An Empirical Research On Project-based Learning To Improve Students’ Thinking Quality In Primary School English Teaching

National English Curriculum for Compulsory Education(2022 Ed.)strengthens the educational orientation with the core literacy of English subjects as the goal.Thinking quality,as a vital part of the core literacy,has received more attention from educators.Although scholars have paid more attention to the study of thinking quality in recent years,the research on bringing the real world into the classroom,promoting the integrated design of teaching,learning and evaluation,and improving the evaluation method of thinking quality still needs to be deepened.According to Bloom’s taxonomy,the cultivation of thinking quality in the English classroom is mainly achieved by deliberately encouraging students’ higher-order thinking.Project-based learning carries out integrated teaching activities by constructing real-life situations,so that students can actively complete project tasks through cooperative learning,and thus students’ ability to analyze,evaluate and produce will be improved.Studies have shown that project-based learning has a positive impact on students’ thinking quality,but the empirical evidence is not sufficient.Therefore,this study conducts a teaching experiment to examine the role of project-based learning in primary school English teaching to improve students’ thinking quality,especially profoundness of thinking quality.Drawing on cog AT,the thinking quality test in this study was divided into three aspects: verbal reasoning abilities,quantitative reasoning abilities and non-verbal reasoning abilities.Both the final English test scores and thinking quality test scores were used to check whether students’ thinking quality has been improved.The research question of this study is: Can the application of project-based learning to English teaching in primary school improve students’ achievement in final English test and thinking quality test?Two classes from a public primary school in Shuangliu District,Chengdu,participated in the teaching experiment.The experimental class used project-based learning,combined with multi-modal teaching resources for large-unit theme teaching,and the control class used the frequently-used pre-learning,while-learning and post-reading approach to complete the content of textbook.The whole experiment lasted for four months,and the research tools used in this study included pre-test and post-test papers,theme teaching questionnaire,etc.,and SPSS 24.0 was used to analyze the data.The results show that project-based learning in primary school English teaching has no obvious effect on improving students’ English final test scores,but it has significantly improved students’ thinking quality test results.Based on these two results,project-based learning in primary school English teaching can effectively improve students’ thinking quality.Through project-based learning,students’ independence is enhanced,their enthusiasm for English learning is elevated,and their thinking quality is improved in the learning process.The enlightenment of this research for primary school English teaching is that thinking quality can be improved through project-based learning.However,since organizing project-based learning requires experience,teachers need a large number of teaching practices and pedagogical reflections guided by project-based learning principles;The thinking ability test launched by professional institutions can be used to assist the examination of thinking quality and as a tool for teachers to evaluate the current development of students’ thinking quality.