On The Junior English Teachers' Critical Thinking Disposition Under New Curriculum Reform

Critical thinking is a self-adjusting judgment with a purpose,which is based on the interpretation and analysis of reasoning and explanation from the thought of the conceptual method of evidence or context.(The Delphi Report,1990)Critical thinking disposition is a kind of psychological tendency that an individual chooses consciously to carry out information processing,and it is the driving force for an individual to think critically.The new curriculum reform of primary and secondary schools in China has developed in various degrees since the ministry of education proposed a new curriculum reform for education in 2001,however there appeared imbalance in development regarding geographical position.In the frontier regions,due to the remoteness,for teachers themselves and schools,new curriculum reform in most of the time tends to be a mere talking.What's more,with the increasing advancement of information,all kinds of teaching ideas and modes in varieties emerge at a very fast speed.Teachers performed confusedly and perplexedly on choosing from these innovative ideas and modes,and in the process of their actual teaching practice as well.Therefore,Critical thinking is particularly important.Junior English teachers' critical thinking disposition is the premise for them to think critically,and also the basis to improve their level of reflective pedagogical thinking.It is of great significance to promote the teachers' professional development.This study applies the revised edition of the measurement of teacher critical thinking skill(TCTS)by Lv Guoguang as the research instrument,combining with interview survey.Critical thinking disposition in this study includes four dimensions:systematicity,analyticity,inquisitiveness and open-mindedness.The purpose of this study is to answer the following research questions:(1)What is the status of critical thinking disposition among junior English teachers in different dimensions?(2)What are the differences of junior English teachers' critical thinking disposition in different demographic variables? 208 junior English teachers' general critical thinking disposition in different dimensions of this area and differences of their critical thinking disposition in different demographic variables are investigated,theircharacteristics of critical thinking disposition are revealed.The results of the study are as follows:(1)Junior English teachers' critical thinking disposition is very positive in general,with the average mean of 4.31.Scores of the four dimensions ranging form high to low is systematicity scoring the highest with 5.01 and it indicates disposition of the participants is very positive;analyticity ranks the second with positive scores of 4.41,inquisitiveness scores with 3.92 and open-mindedness scores the lowest with3.91,which means disposition of these three qualities are all positive.(2)Junior English teachers' critical thinking disposition is different in the aspects of geographical locations of schools,age,year of school teaching experience,educational qualifications and professional ranks.Urban teachers' mean scores on dimensions of critical thinking disposition are averagely lower than the rural junior English teachers',teachers aged from 21 to 30 have obviously lower mean scores and dimensional scores than teachers aged from 31 to 50,teachers with 5 to 10 years of school teaching experience score higher than those who are above 11 years of school teaching,teachers with undergraduate degrees or above significantly score higher than those with master's degree,teachers with no rank and title have clearly lower total scores and dimensional scores than those with ranks and titles.There are no obvious difference in junior English teachers' critical thinking disposition regarding the aspect of genders and grades they teach.And the research results are in line with Lv Guoguang's basically.Accordingly,in order to improve junior English teachers' critical thinking dispositions,to optimize the teachers' thinking quality,and to improve their level of professional development,firstly,the teachers should change the perceptions and old teaching ways,modes,and make constantly progress and innovation in reflection;secondly,what should be done is to improve the systematization of school management,to establish the evaluation mechanism of teachers,and to adopt diversity evaluation method;thirdly,the spirit of new curriculum reform should be combined with training projects on critical thinking.