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

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.

Xenophon of Athens

Xenophon of Athens (c. 430–354 BCE) has long been considered an uncritical admirer of Sparta who hero-worships the Spartan King Agesilaus and eulogises Spartan practices in his Lacedaimoniôn Politeia. By examining his own self-descriptions - especially where he portrays himself as conversing with Socrates and falling short in his appreciation of Socrates' advice - this book finds in Xenophon's overall writing project a Socratic response to his exile and situates his writings about Sparta within this framework. It presents a detailed reading of the Lacedaimoniôn Politeia as a critical and philosophical examination of Spartan socio-cultural practices. Evidence from his own Hellenica, Anabasis and Agesilaus is shown to confirm Xenophon's analysis of the weaknesses in the Spartan system, and that he is not enamoured of Agesilaus. Finally, a comparison with contemporary Athenian responses to Sparta, shows remarkable points of convergence with his fellow Socratic Plato, as well as connections with Isocrates too.

Living in lost futures

How do you teach about crises amid crisis? This article and accompanying zine reflect on my preparation for and delivery of an undergraduate seminar about the intersecting environmental, social and political crises that are frequently bundled together under the term ‘the Anthropocene’. Our course was designed and taught amid the COVID-19 global pandemic. Through readings, guest lectures and a digital humanities writing project, my students and I worked to take a desire-based rather than damage-centred approach to receiving and telling stories about the lost futures we are living through and the lost futures to come.

Mobile Technology Pedagogy: Improved Student Engagement for Improved Self-Assessment

There is minimal research which makes the connection between mobile technology and improved student achievement. This study addressed the gap in the literature and considered the dynamic and fluid engagement mobile technology brings to the teaching and learning environment to improve student essay scores in the composition classroom. Freshman composition essay scores were collected over the course of five semesters: two semesters where the instructor did not teach with mobile application technology, and three semesters after adoption of mobile technology. There was a statistically significant difference in mean writing project scores, with the mobile technology curriculum producing higher mean scores for all three writing projects. The purpose of this study was to expand current research to consider the effects of student achievement when using mobile application technology, and to inform current pedagogical practices across all disciplines.

Postcolonial and Francophone Moroccan Literature in Translation the Case of the Novel Les Temps Noirs, Abdelhak Serhane

Our contribution is about the translation of postcolonial and francophone Moroccan literature, and especially the case of the novel Les Temps noirs written by Abdelhak Serhane. Being written by an author not belonging to the Hexagon, this literary text reveals a decentering writing practice to which the translator must be very attentive when translating this novel. This is how, first, we sought, using the postcolonial approach, to elucidate the postcolonial writing that underlies this novel, as well as its characteristics and its stake. The aim is to show the role of cultural translation in the author’s writing project in order to include his native languages, especially Arabic and Berber. Then, we presented the strategy for translating this novel into Arabic according to the bermanian approach whose primary objective is to preserve otherness intact. It is, finally, these traces of the Other that we have analyzed and commented on in order to demonstrate, in the end, that the translation of the Other in this novel implies a return to its original language and culture.