Enhancing critical thinking through active learning

Yoko Kusumoto

77 citations0/0 files storedLanguage Learning in Higher Education

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Education and Critical Thinking Development EFL/ESL Teaching and Learning Second Language Learning and Teaching

Abstract

Abstract Today the Framework for 21st Century Learning developed by the Partnership for 21st Century Learning (P21) is widely recognized and has been used in the U.S., Canada and New Zealand. P21 defines and illustrates the skills and knowledge students need and states that critical thinking is fundamental for twenty-first century success and essential for success in an academic context. The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) also values the importance of cultivating critical thinking. However, critical thinking is not a part of the EFL curriculum in Japan, and lessons are not focused on the development of meta-cognitive strategies. How do we help students learn foreign languages and twenty-first Century Skills at the same time? Active learning and content and language integrated learning (CLIL) offer such a learning environment where learners enhance their cognitive skills and gain knowledge while they are learning content and language. This paper reports on a study that explores how active learning with CLIL instruction helps Japanese EFL learners to develop critical thinking skills. In the author’s student-centered instruction based class, critical thinking was stimulated with questions based on the revised Bloom’s taxonomy to develop lower and higher order thinking skills while various scaffolding activities were provided. Pretest-posttest results from the Critical Thinking Disposition Scale (CTDS) and the Cornell Critical Thinking Test (CCTT) Level Z were compared to determine to what extent, if any, EFL learners developed critical thinking disposition and skills through active learning in CLIL classes. The results of the CTDS and CCTT suggest that active learning has value for increasing critical thinking.

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References

2001A taxonomy for learning, teaching, and assessing : a revision of Bloom's taxonomy of educational objectives 1991Active learning : creating excitement in the classroom 1993Critical thinking assessment 2011Content-and-Language Integrated Learning: From Practice to Principles?2010CLIL: Content and Language Integrated Learning 2000The Disposition Toward Critical Thinking: Its Character, Measurement, and Relationship to Critical Thinking Skill 2007Discourse in Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) Classrooms 1993Promoting Active Learning: Strategies for the College Classroom

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2017Integrating Content and Language in Higher Education 2023Methodologies for Fostering Critical Thinking Skills from University Students’ Points of View 2023The effect of implementing a critical thinking intervention program on English language learners’ critical thinking, reading comprehension, and classroom climate 2020Estrategias didácticas en el desarrollo del pensamiento crítico en estudiantes de educación básica 2019Scientific Research on the Issue of Soft Skills Development (Review of the Data in International Databases of Scopus, Web of Science)

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