An Action Research On The Cultivation Of Students’ Critical Thinking In High School English Reading Teaching Based On The Question Chain

Critical thinking is higher-order thinking in scientific thinking.It is a necessary thinking quality for everyone in the information age.The English Curriculum Standards for Senior High School(2017 Edition,2020 Revision)emphasizes the cultivation of students’ critical thinking.It points out that critical thinking is a kind of reflective thinking and an important part of the English subject core competencies.Critical thinking is often closely related to the raising and solving of problems.In high school English reading teaching,teachers’ questioning,especially high-quality questioning,can effectively stimulate students’ thinking activities and is an important way to cultivate critical thinking.However,due to the influence of examination-oriented education,the current English reading teaching in senior high schools generally emphasizes the learning of language knowledge and reading skills,ignoring the cultivation of students’ critical thinking of active questioning and thinking.The question chain is a set of central,sequential,relatively independent and interrelated questions that are carefully designed by teachers.The questions are mutually reinforcing,interpenetrating,and progressive layer by layer,which can help students build a ladder of thinking and inspire them to question and think.This research attempts to apply the question chain to English reading teaching in senior high school,so as to optimize the teaching method of English reading,guide students to think independently and cultivate students’ critical thinking.Based on the Constructivism and the Zone of Proximal Development Theory,this research carried out a 12-week action research on English reading teaching in a class of senior one in Dabieshan Senior High School in Xinyang.From the two dimensions of affective tendencies and cognitive skills of critical thinking,through action research,this research explores the impact of question chain teaching in senior high school English reading on students’ critical thinking.This research aims to explore the following two questions:(1)What effects does the application of the question chain in senior high school English reading teaching have on students’ affective tendencies of critical thinking?(2)What effects does the application of the question chain in senior high school English reading teaching have on students’ cognitive skills of critical thinking?The research follows the action research process of “planning-action-observation-reflection”,and sets up the introductory question chain,the progressive question chain and the exploratory question chain respectively in the pre-reading,while-reading and postreading stages.Through the design of activities in two rounds of action research,this research permeates the cultivation of critical thinking affective tendencies and cognitive skills into the process of problem-solving.The research instruments are the questionnaire on affective tendencies of critical thinking of senior high school students,English reading tests,the interview and classroom teaching observation scale.The results of the research show that:(1)The application of question chain teaching in senior high school English reading teaching is conducive to the cultivation of students’ affective tendencies of critical thinking.In this research,students’ affective tendencies of critical thinking have been improved to a certain extent after action research,among which the improvement in the four dimensions of open-mindedness,analytical ability,self-confidence and curiosity is more obvious.(2)The application of question chain teaching in senior high school English reading teaching is conducive to the cultivation of students’ cognitive skills of critical thinking.In this research,students’ cognitive skills of critical thinking have been improved to a certain extent after action research,of which the improvement of analysis,evaluation and reference skills is more noticeable.Based on the above research,the following teaching implications can be obtained: In reading teaching,teachers can reasonably design different types of question chains in the pre-reading,while-reading,and post-reading stages.Meanwhile,teachers can take advantage of various activities that can enhance students’ active thinking,trigger students’ active thinking and exploration,so as to cultivate students’ critical thinking.