Exploiting newspaper articles to develop higher order thinking skills in secondary school English classes

Date

2018

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

Tartu Ülikool

Abstract

The topic for this research was influenced by the discussions in the field of education on the topics of 21st century learning skills and the concept of a changed learning approach. The aim of this paper is to use authentic texts found in English newspapers with the purpose to teach higher order thinking skills to students at upper-secondary school level as part of English as a second language classes. So as to answer the research question on how newspaper articles could be implemented to teach and assess the acquisition of higher order thinking skills, a set of exemplary tasks are compiled and conclusions are drawn from both the studentsʼ answers and lesson observations. The study is organised into three chapters. The first chapter gives an overview of the researches of thinking and higher order thinking processes. The second chapter of this thesis looks upon the advantages and disadvantages of using newspaper articles as authentic material in language classes. This chapter also focuses on the issues of choosing suitable material as well as on the production of different tasks that could be designed and used in an English class. The third chapter includes an empirical case study conducted among my students from forms 10 and 11 at Rocca al Mare School. An introductory questionnaire was conducted to map the understanding of critical thinking as the highest of the thinking skills, as well as the studentsʼ attitude to the texts found in course books.

Description

Keywords

inglise keel, ajalehed, artiklid (meedia), mõtlemine, keeleõpetus, gümnaasiumid

Citation