A DIRECT AND EXPLICIT INSTRUCTION OF CRITICAL THINKING SKILLS BY THE PROCESS OF INFUSION

Authors

  • MAK JOON KONG Faculty of Education and Social Sciences, University Selangor, Selangor, Malaysia.
  • LIM SEONG PEK Faculty of Education and Social Sciences, University Selangor, Selangor, Malaysia.
  • JAMILAH MUSTAFA Faculty of Education and Social Sciences, University Selangor, Selangor, Malaysia.
  • KHATIPAH ABD GHANI Faculty of Social Science, Arts & Humanities, Lincoln University College, Selangor, Malaysia.

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.55197/qjssh.v3i6.191

Keywords:

critical thinking, explicit, instruction, qualitative, infusion

Abstract

Educators, employers, and governing agencies view critical thinking (CT) as one of the most desired outcomes of higher education. This study employs a qualitative phenomenological design by applying an explicit five-stage procedure to infuse preselected thinking skills to a class of 22 international students in a 14-week reading programme at a local university. Six lessons, two hours each per week on critical thinking were taught to the students by three different teachers. The total of 12 hours of instruction was based on articles selected from the National Geographic series which contained structured sections on critical thinking. Adequate time was allowed for discussion when students were encouraged to deliberate on views of the authors of the articles. The guiding questions of the instructors led to positive outcomes of the lessons, and consequently students expressed their views freely. Two more articles (lessons 7 and 8) were handed out to the students as independent tasks. This was to ensure that students could work independently and that critical thinking skills had actually been infused after the six taught lessons. The data from the two lessons, 3 samples each (selected randomly) were analysed qualitatively using the Association of American Colleges and Universities rubric instrument. Findings on their performances indicated that critical thinking skills were infused through explicit and direct instruction. The result indicated that students were able to apply critical thinking skills in reading.

References

Adams, N.E. (2015): Bloom’s taxonomy of cognitive learning objectives. – Journal of Medical of the Medical Library Association 102(3): 152-153.

Davies, M. (2015): A model of critical thinking in higher education. – In Higher education: Handbook of theory and research, Springer, Cham, 51p.

Dwyer, C., Hogan, M., Stewart, I. (2014): An integrated critical thinking framework for the 21st century. – Thinking Skills & Creativity 12: 43-52.

Facione, P.A. (2015): Critical thinking: What it is and why it counts. – Measured Reasons LLC, Insight Assessment 30p.

Facione, N., Facione, P. (2006): The cognitive structuring of patient delay. – Social Science and Medicine 63: 3137-3149.

Freely, A.J., Steinberg, D.L. (2000): Augmentation and debate: Critical thinking for reasoned decision making. – Thomson Learning 790p.

Greene, J.A., Yu, S.B. (2016): Educating critical thinkers: The role of epistemic cognition. – Policy Insights from the Behavioral and Brain Sciences 3(1): 45-53.

Hollingsworth, J.R., Ybarra, S.E. (2012): Explicit direct instruction for English learners. – Corwin Press 344p.

Indar, D. (2016): Awakening the awareness: Critical thinking in vocational education. – University of Sheffield 251p.

Joyce, B., Weil, M. (2000): Models of Teaching. – Allyn and Bacon 540p.

Kirkwood, M. (2006): Infusing higher order thinking and learning into Content Instruction: A Case of Secondary Computing Studies in Scotland. – Journal of Curriculum Studies 32(4): 509-535.

Kulshrestha, A., Krishna, P (2013): Teacher Training and Professional Competencies. – Voice of Research 1(4): 29-33.

McGuinness, C. (2006): Building thinking skills in thinking classrooms: ACTS (Activity Children Thinking Skills) in Northern Ireland. – Teaching and Learning Research Briefing, Teaching and Learning Research Programme 6p.

Molden, K. (2007): Critical Literacy, the right answer for the reading classroom: strategies to more beyond comprehension for reading improving. – Reading Improvement 44(1): 50-56.

Pek, L.S. (2014): Reading Habit among Trainee Teachers: A Case Study. – American Research Thoughts 1(1): 422-434.

Downloads

Published

2022-12-01

How to Cite

KONG, M. J., PEK, L. S., MUSTAFA, J., & GHANI, K. A. (2022). A DIRECT AND EXPLICIT INSTRUCTION OF CRITICAL THINKING SKILLS BY THE PROCESS OF INFUSION. Quantum Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities, 3(6), 81–87. https://doi.org/10.55197/qjssh.v3i6.191

Issue

Section

Articles