From talk to thought: Enhancing students’ critical thinking disposition through engaging secondary classroom discourse in Hong Kong

Abstract

In the 21st century, the ability to think critically has become an essential skill that can be effectively fostered by dialogic teaching methods. However, teachers frequently struggle to engage students in instructional settings that require interaction and dialogue within classroom discourse. Using a quasi-experimental, mixed-methods research design, this study explored how a planned whole-class teaching discourse strategy affected the critical thinking disposition of 102 eighth-grade students from two Hong Kong schools. A validated critical thinking disposition questionnaire was used for pre- and post-test data collection to assess the effect of the teaching discourse intervention. Paired t-test results revealed significant pre- and post-test differences in the overall score and Truth-seeking, Systematicity, and Maturity of Judgment subset scores in the experimental group. However, no pre- and post-test changes were found in the control group. Further analysis of 32 classroom discourse video recordings conducted using a talk move framework identified three contributing factors that seemed to boost students’ critical thinking disposition in the experimental group: a range of talk moves, the turn-taking pattern between teachers and students, and timely, descriptive, and specific praise from teachers. This study contributes to the existing literature on the effectiveness of deliberately employing classroom talk wherein the talk move strategy encourages both students and teachers to engage in critical thinking, thereby fostering cognitive engagement in a nurturing learning environment.