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Volume 25, Issue 3 (Autumn 2023)
Advances in Cognitive Sciences 2023, 25(3): 141-158 |
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Research code: 140205244064
Ethics code: IR.UMSHA.REC. 1402.035
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Hoseini Ahangari S A, Naghdinejad A, Varnaseri A, Bagheryan H, Amiri M R. Investigating the think-aloud protocol as an educational and research approach: A systematic review. Advances in Cognitive Sciences 2023; 25 (3) :141-158
URL: http://icssjournal.ir/article-1-1603-en.html
URL: http://icssjournal.ir/article-1-1603-en.html
Seyed Abedin Hoseini Ahangari1 
, Athareh Naghdinejad2 , Ahmadreza Varnaseri2 , Hadis Bagheryan * 2, Mohammad Reza Amiri1
, Athareh Naghdinejad2 , Ahmadreza Varnaseri2 , Hadis Bagheryan * 2, Mohammad Reza Amiri1
1- Assistant Professor Department of Medical Librarianship & Information Science, Hamadan University of Medical Sciences, Hamadan, Iran
2- PhD Candidate of Information Science and Knowledge, Department of Information Science, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran
2- PhD Candidate of Information Science and Knowledge, Department of Information Science, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran
Abstract: (1706 Views)
Introduction
Language has long served as a tool for thought and communication, fulfilling our social needs. Understanding its role in cognitive functions presents significant implications, particularly in the realms of education and research. In the meantime, the Thinking Aloud Protocol is one of the methods used for a long time to collect data and find complete information in social science research, such as reading, writing, decision-making, and tracking activities. In its simplest form, the Think-Aloud Protocol reveals a person's thoughts while executing a task. This verbal reporting method is extensively employed in psychology and cognitive science to understand cognitive processes. Therefore, using this method and applying it in research and training of people, it is possible to find a better and more comprehensive understanding of the level of capability in doing cognitive, learning, and behavioral tasks. The Think-Aloud Protocol method is applicable to a wide range of people, and its application and use can be effective in decision-making and policy-making in the field of education and research by teachers, researchers, policymakers, and relevant officials.
Methods
This research is based on a qualitative approach conducted through a systematic review. The statistical population of the research is all the articles that have dealt with this issue in information sources. The data collection tool is also a checklist. The research involved a systematic review of peer-reviewed, published articles across both Persian and English databases, including ISC, Web of Science, Eric, Sid, Irandoc, and Magiran. This process was conducted in multiple phases, utilizing specific keywords. The study meticulously extracted and reported relevant findings and significant data, and then the Think-Aloud Protocol will be explained.. The second step is search for information sources. In this regard, the English keywords "Thinking-Aloud Protocol, verbal thinking, thinking aloud, verbalizing thinking TAP", and "Education and Research" using Boolean expressions and combinations and in foreign databases including Emerald, Google Scholar Science Direct, ProQuest, Web of Science, Eric, Scopus, were used. The third step is theselection of studies. Research articles, reviews, conferences, and parts of the book were selected regarding the educational and research aspects of thinking aloud. The fourth step isdata analysis. Data were combined using classification schemes. The fifth step isthe presentation of findings. The findings were presented in the form of tables. The sixth step is the interpretation of findings and conclusions.
Results
Seventeen themes emerged regarding the use of the Think-Aloud Protocol in education. These include:
Language has long served as a tool for thought and communication, fulfilling our social needs. Understanding its role in cognitive functions presents significant implications, particularly in the realms of education and research. In the meantime, the Thinking Aloud Protocol is one of the methods used for a long time to collect data and find complete information in social science research, such as reading, writing, decision-making, and tracking activities. In its simplest form, the Think-Aloud Protocol reveals a person's thoughts while executing a task. This verbal reporting method is extensively employed in psychology and cognitive science to understand cognitive processes. Therefore, using this method and applying it in research and training of people, it is possible to find a better and more comprehensive understanding of the level of capability in doing cognitive, learning, and behavioral tasks. The Think-Aloud Protocol method is applicable to a wide range of people, and its application and use can be effective in decision-making and policy-making in the field of education and research by teachers, researchers, policymakers, and relevant officials.
Methods
This research is based on a qualitative approach conducted through a systematic review. The statistical population of the research is all the articles that have dealt with this issue in information sources. The data collection tool is also a checklist. The research involved a systematic review of peer-reviewed, published articles across both Persian and English databases, including ISC, Web of Science, Eric, Sid, Irandoc, and Magiran. This process was conducted in multiple phases, utilizing specific keywords. The study meticulously extracted and reported relevant findings and significant data, and then the Think-Aloud Protocol will be explained.. The second step is search for information sources. In this regard, the English keywords "Thinking-Aloud Protocol, verbal thinking, thinking aloud, verbalizing thinking TAP", and "Education and Research" using Boolean expressions and combinations and in foreign databases including Emerald, Google Scholar Science Direct, ProQuest, Web of Science, Eric, Scopus, were used. The third step is theselection of studies. Research articles, reviews, conferences, and parts of the book were selected regarding the educational and research aspects of thinking aloud. The fourth step isdata analysis. Data were combined using classification schemes. The fifth step isthe presentation of findings. The findings were presented in the form of tables. The sixth step is the interpretation of findings and conclusions.
Results
Seventeen themes emerged regarding the use of the Think-Aloud Protocol in education. These include:
- Enhancing multitasking in writing, such as managing planning, drafting, and revising concurrently.
- Influencing one's knowledge base.
- Fostering the generation of novel ideas.
- Promoting deeper individual reflection and critical thinking.
- Supporting lesson planning and pedagogical strategies.
- Facilitating idea generation, review, and comprehension processes among learners.
- Assisting in information processing and decision-making for research participants.
- Improving material understanding and cognitive engagement.
- Increasing social interaction and promoting communicative exchanges among subjects.
- Demonstrating flexible and intentional cognitive processing by participants.
- Enriching classroom discussions
- Guiding problem-solving behaviors, leading to more effective solutions.
- Enhancing teaching methods.
- Monitoring student progress.
- Proving significance in educational outcomes.
- Encouraging participants to become reflective, metacognitive, and autonomous learners.
- Enabling participants to articulate what they find beneficial or not and to share their experiences with tried activities.
The Think-Aloud Protocol has 13 applications in research, which include:
- Supporting studies on cognitive processes and immediate participant reactions.
- Offering insights into decision-making and foundational reasoning in complex cognition.
- Creating frameworks for coding and analyzing cognitive and emotional processes.
- Enriching content analysis with detailed information.
- Providing a deeper understanding of cognitive processes, authorial reflections, and thoughts.
- Monitoring individual perspectives on specific subjects.
- Revealing participant cognitive processes during research progression.
- Serving as an effective method for precise and trustworthy data extraction in metacognitive studies of reading and mental strategies.
- Facilitating objective data analysis in research.
- Ensuring intermediate reliability in coding.
- Offering a glimpse into concealed activities and aiding inferences about subconscious events (e.g., prediction, visualization, connecting text to prior knowledge, comprehension monitoring, and addressing word recognition or understanding challenges).
- Supplying immediate, unfiltered data in research.
- Simplifying the application of the Think-Aloud Protocol and utilizing summarization to demonstrate text comprehension and semi-structured interviews to corroborate protocol findings and assist in retrospective analysis.
Also, the concepts of diagnostic tools to analyze the strengths and weaknesses of students in reading, showing rich information about how to perform mental activities that are not visible (activities such as how learners solve problems, the problems they face, and to what extent and in what contexts do they use specific strategies in a learning task) are concepts that point to the use of the think-aloud protocol in both teaching and research.
Conclusion
The Thinking-Aloud Protocol has features and applications that educational and research administrators can use to provide data about people's mental state and make the necessary planning and decisions based on it. Furthermore, since people in the world today are faced with a lot of information, transferring and organizing this information requires sufficient training and skill, which is an effective and efficient way to think aloud as a method of simultaneous verbal production in the processes of psychology and cognitive sciences. This approach has numerous applications in education and research. It fosters innovation and strategic thinking in students, laying the groundwork for academic advancement. Moreover, this method offers direct access to data. Since it does not interfere with an individual's mental processes, it yields a truthful account of their mental states and thoughts. This enables genuine and practical research, which is invaluable when researchers seek authentic and unfiltered data. The information gathered is a precise mirror of the subject's account, allowing for clear observation by the researcher. The Think-Aloud Protocol helps to increase the learners' capacity to solve problems, and they learn to be patient in their learning process and find solutions to their problems. In addition, one of the uses of the Think-Aloud Protocol in education, and a large number of researchers have pointed out this point, is that it enriches the classroom discourse. Read-aloud protocols are used as a data source for analysis, as well as a research tool. As a result, this method can be considered as one of the best methods for extracting sufficient and reliable data to study the invisible metacognitive awareness of readers and the use of mental strategy.
Ethical Considerations
Compliance with ethical guidelines
This research has fully observed ethical issues such as plagiarism, publication, or double submission. Ethics Committee Code: IR.UMSHA.REC.1402.035.
Authors' contributions
Athara Naghdinejad: Introduction and statement of the problem and theoretical foundations. Ahmadreza Varnaseri: Review the final project report, edit the text, and present the project report. Hadis Bagharian: Analysis and extraction of data and implementation of the plan. Seyed Abedin Hosseini Ahangari: Design idea, preliminary study, and initial design presentation. Mohammad Reza Amiri: Revision of the article.
Funding
This article is extracted from a research project approved by Hamadan University of Medical Sciences with code 140205244064.
Acknowledgments
The researchers of this article would like to thank the research group of the Journal of Advances in Cognitive Sciences, the reviewers, and others who sincerely helped us.
Conflicts of interest
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
Type of Study: Research |
Received: 2023/07/15 | Accepted: 2023/10/24 | Published: 2023/12/13
Received: 2023/07/15 | Accepted: 2023/10/24 | Published: 2023/12/13
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