An Empirical Research On Cultivating Students’ Critical Thinking Ability By “STR” Classroom Model

English Curriculum Standard for Senior High School(Revision 2020,2017Edition)specifies that the development of the quality of thinking is helpful in enhancing students’ ability to analyse and solve problems so as to enable them to scrutinize and perceive the world from a cross-cultural viewpoint and make correct value judgement about things.Critical thinking is one of the key qualities of thinking,the best way to develop such ability is to integrate it with the teaching of the subject.One of the core and most prominent types of classes in English language teaching is reading,but owing to the influence of exam-oriented education,teachers in reading classes generally emphasize the improvement of students’ problem-solving skills,while neglecting the development of students’ overall abilities,including critical thinking ability.In order to solve the above problem,Whhan Chang Qing No.1 middle school has implemented “STR” classroom model in the curriculum reform of Hubei province to make effective attempts and gotten certain results.This research cooperates closely with this school and hopes to make further studies.On the basis of constructivism,deep learning and learning community theory,the author regards two classes in Grade2 with similar English proficiency selected from a senior high school in Hubei province as the research subjects and conducts a teaching experiment lasting one semester.In Class 5 of Senior 2,the experimental class,“STR” classroom model is used to teach English reading while in Class 6 of Senior 2,the control class,the author uses traditional classroom model to teach English reading.Such data as questionnaire,test and interview are used to explore the following three questions: 1.What is the current situation of senior high school students’ critical thinking ability in English reading? 2.What is the impact of using the “STR” classroom model for teaching English reading on the critical thinking ability of high school students? 3.To what extent does STR model impact on students’ critical thinking ability?The results are shown as follows: 1.The critical thinking ability of students in senior high school is at a low level,especially in the dimensions of interpretation,analysis,inference and explanation.2.The “STR” classroom model has a positive impact on developing the critical thinking ability of senior high school students combined with the average scores of reading test and the six sub-abilities of the questionnaire increasing apparently.3.Among the six dimensions of critical thinking ability,there is no significant difference in explanatory and inferential abilities after the experiment while the four abilities of interpretation,analysis,evaluation and self-regulation improve apparently.The results can provide some reference for senior high school English teachers in developing students’ thinking ability in reading teaching.