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Procedia Social and Behavioral Sciences 3 (2010) 210212

Telling ELT Tales out of School

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A path to critical thinking

mgehan zkana*
a

Atlm University, Kzlcasar mah., 06836 ncek- Glbas Anakara, Turkey

Elsevier use only: Received date here; revised date here; accepted date here

Abstract

"We should be teaching students how to think. Instead, we are teaching them what to think." (Clement & Lochhead, 1980, Cognitive Process
Instruction). That is, critical thinking has a vital role in education. Based on classroom experimentation, it can be said that a student who thinks
critically can ask appropriate questions, gather relevant information, efficiently and creatively sort through this information, reason logically from
this information, and come to reliable and trustworthy conclusions about the world that enable one to live and act successfully. Therefore, they
are more productive while using their second language. The aim of this paper is to present how to develop critical thinking skills of English
learners via critical thinking activities.

2010 Published by Elsevier Ltd. Open access under CC BY-NC-ND license.

1. Introduction

Key words: Critical thinking; creative activities

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There seems to be several diverse definitions when it comes to define critical thinking. An old definition
dates back to 1909 when Dewey defined critical thinking as reflective teaching. According to Fisher (2001), Dewey
is considered as the father of modern critical thinking tradition. Dewey (cited in Fisher, 2001, p. 2) defines reflective
thinking as active, persistent, and careful consideration of a belief or supposed form of knowledge in the light of
the grounds which support it and further conclusions to which it tends. Glaser (cited in Fisher, 2001, p. 3) defines
critical thinking as (1) an attitude of being disposed to consider in a thoughtful way the problems and subjects that
come within the range of ones experience; (2) knowledge of the methods of local inquiry and reasoning; and (3)
some skills in applying those methods.
Although its definitions vary, the common point about critical thinking is that it is difficult to learn and
teach this skill. That is, teaching critical thinking skills requires a better understanding of the critical thinking skills
as well as how to deliver instruction. Potts (1994) states that there are four indicators of critical thinking and he lists
them as the following:
Promoting interaction among students as they learn
Asking open-ended questions that do not assume "one right answer"

* Tel.: +90 312 586 85 00; fax: +90 312 586 80 91 .

E-mail address: iozkan@atilim.edu.tr.

1877-0428 2010 Published by Elsevier Ltd. Open access under CC BY-NC-ND license.
doi:10.1016/j.sbspro.2010.07.034

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Allowing sufficient time for students to reflect on the questions asked or problems
posed.
Teaching for transfer (p.1)
As it is seen above, interaction among the students is important if it is attempted to improve the critical
thinking skills of students. When students interact, they share their ideas and have a chance to hear others ideas, as
well, which helps them to develop their critical thinking skills. Moreover, it is important to note that teachers should
know each student is unique and they may come up with different answers to the same question. Therefore, as stated
by Potts above, while asking questions, one right answer should not be sought.
In the literature, there are various ways to teach critical thinking such as case studies, questioning, drama,
problem solving and etc. In the light of various applied techniques, motivating and productive activities are designed
in order to enforce critical thinking in students from different backgrounds.

2. Body

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Although teaching critical thinking doesnt seem simple while learning English, it is essential for students
academic and real life. When considering this fact, it can be asked what teachers can do to reinforce critical thinking
in their students? This is an interactive and collaborative study to improve students learning strategies with regard
to critical thinking through three different activities. It is a qualitative research and the activities were applied in
three different classes and the results are written according to observation.
The first activity is using brain teasers. In this activity, people work in groups of 4 and each group has a
bingo card on which there are different pictures. Then the teacher reads some definitions from his/her bag and the
group members try to guess the words and put a cross on the pictures of stated words. In this way, they analyze
definitions and learn the words themselves not by means of spoon feeding.
As a second activity, an interesting advertisement is shown to the students. Based on the advertisement
several questions are asked to the students. Here, one should be careful in choosing the questions as the content of
the questions are not supposed to be simple. They should be challenging, so that students can make inferences and
learn to think from different perspectives.
As a last activity, students are asked to listen to an incomplete story. After listening to this story, students
try to complete the story and at the end some discussion questions are asked based on their stories.

3. Conclusion

As enforcing critical thinking is very important for students academic and real life, critical thinking is essential to
both effective learning and productive living. Although this study was conducted in three different classes once
because of the limited time the results and expected results should not be ignored. It can be said that students found
the activities enjoyable but challenging. Whats more, it was observed that they were highly motivated and they did
not try to do the activities by heart. Besides, although there wasnt enough time to repeat the activities, it is expected
that these methods will provide different perspectives and an ability to think critically after being applied
periodically for a period of time. As a last remark, critical thinking can improve one's academic performance by
developing an understanding into the arguments and views of others by the help of this kind of activities.

4. Acknowledgement
I am heartily thankful to my friend, Iclal Sahin, whose encouragement, guidance and support from the
initial to the final level enabled me to develop an understanding of the subject.

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