Development of Innovative Pedagogical Practices for a Modern Learning Experience最新文献

{"title":"Critical Thinking in University through a Curriculum-wide Reading and Writing Project","authors":"J. Dunn","doi":"10.46679/978819484836308","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.46679/978819484836308","url":null,"abstract":"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 gain","PeriodicalId":290757,"journal":{"name":"Development of Innovative Pedagogical Practices for a Modern Learning Experience","volume":"70 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-12-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"114591319","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Measuring the Frequency of Critical Thinking in a Second Language Academic Discussion Course","authors":"Samuel Reid, T. West","doi":"10.46679/978819484836309","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.46679/978819484836309","url":null,"abstract":"As technology and globalization increase the chances of exposure to information, learners’ Critical Thinking (CT) and researchers’ ability to measure it will play an important role in developing modern educational experiences. This is particularly the case for English language learners who wish to enter tertiary education in English-speaking countries (Liaw, 2007; Wagner, 2010). Emphasis on such skills is increasingly a facet of language education in Japanese contexts. This can be seen in changes implemented by the Japan Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology which have encouraged a focus on CT in English language courses during recent years (MEXT, 2011). However, it can be difficult for second language (L2) learners to exhibit CT in an L2 (Bali, 2015; Luk & Lin, 2015). Measuring CT in learner output has also proven difficult, which can be an obstacle to further integrating CT in L2 pedagogy. Studies exploring ways of measuring CT in an L2 have largely focused on written work (e.g., Davidson & Dunham, 1997; Floyd, 2011; Stapleton, 2001), while analysis of CT in spoken L2 discourse has seen little attention. As a result, little advice can be found on practical steps for teachers to help learners display CT when speaking in an L2. This chapter describes a study of arguments made during group discussions in an L2 English Discussion course at a Japanese university. A corpus of spontaneous spoken discourse recorded during class was analyzed to measure the frequency of CT displayed in an academic setting where CT was not an explicit focus of the course. Arguments in the corpus were identified using Ramage et al.’s (2016) model of argument criteria, and a categorization system was developed in which discourse was classified as displaying either objective reasoning or subjective reasoning. Participants were found to have used approximately 72% objective and 28% subjective reasoning. However, further analysis revealed an important qualitative difference in arguments identified as incorporating objective reasoning. The results of the study suggest two areas that may help teachers promote an increase in student usage of CT: the importance of question prompts in orienting learners towards CT in their answers, and a specific focus on the role of pronoun usage in taking a subjective or objective stance.","PeriodicalId":290757,"journal":{"name":"Development of Innovative Pedagogical Practices for a Modern Learning Experience","volume":"17 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-12-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130774016","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"A Method to Develop Critical Thinking: Playing the Devil’s Advocate","authors":"Sean Eric Kil Patrick Gay","doi":"10.46679/978819484836310","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.46679/978819484836310","url":null,"abstract":"The ability to think critically is at the foundation of an equitable and just society. One aspect of critical thinking (CT) is the ability to create and develop structurally sound arguments. Curricular requirements often restrict addressing this issue. Furthermore, students arguing their own opinions often assume agreement and therefore do not see a need to fully explain. As such, I examined how CT can be developed through the use of a timed-writing activity wherein the students argue against their own positions. I employed an action research approach to compare CT development in the intervention class with another class that did not receive the intervention. Analysis of the data suggested that this method was effective, and that encouragement of dissociation has a positive effect on CT development in students.","PeriodicalId":290757,"journal":{"name":"Development of Innovative Pedagogical Practices for a Modern Learning Experience","volume":"28 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-12-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126001089","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}