Relationship Between Pre-service English Teachers’ Use Of Self-Regulated Learning Strategies And Critical Thinking Disposition

With the growing demand for talent cultivation,fostering students’ high-level thinking and life-long learning ability has become the national priority in education in many countries,thus raising higher requirements for teachers’ professional qualities and development.In China,the new General Senior High School English Curriculum Standards(2017)underlines the significance of cultivating students’ subject core competencies which include language ability,cultural awareness,learning ability and thinking capacity.It is noted that self-regulated learning and critical thinking,respectively as the essential embodiment of learning ability and thinking capacity,play important roles in the formation and development of students’ English core competencies.Whether teachers can self-regulate their learning and have critical thinking directly influence their students’ cultivation of self-regulated learning and critical thinking.Pre-service English teachers,as the main forces of future teachers,should consciously and actively promote their self-regulated learning and critical thinking when being trained in teacher education.Gradually,being valued in the field of education,numerous studies have been conducted on the relationship between teachers’ self-regulated learning and critical thinking.However,the strategies used in the process of self-regulated learning and the internal tendency for teachers to think critically are neglected in the existing research.The application of selfregulated learning strategies is the concrete manifestation of teachers’ self-regulated learning ability.Critical thinking disposition is not only the essential part of critical thinking but also a prerequisite for stimulating critical thinking.Therefore,this study is carried out to investigate the current state of pre-service English teachers’ use of selfregulated learning strategies and their critical thinking disposition,and also explore the relationship between the use of self-regulated learning strategies and their critical thinking disposition.Pintrich’s(1991)model of self-regulated learning and Wen’s(2011)four-level structure of critical thinking disposition are the theoretical basis of this study.To attain the purpose,this research takes as the participants 84 postgraduate students of a two-year program of Master of English Education at a comprehensive university in Jiangsu Province.They are requested to complete two questionnaires named Self-regulated Learning Strategies Questionnaire and Critical Thinking Disposition Inventory.In addition,in order to further explain the statistical results and generate triangulation with quantitative data,six of the participants are purposefully chosen to attend a semi-structured interview to explore their views on self-regulated learning strategies and critical thinking disposition.The findings are as follows.Firstly,the investigated pre-service English teachers’current use of self-regulated learning strategies reaches a high level(M=3.64),without a significant difference in terms of grades.From the perspectives of specific categories,preservice English teachers are more inclined to use cognitive strategies(M=3.72)than metacognitive(M=3.57)and resource management strategies(M=3.52).Secondly,preservice English teachers possess an overall negative disposition towards critical thinking(M=3.93),also with no significant difference with regard to grades.To be more specific,they have a positive tendency to intellectualness(M=4.20)and morality(M=4.01)while emotionality(M=3.78)and rationality(M=3.77)are at a negative level.Last but not least,there is a moderately positive correlation(r=0.472,p<0.01)between pre-service English teachers’ use of self-regulated learning strategies and their critical thinking disposition.The multiple linear regression discloses that critical thinking disposition can predict pre-service English teachers’ use of self-regulated learning strategies.The R square value indicates that 37.8%of the variance in pre-service English teachers’ use of self-regulated learning strategies can be explained by the model.Based on the aforementioned findings,some implications are put forward for preservice English teachers and teacher education programs.For pre-service English teachers,they should enhance the awareness that self-regulated learning strategies and critical thinking disposition are significant for their professional development and students’ growth,and seize various opportunities to improve their own self-regulated learning ability and critical thinking disposition.For teacher education programs,the curriculum should be elaborately designed to guide the acquisition,activation,and application of pre-service English teachers’ self-regulated learning strategies and critical thinking disposition.Besides,teacher educators should consciously embed self-regulated learning strategies,critical thinking disposition and skills into courses and learning activities to cultivate and facilitate pre-service English teachers’ self-regulated learning ability and critical thinking ability.