Exploring the effect of cooperative learning on senior high school students’ critical thinking in EFL writing: An intervention study

Abstract

Despite the importance of critical thinking (CT), the absence of CT still exists. Based on Paul-Elder CT model, this study conducted a quasi-experiment to explore the effects of cooperative learning (CL) on Chinese senior high students’ CT cultivation in EFL argumentative writing in terms of student-student interaction, peer feedback and teacher's intervention. 74 Chinese senior high school students from two different classes were selected as the subjects. Before and after the experiment, they were asked to write an argumentative writing and completed a questionnaire concerning CT dispositions. The collected data was analyzed by SPSS 27.0. The results indicated that CL can effectively improve students’ CT and writing scores and that there is a significantly high positive relationship between CT scores and writing scores. Furthermore, student-student interaction and peer feedback can improve students’ CT levels, especially in terms of analysis, clarification, reasoning, organization and evaluation and help them become more confident about their CT. Teachers’ CT intervention and instruction cannot be ignored which can strengthen students’ understanding of CT and avoid misconception. The findings of this study not only validate CL’s facilitative effects on argumentative writing, but also offer some pedagogical implications for CT cultivation.