The Roles of Critical Thinking and Cognitive Load in the Association Between Digital and Perceived Argumentative Writing Readiness Among Indonesian High School Students

Abstract Background The increasing emphasis on digital-age competencies in secondary education further supports the notion that students' digital literacy statistically predicts argumentative writing skills. However, it is unclear whether digital literacy directly shapes writing readiness or does so through cognitive mechanisms such as critical thinking and cognitive load, particularly among high school students in Global South countries. Objective This study examines a moderated-mediation model of self-reported argumentative writing readiness, in which critical thinking mediates the relationship between digital literacy and students’ self-reported readiness to write argumentative texts among high school students in Indonesia, while cognitive load is tested as a boundary condition that moderates the strength of the critical thinking to writing readiness relationship. Methods This study applied a cross-sectional survey design with a purposive sample of 513 high school students from 12 districts/cities in South Sulawesi, Indonesia. Data analysis was carried out using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) with bootstrapping, with a significance threshold of 0.05. Results The results showed that digital literacy played a significant role in predicting critical thinking (β = 0.736; p < 0.001), and, in turn, critical thinking significantly predicted argumentative writing readiness (β = 0.656; p < 0.001). The indirect pathway from digital literacy to writing readiness via critical thinking was also significant (β = 0.482; p < 0.001). In contrast, cognitive load did not show a significant relationship with writing readiness (β = − 0.031; p = 0.579), even though it was positively predicted by both digital literacy and critical thinking. Conclusion These findings suggest that critical thinking is the main mechanism that fully mediates the relationship between digital literacy and argumentative writing readiness, and interestingly, this mechanism actually strengthens, not weakens, when the cognitive load is at a higher level. weakens, when the cognitive load is at a higher level. Implicitly, digital skill training alone is not enough to improve students’ writing readiness, unless accompanied by explicit critical thinking instruction. On the other hand, cognitively demanding writing tasks do not always need to be minimized, as long as students have critical thinking skills that let them turn that cognitive engagement into productive reasoning.