Effect of Critical Thinking on Reading Skills of Student Teachers at University Level
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.53575/irjei.v2.03(21)12.129-138Keywords:
critical thinking, university students, receptive skills, productive skillsAbstract
The current study investigated the effectiveness of critical thinking teaching intervention on developing the receptive and productive skills of the students studying at university level. Both kind of skills are highly valued and expected from the students at university level. The receptive skills refer to listening and reading while productive skills are speaking and writing. The main objectives of the study was to find effect of ‘critical thinking’ as an intervention on receptive skills as well as on productive skills of students at university level. As well, it was to compare their performance before and after critical thinking intervention. Similarly, experiences with respect to critical thinking were also targeted to be found out. The study used quasi-experimental design due to its suitability in the given circumstances. The population of the study comprised of students from BEd (Hons) program. Due to small size, all the students of BEd (Hons) studying in second semester were taken as sample using total population sampling technique. A critical thinking model was adopted for the intervention purpose in the subject of Communication Skills in BEd program of education department in university of Haripur. The intervention continued for the period of eight weeks. The receptive (reading) and productive (writing) were measured through standardized pretest and posttest. As follow-up, to describe students' experiences, motivated learning strategies questionnaire (MLSQ) and critical thinking questionnaire (CTQ) were used to strengthen the results obtained from the intervention. The data were analyzed through ‘t-test’, ‘mean score’, ‘standard deviation’ and ‘percentages’. The results of the study showed better performance in reading and writing skills of the students at university level. It was recommended to train teachers in areas relevant to critical thinking in order to make them better teach their students in terms of critical thinking. Further researches should be carried out in different disciplines.
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