A Study On The Effects Of Students' Questioning-Oriented Instruction On Senior School Students' Critical Thinking Ability

At present critical thinking has become a significant skill.In recent years it has been widely referred to.However,relatively speaking,the research into critical thinking in China mainly focuses more on higher education than in middle school.When teaching Senior One,the author finds out that instead of actively asking questions and presenting questions properly,students just passively answer teachers' questions in class,leading to students' rigid thinking and poor expression.Therefore,the author tries students' questioning combining teachers' guidance and assistance as a teaching method to improve their critical thinking abilities such as analysis,inference and evaluation.Based on Bloom's taxonomy of teaching objectives and Piaget's cognitive development theory,the research takes two classes in Senior Grade One in 2015 as research participants.Aiming at students' unwillingness to ask and disordered presentation,the author conducted"Students' Question-based" Instruction for four months.Comparing "Students' Question-based"Instruction with traditional "Ask-and-Answer" teaching method,the author analyzed the effects of two teaching methods on students' critical thinking ability.The main research questions are:1)After a period of Students' Questioning-oriented Instruction,what effects will Students'Questioning-oriented Instruction have on students' critical thinking ability?2)After a period of Students' Questioning-oriented Instruction,what are the performances of students in different dimensions of critical thinking?3)What are the attitudes and opinions of students on "Students'Question-based" Instruction after sixteen-week practice?The research adopts a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods,employing questionnaire,tests,classroom observation and interview.Before and after the experiment,subjects finish Questionnaire and Reading test.An inductively-oriented interview is conducted at last.The study has yielded three major findings:Firstly,the critical thinking ability of experimental class is significantly improved after sixteen-week Questioning-oriented Instruction,whose progress is greater than that of control class.Before the experiment,the pre-test of Questionnaire and Reading reveal that there is no significant difference between the control class and the experimental class in critical thinking,both of which show negative critical thinking ability.After the experiment,the post-test of Questionnaire Independent Sample T-test shows that there is significant difference between the control class and the experimental class in critical thinking.The total score of critical thinking tendencies in experimental class develops from negative to medium while that of control class has increased,but still is negative.The above finding has also been proved by Independent T-tests and Paired Sample T-tests of Scores of reading tests between EC and CC.Secondly,after sixteen-week Students5 Questioning-oriented Instruction,students perform differently in different dimeCritical Thinking Skills.The Journal of General Education.Pennsylvania:The nsions of critical thinking.The post-test of Questionnaire Paired Sample T-test indicates that in experimental class,there is significant difference in truth-seeking,analytical ability,systematical ability and self-confidence while in control class there is no significant difference except in open-thinking and self-confidence.A possible explanation for such divergence could be that students' critical abilities,such as analysis,inference and evaluation are constantly practiced through seeking questions,discussion,presenting opinions and answering questions,during which their expression skills are strengthened,thus increasing their interest and confidence.Thirdly,eompared with the traditional "Ask-and-Answer" teaching method,students take a positive attitude toward "Students" Question-based" Instruction.According to the interview,in"Students' Question-based" Instruction,students are encouraged to ask and their enthusiasm for thinking is enhanced through group cooperation and teachers' guidance.The research findings may have pedagogical implications on the cultivation of critical thinking ability in Senior One.For one thing,the comparison between two teaching methods can help teachers more deeply understand students' psychological mechanism and design effective exercises to promote their interaction and improve their expressive competence.For another,with the help of guided learning case,students' ability to discover,analyze and solve problems is strengthened,enhancing their self-confidence and broadening their thinking.