Status of Enhancing Learners’ Higher Order Thinking Skills in the Teaching of Reading Skills at Ethiopian Higher Education: Analyzing Reading Exercises and Learners’ Perceptions

Sintayehu Gebremariam Gergera

Abstract


Abstract In the twenty-first century, the broad availability of information and technological innovation has resulted in a paradigm shift in the goal of education. As a result, in order to produce engaged citizens capable of facing the demands and obstacles of the century, boosting learners' higher cognitive skills has become a priority in modern education. Language teachers' responsibilities in modern language teaching have expanded to include improving students' thinking skills. In line with this idea, this study was aimed at examining the role teaching reading skills at a higher education institution has in enhancing learners’ higher-order thinking skills. In order to achieve the main objective of the study, an analysis was carried out on the levels of thinking that questions in reading exercises aim to elicit from the learners and how the students perceive the reading exercises from the perspective of enhancing higher-order thinking skills. The findings of the study show that the reading exercises are dominated by lower-order questions; there are fewer higher-order questions in the exercises. Thus, the reading exercises are not capable of enhancing learners’ higher-order thinking skills. The students also have the perception that the reading exercises are not meant to develop their higher-order thinking skills. There is no statistically significant difference between male and female participant students among their perceptions identified in the study.

Keywords


Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS), Reading, Reading Exercises/Questions

Full Text:

PDF

References


References

Adege Alemu. (2016). The Effects of Explicit Instruction in Critical Thinking on Student Achievement in Writing Academic Papers, General Critical Thinking Ability, and Critical Thinking Dispositions. Unpublished PhD Dissretation. Addis Ababa: AAU.

Anderson, N.J. (2008). Practical English language teaching reading. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Anderson, L. W., et al. (2001). A Taxonomy for Learning, Teaching, and Assessing: A Revision of Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational Objectives. New York: Longman.

Bloom, B. (1956). Taxonomy of educational objectives: the classification of educational aims, handbook 1, cognitive domain. New York: David McKay.

Boroditsky, L. (2009). How does our language shape the way we think? Retrieved from http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/boroditsky09/boroditsky09_index.html

Brown, H. D. (2004). Some practical thoughts about students- sensitive critical pedagogy. The Language Teacher, Vol. 6, No.23.

Collins C & Mangieri, JN. ( 1992). Teaching Thinking: An Agenda for the 21st century. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum associates Publishers.

Creswell, J. (2003). Research Design: Quantitative, Qualitative and Mixed Methods Approaches. (Second Edition) London: Sage Publications

Cruz, E. (2003). Bloom's revised taxonomy. In B. Hoffman (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Educational Technology. Retrieved July 23, 2009, from http://coe.sdsu.edu/eet/Articles/bloomrev/start.htm

Dong, Y. (2015). Critical thinking education with Chinese characteristics. In M. Davies, & R. Barnett (Eds.), The Palgrave handbook of Critical thinking in Higher Education (pp. 335–351). New York: Palgave Macmillan

Dong, Y. R. (2006). Learning to think in English. Journal of Educational Leadership, Vol. 64, No.2

Elfatihi, M. (2017). A Rationale for the Integration of Critical Thinking Skills in EFL/ESL Instruction .Journal of Higher Education of Social Science Vol. 12, No. 2.

Ervina, J. A.(2020).Higher Order Thinking Skills (Hots) Realization In Reading Comprehension Questions Found In English Textbooks. Unpublished Senior Essay for the Partial fulfillment for the Requirements of MA

Ennis, ( 1992). The Generalizability of critical thinking. New York: Teachers College Press.

Federal Democratic Republic Government of Ethiopia (1994). Education and training policy. Addis Ababa. (Unpublished document).

Fisher, A. (2001). Critical thinking: An introduction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Freire, P. (1970). Pedagogy of the oppressed. New York: The Continuum International Publishing Group.

Ghanizadeh, Afsaneh and Mirzaee, Sepideh. 2012. EFL Learners’ Self-regulation, Critical Thinking and Language Achievement. International Journal of Linguistics, Vol. 4, No.3

Grabe,etal ( 2002). Teaching and Researching Reading. Paerson Education. Britain.

Halvorsen, A.(2005). Incorporating Critical Thinking Skills Development in to ESL/EFL Courses. Internet TESL Journal, Vol. 11, No. 3.Retrived from http://iteslj.org/tTechniques/ Halvorsen Critical Thinking. Html.

Harizaj, M. and Hajrulla, V. (2017). Fostering Learner’s Critical Thinking Skills in EFL: Some Practical Activities. European Scientific Journal , Vol.13, No.29

Hosseini, Effat, et.al. 2012. Exploring the Relationship between Critical Thinking, Reading Comprehension and Reading Strategies of English University Students. World Applied Sciences Journal, 17 (10).

Hollingsworth P.H. (1982). Questioning: The heart of teaching. The Clearing House, Vol. 55, No. 8

Hove, G. (2011). Developing Critical Thinking Skills in the High School English Classroom. A Research Paper Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Master of Science Degree in Education. University of Wisconsin-Stout Menominee, WI.

Hughes, J. (2014).Critical Thinking in the Language Classroom. Oxford: Oxford University press.

Grellet, F. (2010). Developing Reading Skill. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Isam, M. (2017). Developing Higher Order Thinking Skills: Towards a Rethinking of EFL Course books in Moroccan High School. JELTL (Journal of English Language Teaching and Linguistics). Vol. 2 (3)

Jantrasakul, Prapai. 2012. Utilizing Critical Thinking-based EFL lessons: A means to improve language skills and encourage student engagement in Thai EFL classes. Journal of Education and Practice, Vol. 3, No. 6.

Lai, E. R. (2011). Critical thinking: A literature review. Pearson's Research Reports, 6, 40-41.

Mayer, R.E. ( 2002) Rote Versus Meaningful Learning. Journal of Theory into Practice, Volume 41, Number 4.

Karimi, L. and Veisi, F. ( 2006). The Impact of Teaching Critical Thinking Skills on Reading Comprehension of Iranian Intermediate EFL Learners. Journal of Theory and Practice in Language Studies, Vol. 6, No. 9.

Kennedy et al. (2016). Education Skills for 21st Century Teachers : Voices From a Global Online Educators' Forum. Journal

Keshta , A. and Seif, A.(2013). Evaluating the Higher Order Thinking Skills in Reading of English for Palesti Grade Eight Asian Journal of Education and e-Learning (ISSN: 2321 – 2454) Volume 01– Issue 01, April 2013

Lourdes, E.V. and Gaibisso, C. (2013). Developing Critical Thinking in the English Language classroom: A Lesson Plan. English Language Teachers’ Association, Vol.1, No.1

Masduqi, H. (2011). Critical Thinking Skills and Meaning in English Language Teaching. TEFLIN Journal, Volume 22, Number 2,

Ministry of Education. (2009). Curriculum Framework for Ethiopian Education (KG – Grade 12)

Nur, P. (2014). Higher Order Thinking Skill in Reading Exercise. Unpublished Senior Essay for the Partial fulfillment for the Requirements of MA

Pourghasemian, H and Hosseini, M.B. (2017). Critical Thinking Skills Instruction and Reading between the Lines. ELT Voices- International Journal for Teachers of English. Volume (7), Issue (1), 11-17 (2017)

Qing, X. (2013). Fostering Critical Thinking Competence in EFL Classroom . Studies in Literature and Language Vol. 7, No. 1, 2013, pp. 6-9

Rezaei , S. eta’l. (2011).Critical Thinking in Language Education. Journal of Language Teaching and Research, Vol. 2, No. 4, pp. 769-777

Shaila, M.Y. and Trudell, B. (2010). From Passive Learners to Critical Thinkers: Preparing EFL Students for University Success. English Teaching Forum. Vol. 1, No. 3.

Sugirin (1997). (2002). The comprehension strategies of above average English as a Foreign Language (EFL) readers. Melbourne: Daikin University

Tosuncuoglu, I. (2018). Place of Critical Thinking in EFL. International Journal of Higher Education, Vol. 7, No. 4.

Williams, R. L. (2005). Targeting Critical Thinking within Teacher Education: The Potential Impact on Society. The Teacher Educator, 40(3), 163-187.

William, S. and Fredricka , L. (2002). Teaching and Researching Reading. Edinburgh: Pearson Education.




DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.25157/jall.v7i1.9332

Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.