A Practical Study On Cultivating Students’ Critical Thinking Disposition In Senior High School English Reading Teaching By Project-based Learning

The English Curriculum Standard for Senior High Schools（2020reversion）clearly points out that reading is one of the comprehension skills.English reading teaching is an important way to increase students’ language input and information exchange.At present,critical thinking research is a hot spot in education at home and abroad.Critical thinking disposition is an important aspect of critical thinking ability.Researches showed that the Project-based Learning（PBL）teaching method was driven by project tasks,led by teachers,students as the main body and projects as the carrier.The emphasis on cooperative learning and students’ critical thinking were also the advantages of this teaching method.Therefore,in English reading teaching,it is possible and necessary to use the PBL teaching method to cultivate students’ critical thinking disposition,and few domestic scholars have conducted research in this area.Therefore,this study took 47 students in the Senior one of Hohhot as the research participants,and tried to answer three research questions:（1）What is the current situation of students’ critical thinking disposition before teaching practice?（2）Can the implementation of PBL teaching method in senior high school English reading teaching cultivate students’ critical thinking disposition?（3）What problems still exist in students’ critical thinking disposition after the PBL teaching practice? How can these problems be solved? In order to answer these three research questions,before the teaching practice,the author used the critical thinking disposition questionnaire and English reading test to make a pre-test.During the practice,the PBL teaching method was applied to teach,during which the students were interviewed in the middle term.After the teaching practice,the questionnaire and English reading test were used for post-test,and the students were interviewed again.After all practice,the author analyzed the data by using SPSS26.0,organized the interview information,and finally came to a conclusion.The results of this study reveal:（1）Through the questionnaire and test,the participants have a positive tendency to critical thinking disposition.However,there is an unbalanced development among the various dimensions.（2）There are significant differences between the pre-test and post-test.Therefore,the implementation of the PBL teaching method in English reading teaching can cultivate students’ critical thinking disposition.（3）Combining questionnaire’s feedback and PBL teaching,it reflects that students have difficulties in the truth-seeking,open-mindedness,systematicity and self-confidence of critical thinking disposition.Through the English reading comprehension and PBL teaching,it shows that students are not good at understanding the author’s views,intentions,attitudes and understanding the basic structure of the article,and doing inference questions.To sum up,the application of PBL teaching method can indeed cultivate students’ critical thinking disposition in English reading teaching,but there are also problems mentioned above.In order to solve these problems,the author proposed targeted solutions based on the interview results,relevant literature and the author’s own understanding.Meanwhile,in English reading class,according to the research findings,the study offers several suggestions for cultivating students’ critical thinking disposition:（1）The teacher should not only put forward targeted solutions in the micro aspect but also establish a critical teaching view in English reading class.（2）When the project is completed,it is necessary to play the role of guide.（3）Lead students to deeply analyze the reading text and cultivate the critical thinking disposition.（4）The students should be encouraged to ask questions boldly in class and the teacher asks more questions to maintain active thinking.