scholarly journals Critical thinking, literature and teachers’ instructional activities: An Indonesian case of community service program for English teachers

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 138
Author(s):  
Isti Gandana ◽  
Nia Nafisah ◽  
Ernie Imperiani

Critical thinking (CT) has generally been known as one of the core competencies of the 21st-century skills that students need to acquire to succeed in today’s world. To attain this goal, teachers undoubtedly have a critical role to play. Involving a group of Indonesian teachers of English, this study aims to explore the teachers’ initial conceptions of critical thinking as reflected in their planned classroom activities. Specifically, the data collected were in the form of written instructional activities that  used literary works as learning materials. These data were obtained following the teachers’ participation in an online workshop on promoting critical thinking through literature  held for English teachers from MGMP (i.e., English Teachers Working Group) in Bandung Regency. The workshop introduced a model of teaching critical thinking skills using literary works  and required the teachers to design their own instructional activities based on the proposed CT model. Adopting content analysis as the methodological tool to scrutinize the teachers’ prepared materials,  our initial findings indicate that, in general, the teachers had inadequate knowledge of how to incorporate  critical thinking skills into their teaching. Literature was seen merely as a tool to develop students’ linguistic abilities rather than as a way to explore humans’ experiences and to connect ‘the word and the world’. This study recommends that the teachers be given more time to better explore the concepts surrounding  critical literacy  pedagogy  as well as be given more opportunities  for practical application of the promoted instructional model.

2014 ◽  
Vol 138 (6) ◽  
pp. 809-813
Author(s):  
Carolyn R. Vitek ◽  
Jane C. Dale ◽  
Henry A. Homburger ◽  
Sandra C. Bryant ◽  
Amy K. Saenger ◽  
...  

Context.— Systems-based practice (SBP) is 1 of 6 core competencies required in all resident training programs accredited by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education. Reliable methods of assessing resident competency in SBP have not been described in the medical literature. Objective.— To develop and validate an analytic grading rubric to assess pathology residents' analyses of SBP problems in clinical chemistry. Design.— Residents were assigned an SBP project based upon unmet clinical needs in the clinical chemistry laboratories. Using an iterative method, we created an analytic grading rubric based on critical thinking principles. Four faculty raters used the SBP project evaluation rubric to independently grade 11 residents' projects during their clinical chemistry rotations. Interrater reliability and Cronbach α were calculated to determine the reliability and validity of the rubric. Project mean scores and range were also assessed to determine whether the rubric differentiated resident critical thinking skills related to the SBP projects. Results.— Overall project scores ranged from 6.56 to 16.50 out of a possible 20 points. Cronbach α ranged from 0.91 to 0.96, indicating that the 4 rubric categories were internally consistent without significant overlap. Intraclass correlation coefficients ranged from 0.63 to 0.81, indicating moderate to strong interrater reliability. Conclusions.— We report development and statistical analysis of a novel SBP project evaluation rubric. The results indicate the rubric can be used to reliably assess pathology residents' critical thinking skills in SBP.


2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 677-696 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jelena Bobkina ◽  
Svetlana Stefanova

Drawing on the numerous benefits of integrating literature in the EFL classroom, the present paper argues that the analysis of a fictional work in the process of foreign language acquisition offers a unique opportunity for students to explore, interpret, and understand the world around them. The paper presents strong evidence in favour of reader-centered critical reading as a means of encouraging observation and active evaluation not only of linguistic items, but also of a variety of meanings and viewpoints. The authors propose a model of teaching critical thinking skills focused on the reader’s response to a literary work. The practical application of the method, which adopts the critical literacy approach as a tool, is illustrated through a series of activities based on the poem “If” by Rudyard Kipling.


2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 84-94
Author(s):  
H. Halimah

This paper presents experimental results about the use of the Critical Literacy Approach (CLA) in literary appreciation using Indonesian short stories. The purpose of the study is to find better teaching strategies to improve students’ critical thinking skills and critical awareness to comprehend the conditions of the world, including social relationships involving disproportionate power relations. This study uses the randomized pretest-posttest control group design (RPPCGD), which is a randomized design by giving pretest and posttest to the experimental group (CLA) and control group (expository). The effect of both teaching strategies is calculated through the difference between the pretest and posttest of both groups. This research involved 170 students in the Department of Indonesian Language and Literature Education of an education university in Indonesia. The results are presented in the form of analytical descriptions of paired samples test and paired samples correlations of each group. The results show that students who did a short story analysis with CLA had significantly increased critical thinking skills and critical awareness compared to students of expository strategy. The average posttest of the experimental group is 80.33, which is considerably higher than the control group, with an average of 76.13. The average increase in skills (posttest-pretest) of the experimental group is 38.71 points, and the control groups have an average increase of 31.19 points. Therefore, it is clear that the teaching of literary appreciation using Indonesian short stories with CLA is effective. The use of CLA strategies in increasing students’ critical thinking skills and critical awareness through literary appreciation of Indonesian short stories shows positive results. The results of this study can contribute to the field of learning design with new ideas to improve critical thinking skills and critical awareness of Indonesian students through effective short story analysis or fictional prose analysis.


Author(s):  
Zainab Salem Ahmad

This study aimed to investigate the relationships between teachers' knowledge, beliefs and activities about critical thinking. . The study followed the descriptive approach. This research was based on a questionnaire designed to investigate English teachers' points of view about critical thinking for primary and secondary schools in Qasabet Al Mafraq which is a city in the north of Jordan The population of the study is 280 female and male teachers distributed through 160 primary and secondary school. The study sample was randomly selected and it represents 46% of all English teachers in Qasbet Al Mafraq. They are 40 male and 88 female teachers during the second semester 2018/2019. The results of the study indicate that most of the teachers know the higher and lower –order of critical thinking skills. Also, they are inclined to use the critical thinking strategy to achieve certain outcomes in the curriculum. According to the teachers' beliefs, they think critical thinking is an important and effective strategy for problem solving and decision making. On one hand, there is a positive correlation between teacher's knowledge, teachers' belief and critical thinking activitie such as role- playing, asking questions, problem- solving, conceptual maps, debate and game playing. But on the other hand, there are no statistically significant differences at (a= 0.05) due to the variables of gender, experience, number of students, and the stage they are teaching. The researcher recommends that more research should be done on the effect of critical thinking on the four skills reading, writing, speaking and listening.


Author(s):  
Şenol Orakcı ◽  
Mehmet Durnali ◽  
Osman Aktan

The aim of the chapter is to provide both theoretical and practical ideas about critical thinking development within English language teaching contexts. Encouraging language learners to be critical thinkers is important in teaching English as a foreign language. However, achieving the goal remains a challenge. Using various strategies together seem to be effective when properly implemented. Therefore this chapter outlines these strategies which include communicative language tasks, using authentic meaningful texts, using critical literacy, being aware of whole-brain learning, adopting a reflective teaching, enabling students to become autonomous, using explicit instruction, teacher questioning, using active and cooperative learning strategies, using literature in English classes, using creative drama, and adopting self-assessment. Teachers can enable learners to have critical thinking skills and more efficient English lessons by combining these strategies in a new way or by designing critical thinking activities in the classroom.


Author(s):  
Shopyan Jepri Kurniawan ◽  
Fuad Aminur Rahman

<em>The purpose of this paper is as a reference especially for guidance and counseling teachers in improving students' critical thinking competencies in school. Critical thinking is one of the competencies that must be mastered by students in the current era of disruption, in line with other competencies, such as creativity, communication and collaboration (Kemdikbud, 2016). Surely, this has become a challenge for guidance and counseling teachers in the current era of disruption. Therefore, here we offer an idea for BK teachers in schools, especially in improving students' critical thinking competencies, through implementing deep dialogue / critical thingking in guidance and counseling services in the disruption era, namely an activity of guidance and counseling services that carried out by operating intellectual potential possessed by students to be able to analyze things, make judgments, and make the decisions correctly and carried it out correctly. Moreovere, it can be realized in interpersonal relationships, mutual openness, honesty and also rely on kindness. The data collection method carried out in this writing is through literature studies. Literature studies are conducted to strengthen the problems and solutions that will be raised in this paper. So hopefully that the existence of this writing can be an alternative or a solution for guidance and counseling teachers in improving students' critical thinking skills in the era of disruption.</em>


Nursing Open ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 581-588
Author(s):  
Christian Makafui Boso ◽  
Anita S. van der Merwe ◽  
Janet Gross

2020 ◽  
Vol 27 (91) ◽  
pp. 2-26
Author(s):  
Gabrielle G. McClure-Nelson

In the overly constrained space of the federal audit environment, to what extent can critical thinking skills be applied in a profession characterized by arduous public trust expectations, controlling auditing standards, prescriptive federal acquisition policies, frequently changing guidance, continual peer oversight, and the slow implementation of audit findings? Promoting the increased use of private sector auditors may suggest that federal auditors perceive competencies differently. However, a recent survey administered to 645 auditors of a federal audit agency region indicated that the majority of the core competencies identified by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants are perceived as relevant in auditing government contractors. However, of concern, the data were mixed in support of critical thinking as an important competency. Given employer preference for skills in this area, the author attempts to identify applications to increase auditor critical thinking skills and to offer suggestions for increasing the relevance of the federal audit.


Author(s):  
Şenol Orakcı ◽  
Mehmet Durnali ◽  
Osman Aktan

The aim of the chapter is to provide both theoretical and practical ideas about critical thinking development within English language teaching contexts. Encouraging language learners to be critical thinkers is important in teaching English as a foreign language. However, achieving the goal remains a challenge. Using various strategies together seem to be effective when properly implemented. Therefore this chapter outlines these strategies which include communicative language tasks, using authentic meaningful texts, using critical literacy, being aware of whole-brain learning, adopting a reflective teaching, enabling students to become autonomous, using explicit instruction, teacher questioning, using active and cooperative learning strategies, using literature in English classes, using creative drama, and adopting self-assessment. Teachers can enable learners to have critical thinking skills and more efficient English lessons by combining these strategies in a new way or by designing critical thinking activities in the classroom.


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