Developing critical thinking skills to improve reading comprehension
Main Article Content
Keywords
reading proficiency, background knowledge, transfer of domains, general instruction, schema theory, motivation, attitudes, interests, self-regulation, PISA-D
Abstract
The aim of this study is to determine the relationship between critical thinking skills and reading comprehension. Data was collected from treatment sessions, a self-evaluation and a test on critical thinking skills with two groups of learners from a language department at an Ecuadorian university. The results showed insignificant relation between critical thinking skills and learners' reading comprehension. The findings also revealed both groups had small differences during the pretest and posttest. The pretest and posttest showed minimal changes between groups, as well. Participants’ lack of concentration in texts, the unawareness and scarce use of their critical thinking skills were evidenced in their grammar, syntactic and semantics’ mistakes. The implications of these findings suggest further research in this area, exploring teaching practices that foster students’ critical thinking skills and reading comprehension.
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María Piedad Rivadeneira-Barreiro, Universidad Técnica de Manabí, Ecuador
Profesora de Inglés de la Universidad Técnica de Manabí, Ecuador. Doctora en Educación con Mención Internacional otorgado por la Universidad Autónoma de Madrid.