A Survey On The Current Situation Of Critical Thinking Dispositions Among English Postgraduates

Critical thinking is purposeful, self-regulatory judgment. Critical thinking makes contributions to problem solving, decision making and knowledge learning. It has a long history in the west dating back to the time of Socrates, while the introduction of critical thinking to China came late in the 1980 s. Critical thinking abilities are so important that many scholars put emphasis on the cultivation of critical thinking in students. In fact, many countries, including China, have already listed the cultivation of critical thinking abilities as one of their educational goals. However, many Chinese scholars argue that English majors are deficient in their critical thinking abilities. Unfortunately, there are few empirical studies conducted to reveal the current situation of English major’s critical thinking abilities in China. To fill this gap, the researcher designs this study. Under the guidance of Double Dimension Critical Thinking Capability Model, this survey is carried out to display one dimension of English postgraduates’ critical thinking abilities-critical thinking dispositions.A total of 243 English postgraduates from three different grades in Hebei Normal University participated in this survey. They responded to the questionnaire- Critical Thinking Disposition Inventory designed by Peng Meici and other researchers in 2004. After that, 12 English postgraduates, 4 from each grade, were chosen at random to take part in the interview. Thus, both quantitative method and qualitative method were employed in this study. Statistics Package for Social Science(SPSS 13.0) is used to analyze the data gathered in the questionnaire. Descriptive analysis was used to display the current situation of students’ overall critical thinking dispositions and seven sub-scale dimensions, as well as the percentage of different score scales of students’ critical thinking dispositions. One-Way ANOVA was used to compare the significant differences among English postgraduates’ critical thinking dispositions from three different grades.Results show that: 1) English postgraduates have positive critical thinking dispositions overall. In terms of the seven sub-scales of the critical thinking dispositions, English postgraduates are positive in the scales of inquisitiveness, analyticity, open-mindedness and maturity. However, they show negative inclination in the dimensions of systematicity, self-confidence and truth-seeking. 2) The distribution of different score scales of English postgraduates’ critical thinking dispositions overall is relatively centralized. 3) There are no significant differences among English postgraduates’ critical thinking dispositions from the three different grades overall, except in the two sub-scales of truth-seeking and open-mindedness. 4) Interview data reveals that both internal factors and external factors have an influence on students’ critical thinking dispositions.The results of this study can provide some implications, to some extent, for the cultivation of critical thinking dispositions among English majors. Based on the results, the author suggests that schools should make every effort to create an atmosphere to encourage the cultivation of critical thinking abilities. Teachers should spare no effort to inspire students to think critically through teaching strategies, teaching styles and so on. And students should pay attention to their knowledge building and develop the ability to evaluate problems in a critical way.