scholarly journals Students' Perception on the Use of Digital Mind Map to Stimulate Creativity and Critical Thinking in ESL Writing Course

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (12A) ◽  
pp. 7596-7606
Author(s):  
Rafidah Abd Karim ◽  
Ramlee Mustapha
Keyword(s):  
Critical Thinking ◽  
Esl Writing ◽  
Writing Course

scholarly journals Critical Thinking and Debiasing: Experimentation in an Academic Writing Course

2020 ◽  
Vol 2019 (1) ◽  
pp. 443
Author(s):  
Guy Smith ◽  
John Peloghitis
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Critical Thinking ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
Cognitive Biases ◽  
Judgment And Decision Making ◽  
Classroom Teaching ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Fields Of Study ◽  
Writing Course ◽  
And Training

In the last two decades, interest in cognitive biases has rapidly grown across various fields of study. The research so far has shown that cognitive biases have significant and sometimes adverse effects on decision making. Thus, it is increasingly being argued that classroom teaching of critical thinking needs to include instruction and training that help students understand cognitive biases and reduce their negative effects on judgment and decision making. Teaching students to be aware of biases and to develop and maintain strategies to reduce their influence is known as debiasing. The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of cognitive biases and a framework for debiasing proposed by Wilson and Brekke (1994). Two approaches, modifying the person and modifying the environment, are discussed to help teachers introduce activities and strategies to mitigate biases. 認知バイアスへの関心は、この20年で様々な領域で急激に高まってきた。認知バイアスが、意思決定に対し有意な影響、時には逆効果を及ぼすことが、これまでの研究で明らかになった。そのため、教室で批判的思考を教える場合も、学生の認知バイアスへの理解に役立ち、認知バイアスが判断力や意思決定に対して及ぼす、時には有害な影響を弱める思考法を教える練習ないし訓練を組み込む必要があるのではないだろうか。学生がバイアスを認識し、その影響を払拭ないし弱める思考法を身につけてそれを維持するよう教えることは、デバイアスという名称で知られている。本稿では、認知バイアスとWilson and Brekke (1994) が提案するデバイアスのプロセスを概観する。教師がバイアスを和らげるための活動と戦略を紹介できるように、人間を修正し、環境を修正するという二つの取り組みについても検討する。

scholarly journals Reflective Writing on an ESL Writing Course

2021 ◽  
pp. 38-56
Author(s):  
Anna Wärnsby ◽  
Asko Kauppinen ◽  
Damian Finnegan
Keyword(s):  
Curriculum Design ◽  
Education Programme ◽  
Reflective Writing ◽  
Assessment Practices ◽  
Esl Writing ◽  
Course Content ◽  
Complex Relation ◽  
Vernacular Language ◽  
Course Grades ◽  
Writing Course

Research shows that student reflective writing is a valuable window into student learning, particularly student metacognition; however, our knowledge of the challenges of accessing metacognition to inform curriculum design and assessment practices in the ESL (English as a Second Language) context is less robust. This paper reports two qualitative studies of student reflective writing on an ESL writing course within a teacher education programme. The studies investigate how student metacognition manifests itself in reflective papers and how mapping student metacognition can inform evidence-based curriculum design and assessment. The data comes from several iterations of an ESL writing course and is analysed using directed and conventional content analyses. Our results expose a complex relation between metacognition, curriculum design and assessment practices: 1) unless scaffolded by the curriculum design to use precise terminology, students resort to expressing their understanding of the course content in terms of everyday, vernacular language and 2) student reflective writing not only provides a more nuanced picture of their learning than the final course grades but is invaluable for developing scaffolding and assessment practices. Based on our results, we recommend integrating structured reflection as part of the regular curricula to gauge ESL student metacognition and monitor more precisely their uptake of course content.

scholarly journals Learner Agency, Motive, and Self-Regulated Learning in an Online ESL Writing Class

2013 ◽  
Vol 43 (2) ◽  
pp. 57-81 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jie Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Online Learning ◽  
Learning Experience ◽  
Self Regulation ◽  
Online Environment ◽  
Esl Writing ◽  
Writing Classes ◽  
Self Regulated Learning ◽  
Writing Class ◽  
Writing Course ◽  
Learner Agency

Online learning has become a viable popular alternative to traditionalESL writing classes over the past decade. However, the effectivenessand validity of online ESL learning remains controversial.Furthermore, most researchers have used surveys to assess studentperceptions of online learning. This study presents a case study of twoparticipants in an online ESL writing course at a university in theNortheastern United States. Using activity theory as a framework, Iexplore what makes a successful learner in an online environment andhow learner agency, motive, and self-regulation impact studentperformance and academic achievement in the online learning context.Data from different sources were collected to provide a triangulatedanalysis. Results suggest that learners who employ good self-regulationstrategies and are motivated to learn and adapt tend to benefit morefrom the online learning experience, while students who do not employsuch strategies and are motivated solely to fulfill a degree requirementare more likely to be frustrated. The results also reveal that thephysical distance created by technology could be a challenge for thosewho do not seek assistance from instructors or peers. In other words,learners need guidance and support on how to be self-motivated andself-directed in the online environment. I also discuss how to effectivelydesign and deliver an online ESL course.

scholarly journals Critical Thinking in University through a Curriculum-wide Reading and Writing Project

2021 ◽  
pp. 195-236
Author(s):  
James Dunn ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Critical Thinking ◽  
Thinking Skills ◽  
Critical Thinking Skills ◽  
Logical Thinking ◽  
Academic English ◽  
Ministry Of Education ◽  
Reading And Writing ◽  
Writing Project ◽  
Writing Course ◽  
Logical Fallacies

Critical thinking has gained popularity in the English as a foreign language (EFL) educational arena of late in Japan due to the Ministry of Education (MEXT) updating its requirements of English education to include logical thinking. This has caused the need for educators in Japan to quickly adapt to the inclusion of logical thinking, and by extension, critical thinking in their curriculum (MEXT, 2011) from 2013. Even though MEXT has required critical thinking to be included in the classroom, it seems very little has been done to include true critical thinking into textbooks and institutions’ curriculum designs. One crucial component of the language teaching curriculum is the ability to think rationally, objectively, and deeply about a topic, or in other words, to think critically. Critical thinking has been shown to foster students’ abilities to analyze, evaluate, and judge the value of the information presented to them both inside, and outside, the classroom (Lund, 2016). Critical thinking also helps students to make their own decisions related to their academic, and future employment, success (Nold, 2017). In a university-level reading and writing course in Japan, for example, students must create manuscripts at beginner to advanced levels that somewhat adhere to the expectations of academic English communities (Fang & Schleppegrell, 2010) when it comes to topic development and utilizing source information. In order to reflect on, and thereby judge the veracity of, the information presented to them either by their textbook in the classroom or by external sources, critical thinking skills allow students to deconstruct, reflect upon, and assign value to information sources. This also allows them to construct their own content on two levels, one, projecting their creativity as independent thinkers, and two, linguistically as writers who can think about a topic more deeply. The purpose of this paper is to share the planning, design, and implementation of a critical thinking reading and writing project which was introduced into the second-year EFL reading and writing focused courses at Tokai University from the spring and fall semesters of 2019. The reading and writing course, named Academic English (AE), was split into three levels depending upon the students’ performance in their first-year English courses. Each level of the AE course had a project book that was individualized for their corresponding textbook and level. The project’s focus, for all levels, was to develop critical thinking skills through the introduction of reflective thinking, logical fallacies, and research skills. At the end of the project, students were asked to apply their critical thinking skills to their textbook and research the veracity of the information presented to them in one of their required readings during the course. The overall reception of the project by the students was positive and results of a post-project questionnaire showed that students felt they had gained some mastery over critical thinking on subjects both in the classroom and in their lives. The project has seen success in allowing students to become learners who are more independent in their thinking, more critical in their reception to information provided to them, and better writers who are able to think on a topic more deeply and logically.

scholarly journals A Joint Construction Practice in an Academic Writing Course in an Indonesian University Context

2017 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 27
Author(s):  
Aunurrahman Aunurrahman ◽  
Fuad Abdul Hamied ◽  
Emi Emilia
Keyword(s):  
Critical Thinking ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
Group Discussion ◽  
High Achievers ◽  
Online Review ◽  
Joint Construction ◽  
Writing Course ◽  
Explicit Teaching ◽  
Review Sessions ◽  
Construction Practice

This research aims to explore the students’ writing and critical thinking capacity in a joint construction practice in an academic writing course. The course applied a genre-based approach in teaching academic writing and critical thinking to first-year English as a Foreign Language students of a private university in Pontianak, West Kalimantan, Indonesia. A combination of explicit teaching, group discussion, and online review sessions was employed in the joint construction practice for three meetings. The source for the data collection was a jointly constructed text. The text was selected from thirty-six students who worked in groups. Every group consisted of low achievers, medium achievers, and high achievers in writing. The text was analyzed using functional grammar. The analysis shows that the students had gained a good control of the exposition genre with its linguistic features. Thematic progression and logical connectors at the text level and circumstances (adverbs) at the clause level had realized critical thinking skills and dispositions. Several grammatical mistakes and improper lexical choices were identified but did not interfere with the purpose of the text. The findings suggest that having more classroom meetings will make explicit teaching and group discussion work effectively before the students begin to write independently. Moreover, online review sessions can support the students' learning but with limitations.

scholarly journals Genre-Based Aproach in L2 Writing Classroom

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nur Rasyidah
Keyword(s):  
Genre Theory ◽  
Writing Classroom ◽  
Esl Writing ◽  
Holistic Understanding ◽  
Writing Course ◽  
Conceptual Paper ◽  
Similarities And Differences ◽  
Genre Writing ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Food Writing

This conceptual paper is aimed at examining the application of genre theory to an L2 classroom in a local university in Malaysia in the learning of specialized vocabulary in a food writing course. All three types of genre theory will be discussed, namely literary, rhetoric and linguistic genre theory to give a holistic understanding of genre. This will allow the coverage of both similarities and differences through all disciplines, and subsequently inform the richness of these theories, how it can be applied, and the significance of using these genre theories in the ESL writing classroom. This paper will also discuss the relationship between genre approach and genre writing and its application in the food writing classroom.

scholarly journals Importance and development of Critical Thinking in BA Academic Writing Course

enadakultura ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ketevan Gochitashvili ◽  
Giuli Sha bashvili
Keyword(s):  
Critical Thinking ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
Relevant Information ◽  
Thinking Skills ◽  
Critical Thinking Skills ◽  
Main Research ◽  
Professional Career ◽  
Writing Course ◽  
Specific Activities ◽  
Secondary Information

Critical thinking is a complex phenomenon, that helps the learner to separate relevant information from irrelevant and unnecessary information, to evaluate and explain events and facts, to formulate a clear argument objectively, to deliver the right message to the target audience, and to find ways to solve the problem. Critical thinking is directly related to the teaching of academic writing and is a transferable skill that helps students both to complete other university courses successfully and to build a further professional career. The aim of the paper is to identify the challenges and problems faced by both instructors and students at the university level in Georgia in terms of developing critical thinking skills while teaching/learning an academic writing course. Moreover, the paper presents specific activities to solve the given problems. The paper offers teachers the basic strategies and techniques that can be used to achieve the goals set out in the curriculum. The following research methods are applied: questionnaires and classroom observation.The following factors can be named as limitations of the research: relatively small number of students; The study was conducted for only one semester.The analysis of the questionnaires revealed the following issues related to critical thinking and writing for the students: lack of ability to formulate an objective critical opinion, reliability of sources, formulation of main research questions and hypotheses, generalization, separation of main and secondary information, focus on key issues and formulation of logical coherent conclusions.The paper suggests specific activities and questions for the development of critical thinking that are needed to process a text or information.The use of these approaches and methods should be implemented at different levels of the course. The teacher in advance should design and plan activities that will be used during the class. Critical thinking development activities should be combined with all the assignments and activities covering all the topics of the course. In the process of searching the proper materials, the student should master the techniques of working on sources, the criteria for determining the reliability and relevance of sources. In addition, the student should be able to process a significant amount of materials, merge main and secondary information, paraphrase the information, and integrate it into their own text in accordance with academic standards. As a result, the student should be able to evaluate the material retrieved and present and argue their own position.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document