognitive skills through debate and interaction, which in turn constitutes a foundation for students' reflection, analysis, questioning, decision-making, and problem-solving.

Instituciones: Universidad César Vallejo