scholarly journals The Effectiveness of Teaching Critical Thinking Skills through Literature in EFL Context: A Case Study in Spain

2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (6) ◽  
pp. 252 ◽  
Author(s):  
Svetlana Stefanova ◽  
Jelena Bobkina ◽  
Francisco Javier Sánchez-Verdejo Pérez
Keyword(s):  
Critical Thinking ◽  
Critical Literacy ◽  
Social Issues ◽  
Thinking Skills ◽  
Teacher Assessment ◽  
Critical Thinking Skills ◽  
Literary Texts ◽  
Intercultural Awareness ◽  
Self Reflection ◽  
Critical Skills

The present study investigates the effectiveness of teaching critical thinking skills through literary texts in the EFL classroom, based on the combination of reader-centered critical reading and critical literacy pedagogy. Our proposal seeks to address both language teaching and literacy education from a transnational perspective by dealing with critical thinking skills as a set of processes whose main aspects include the interpretation of the world, self-reflection, intercultural awareness, critical awareness, problem-solving, and language use. For the purpose of this study, a series of activities based on Caryl Phillips’s novel The Lost Child (2015) have been designed, following the four curricular components of Multiliteracies pedagogy (Kalantzis & Cope, 2000). Conducted in an EFL classroom in Spain, the study aims to validate the model of teaching critical skills built on working with current social issues, such as immigration, discrimination, and bullying. To evaluate the effectiveness of the model, teacher assessment and self-assessment questionnaires have been completed by the teacher and the students, respectively. A close analysis of the results reveals that both students and their teacher perceive the model as highly effective, in particular, in terms of self-reflection. Additionally, intrinsically motivating activities and frequent opportunities to discuss literary texts and relate them to current issues have proved to be highly beneficial for the students, providing them with a broader perspective that helps them interpret real-world problems properly. The assessment grid has proved effective, although for a wider application of the grid, the descriptors might have to be adapted to the students’ age.   

scholarly journals Enhancing Learning Through Reflection– A Case Study of SEEU

SEEU Review ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 53-68 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brikena Xhaferi ◽  
Gezim Xhaferi
Keyword(s):  
Critical Thinking ◽  
Learning Strategies ◽  
Thinking Skills ◽  
Careful Consideration ◽  
Critical Thinking Skills ◽  
Good Tool ◽  
Self Reflection ◽  
Positive Attitudes ◽  
Study Results ◽  
The Impact

Abstract Learning through reflection is one of the most interesting experiences that students might have. It is considered a very good tool for self-assessing learning. It is believed that “teachers who promote reflective classrooms ensure that students are fully engaged in the process of making meaning” (Costa and Kallick, 2008, para.5). Dewey (1991) was among the first researchers who based his work and research on the positive roles that reflection plays in fostering self-reflection and critical thinking. He has defined it as an active, persistent and careful consideration of any belief. Reflections give students opportunities to think and reflect about their learning and note down the obstacles they might face during this process. The present study aims to investigate the impact of journal writing in promoting critical-thinking skills, and its impact on enhancing learning. The study uses two instruments, a student refection journal and an interview. Also, Marzano’s New Taxonomy of Educational Objectives developed in 2000 was used in the third phase of the study. This Taxonomy contains Three Systems: the Self-system, the Metacognitive system and the Cognitive system. The overall study results show that reflection journals help students to become more independent learners, reflect on their learning experiences and identify the most useful learning strategies. Most importantly, all study participants hold positive attitudes towards reflection and they consider it as a valuable tool which can increase learning.

scholarly journals Literature and critical literacy pedagogy in the EFL classroom: Towards a model of teaching critical thinking skills

2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 677-696 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jelena Bobkina ◽  
Svetlana Stefanova
Keyword(s):  
Critical Thinking ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Critical Literacy ◽  
Literary Work ◽  
Thinking Skills ◽  
Critical Thinking Skills ◽  
Rudyard Kipling ◽  
Practical Application ◽  
Foreign Language Acquisition ◽  
Critical Literacy Pedagogy

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.

scholarly journals Critical Literacy Approach in the teaching of literary appreciation using Indonesian short stories

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 84-94
Author(s):  
H. Halimah
Keyword(s):  
Short Stories ◽  
Critical Thinking ◽  
Critical Literacy ◽  
Short Story ◽  
Thinking Skills ◽  
Critical Thinking Skills ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Critical Awareness ◽  
Paired Samples ◽  
Experimental Group

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.

scholarly journals Alternativas para reflexionar aspectos críticos de la ciencia en el aula-Alternatives to Reflect on Critical Aspects of Science in the Classroom

2015 ◽  
Vol 2 (22) ◽  
pp. 31
Author(s):  
Jordi Solbes-Matarredona ◽  
Nidia Yaneth Torres-Merchán
Keyword(s):  
Critical Thinking ◽  
Teacher Training ◽  
University Students ◽  
Social Issues ◽  
Thinking Skills ◽  
Critical Thinking Skills ◽  
Teacher Training Students ◽  
Critical Aspects ◽  
Formación Docente ◽  
Estudiantes Universitarios

Este artículo forma parte de una investigación sobre el uso de cuestiones socio-científicas a fin de promover las competencias para el pensamiento crítico en estudiantes universitarios. La primera parte presenta las apreciaciones de un grupo de estudiantes en formación docente acerca de la criticidad de la ciencia y lo que entienden por ciencia crítica. También, se presenta y se discute sobre las experiencias de algunos investigadores perseguidos debido a sus contribuciones científicas, ya que tuvieron implicaciones sociales, o cuestiones sociocientíficas.Alternatives to Reflect on Critical Aspects of Science in the ClassroomThis paper is part of a research about the use of scientific-social issues to promote critical thinking skills in university students. The first part presents the considerations of a group of teacher training students about the criticality of science and what they understand about critical science. It also presents and discusses the experiences of some researchers who were persecuted because of their scientific contributions with social implications or scientific social issues.Alternativas para refletir aspectos críticos da ciência na sala de aulaEste artigo é parte de uma investigação sobre o uso de questões sociais científicos, para promover habilidades de pensamento crítico dos estudantes da universidade. A primeira parte apresenta os motivos que levaram um grupo de estudantes de formação de professores sobre a criticidade da ciência e o que eles querem dizer com uma ciência crítica. Ele também apresenta e discute alguns investigadores perseguidos por suas contribuições científicas para implicações sociais ou questões sociais científicos. 

Don’t Believe Everything About Science Online: Revisiting the Fake Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus in an Introductory Biology College Course

2021 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 159-163
Author(s):  
Shem Unger ◽  
◽  
Mark Rollins ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Critical Thinking ◽  
Academic Success ◽  
Pacific Northwest ◽  
Thinking Skills ◽  
Critical Thinking Skills ◽  
Online Media ◽  
Online Information ◽  
Introductory Biology ◽  
College Course ◽  
Critical Skills

Evaluating the veracity and reliability of online media in science is an integral part of developing critical skills in science. Moreover, the 1st year biology courses should provide an avenue for students to acquire these skills for academic success. This study evaluated whether students (n = 90) exposed to an apparently credible website were able to distinguish whether a species existed as part of two short online activities. Surprisingly, a high number of students did not question the species in the initial activity and assumed it was real. However, most as part of the second assessment did report it was false. Some students failed to recognize the species as fake and thought the species was real even after watching a parody or satirical video on YouTube. All students agreed that critical thinking in science was important and the majority of students gave positive feedback on the activity. Potential explanations for students’ inability to adequately assess information included students completing the assignment quickly and lack of further research. This kind of activity is recommended to expose the 1st year biology majors to critical thinking skills and accurate assessment of online information in science.

Fostering Critical Thinking Using Instructional Strategies in English Classes

2019 ◽  
pp. 299-316
Author(s):  
Şenol Orakcı ◽  
Mehmet Durnali ◽  
Osman Aktan
Keyword(s):  
Critical Thinking ◽  
Learning Strategies ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Critical Literacy ◽  
English Language ◽  
Thinking Skills ◽  
Critical Thinking Skills ◽  
English Language Teaching ◽  
Self Assessment ◽  
English Classes

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.

scholarly journals BUILDING CRITICAL THINKING SKILLS THROUGH LITERARY TEXTS IN EFL CLASSES

2021 ◽  
pp. 13-23
Author(s):  
Viktoriia Osidak ◽  
Nataliia Nesterenko
Keyword(s):  
Critical Thinking ◽  
Secondary Schools ◽  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Personal Growth ◽  
Cognitive Learning ◽  
Thinking Skills ◽  
Literary Text ◽  
Critical Thinking Skills ◽  
Literary Texts ◽  
Practical Implementation

Background: The chapter argues that building critical thinking skills and enhancing students’ cognitive processes has become a primary goal of teaching in secondary schools. It is generally agreed that the relationship between learning and reading literature has always been very close. Also, literature is widely recognised as an effective, motivating and enjoyable facilitator for work on critical thinking skills through challenging students’ cognitive processes by means of comparing and contrasting of and differentiating between the specific events of the plot, analysing main characters, interpreting the meaning created by the author’s choice of words etc. For these reasons this chapter investigates the efficacy of literary texts in building critical thinking skills in secondary schools. Purpose: The main focus of the chapter was on designing effective and feasible critical thinking model of teaching instruction that incorporates literary text in EFL classroom to stimulate students’ cognitive processes. Results: Many methods have been suggested to teaching reading literary texts. For the purpose of this study the authors adopted personal growth model developed by Lindsay Clanfield. The model draws heavily on learners’ involvement in reading with the aim of explaining the implied message of the literary text through employing crucial critical thinking skills such as problem solving, decision making, interpretation, logical reasoning, and metacognition. The critical thinking model consists of the three stages defined as “challenge – comprehension – reflection”. Each of the defined stages focuses on utilising some of the six levels of Bloom’s taxonomy of cognitive learning objectives through activities that promote these cognitive processes. For example, to complete activities of the ‘challenge’ stage students rely heavily on their knowledge; cognitive levels of comprehension, application and synthesis are essential at the ‘comprehension’ stage; finally, at the ‘reflection’ stage students are involved in evaluation ideas of moral and social aspects discussed in the text and appraising of their acquired experience. Drawing on this conclusion, the article presents a practical implementation of the model with the focus on cognitive processes and development of critical thinking skills in teaching English through literary texts. Discussion: In further research, it is necessary to experimentally verify the effectiveness of the critical thinking model in building critical thinking skills through literary texts in EFL classes.

scholarly journals INDONESIAN STUDENT TEACHERS’ CRITICAL THINKING SKILLS IN TEXT ANALYSIS WITH CDA APPROACH

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 424-431
Author(s):  
Dwijani Ratnadewi ◽  
Sofi Yunianti
Keyword(s):  
Critical Thinking ◽  
Student Teachers ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Text Analysis ◽  
Thinking Skills ◽  
Critical Thinking Skills ◽  
Communication Analysis ◽  
Critical Skills ◽  
Political Speeches ◽  
The Impact

Purpose of Study: The present study investigated the impact of critical discourse analysis (CDA) on Indonesian students teachers’ critical thinking skills in their final projects. Methodology: The study analyzed four final projects of student teachers text analysis. It was a qualitative meta-study applying four stages of Brengtsson'scontent analysis. These student teachers analyzed the world leaders’ political speeches and lawyers’ arguments in court using the CDA approach. Results: The result of the analysis indicated that 58.3% of the students got the Proficient Level achievement, spreading from the critical skills of communication, analysis (interpretation) and synthesis. Implications/Applications: The result illustrates that text analysis with CDA devices positively influenced the student teachers’ critical thinking skills. Meanwhile, 75% of them were at low achievement, at the Emergent level, for Reflection (Self-regulating) skills, due to the fact that these students were not accustomed to observing their own analysis.

scholarly journals THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE PROBLEM-BASED LEARNING METHOD TO ENHANCE GRADE 7 STUDENTS’ CRITICAL THINKING SKILLS IN LEARNING MATHEMATICS AT SMP HOLLAND VILLAGE MANADO

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 108
Author(s):  
Ryan Oktapratama ◽  
Imanuel Adhitya Wulanata Chrismastianto ◽  
Dylmoon Hidayat
Keyword(s):  
Critical Thinking ◽  
Junior High School ◽  
Problem Based Learning ◽  
Thinking Skills ◽  
Critical Thinking Skills ◽  
Research Subjects ◽  
Learning Mathematics ◽  
Critical Skills ◽  
Post Test ◽  
Data Analysis Result

<p class="abstrak">Critical thinking is one of the most important issues in education. However, based on field observation results it is found that students have low critical thinking skills. One reason is that learning activities in the classroom do not foster students’ critical thinking skills. The purpose of this research study to enhance students’ critical skills by implementing the <em>Problem-based Learning </em>(PBL) method. The research subjects were 29 grade 7 students in a junior high school in Manado. The research method used was Classroom Action Research (CAR), conducted from September 12 to November 3, 2017. The instruments used were diagnostic tests, pre-tests and post-tests, observation sheets, student interviews, checklists by observers and students, and the researcher’s reflection journal. Data results were analyzed using the descriptive qualitative method. The results showed that the implementation of the PBL method was able to enhance students’ critical thinking skills in learning math with the achievement percentage of students who passed the KKM for pre-test and post-test based on the overall data analysis result from cycle one to two showing an enhancement of 22% on the first indicator, 9% on the third indicator, and 2% on the fourth indicator. The second indicator showed no enhancement amd there was a decrease of 8% on the fifth indicator. Therefore, the PBL method is effective in enhancing students’ critical thinking skills through each stage of the method in the learning process.</p><p class="abstrak"><strong>BAHASA INDONESIA ABSTRACT: </strong>Kemampuan berpikir kritis adalah salah satu hal terpenting dalam dunia pendidikan. Namun, berdasarkan observasi di lapangan ditemukan bahwa siswa memiliki keterampilan berpikir kritis yang rendah. Salah satu penyebabnya adalah aktivitas pembelajaran di kelas tidak melatih keterampilan berpikir kritis siswa. Adapun tujuan dari penelitian ini untuk meningkatkan keterampilan berpikir kritis siswa menggunakan metode <em>Problem-based Learning </em>(PBL). Subyek penelitian adalah 29 siswa kelas VII di suatu SMP di Manado. Metode penelitian yang digunakan adalah Penelitian Tindakan Kelas (PTK), dilakukan dari September sampai dengan November 2017. Instrumen yang digunakan adalah <em>diagnostic test</em>, <em>pre-test</em> dan <em>post-test</em>, lembar observasi, wawancara siswa, <em>checklist</em>oleh pengamat dan siswa, dan jurnal refleksi peneliti. Analisis data hasil penelitian menggunakan metode deskriptif kualitatif. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa penerapan metode PBL mampu meningkatkan keterampilan berpikir kritis siswa dalam pembelajaran matematika dengan peningkatan indikator satu sebesar 22%, indikator tiga sebesar 9%, dan indikator empat sebesar 2%. Adapun untuk indikator dua tidak mengalami peningkatan dan indikator lima mengalami penurunan sebesar 8%. Dengan demikian, metode PBL terbukti efektif meningkatkan keterampilan berpikir kritis siswa melalui setiap tahapan metode dalam proses pembelajaran.</p><div><hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" /></div>

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document