Daniel Fernando Rodríguez Nathaly Serrano...

Running head: Critical Thinking in Collaborative Learning Activities

Characterizing Critical Thinking Skills of Primary Students when Developing

Collaborative Reading Activities

Daniel Fernando Rodríguez

Nathaly Serrano Prieto

Universidad Distrital Francisco José de Caldas

Facultad de Ciencias y Educación

Proyecto Curricular Licenciatura en Educación Básica con Énfasis en Inglés

Bogotá, 2016

Critical Thinking in Collaborative Learning Activities

Characterizing Critical Thinking Skills of Primary Students when Developing

Collaborative Reading Activities

Daniel Fernando Rodríguez

Código 20111165002

[email protected]

Nathaly Serrano Prieto

Código 20111165025

[email protected]

A monograph submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree

of Bachelor of Arts in English Language Teaching

Thesis Advisor

Prof. Alejandro McNeil F.

[email protected]

Universidad Distrital Francisco José de Caldas

Facultad de Ciencias y Educación

Proyecto Curricular Licenciatura en Educación Básica con Énfasis en Inglés

Bogotá, 2016


Note of acceptance:

This study is entitled “Characterizing Critical

Thinking Skills of Primary Students when

Developing Collaborative Reading Activities”,

prepared by Daniel Fernando Rodriguez and

Nathaly Serrano. It has been approved and

accepted as a partial fulfillment of the requirements

of the degree of Bachelor in Teaching English.

Alejandro Mc Neil

Thesis Advisor

________________________________

Juror

_______________________________

Bogotá, 2016


The authors hereby declare that we are the sole authors of this monographic work.

We authorize Universidad Distrital Francisco José de Caldas to lend this monographic

work to other institutions or individuals for the purpose of scholarly research.

“La universidad Distrital Francisco José de Caldas no será responsable de por las ideas

expuestas en este trabajo”

(Acuerdo 19 de 1988, Artículo 177)


Acknowledgements

First we would like to thank our advisor Alejandro McNeil Fernandez for his help,

support, knowledge and encouragement to follow and finish our research project. Also,

this acknowledgement goes to all teachers during our career because thanks to them we

learned different ways to face a problem and how to solve it in a creative way through

research as the tool to do it. Finally, we want to mention our families and colleagues

because they represented academic and emotional support for us while we were walking

the path of professional development.


Abstract

This research study attempted to characterize fourth grader’s critical thinking skills

when developing collaborative reading strategies. The theoretical constructs were

grouped into two groups: one concerned with pedagogy (critical pedagogy and critical

thinking) and a second one concerned with learning as the result of social interactions

(collaborative learning and social interactions focused in students or learner-

centeredness). The main referents were (Collins & O'Brien, 2003) for learner-centered

learning based on collaborative learning and social interactions; and Paulo Freire (1921-

1997) and Henry Giroux (b. 1943) for critical pedagogy and critical thinking as

philosophical aspects of human learning. This study was conducted in a public school

located in Bogota with students aged 8 to 10. The results of this study revealed that

students felt motivated and used a variety of CT skills when exposed to problem-solving

reading activities. Moreover, the results suggest that collaborative groups enhance CT

skills.

Keywords: Critical pedagogy, Critical thinking, Reading, Critical reading, Social

interactions, Collaborative Reading, Student centeredness.

Resumen

Este estudio de investigación tuvo como objetivo caracterizar las habilidades de

pensamiento crítico de los estudiantes de cuarto grado al desarrollar actividades de

lectura en grupos colaborativos. Los constructos teóricos que se destacan en nuestra

investigación se dividieron en dos grupos: un grupo concebido con la pedagogía

(pedagogía crítica y pensamiento crítico) y el otro grupo concebido con el aprendizaje

(como el resultado de interacciones sociales (aprendizaje colaborativo, interacciones

sociales y las interacciones sociales centradas en el estudiante). Los referentes teóricos

principales fueron (Collins & O'Brien, 2003) para el aprendizaje centrado en el

estudiante basado en aprendizaje colaborativo e interacciones sociales; y Paulo Freire

(1921-1997) y Henry Giroux (b. 1943) para pedagogía crítica y pensamiento crítico

como aspectos filosóficos del aprendizaje. Este estudio se realizó en un colegio público

en Bogotá con estudiantes entre los 8 y 10 años de edad. Los resultados del estudio

revelaron que los estudiantes se sienten motivados y usan una variedad de habilidades

de pensamiento crítico cuando están expuestos a actividades de lectura enfocadas en la

resolución de problemas. Además, fue posible identificar que el trabajo en grupos

colaborativos fortalece sus habilidades de pensamiento crítico.

Palabras claves: Pedagogía critica, pensamiento crítico, lectura, lectura crítica,

interacciones sociales, trabajo colaborativo, aprendizaje centrado en el estudiante.


Table of Contents

Chapter One ................................................................................................................ 1

Introduction ................................................................................................................ 1

Research Interests .................................................................................................................... 2

Problem Statement .................................................................................................................. 2

Research Question ................................................................................................................... 4

Research Objectives ................................................................................................................. 4

Justification .............................................................................................................................. 5

Chapter Two ............................................................................................................... 7

Theoretical Framework .............................................................................................. 7

Critical Pedagogy ...................................................................................................................... 7

Critical Thinking ...................................................................................................................... 10

Reading .................................................................................................................................. 16

Critical Reading ...................................................................................................................... 18

Social Interactions .................................................................................................................. 20

Collaborative Learning ........................................................................................................... 21

Student-Centeredness ............................................................................................................ 23

Chapter Three ........................................................................................................... 28

Research Design ........................................................................................................ 28

Type of Research .................................................................................................................... 28

Type of Study ......................................................................................................................... 29

Sample Selection Criteria ....................................................................................................... 30

Data Collection Instruments and Techniques ......................................................................... 30

Focused Group Interviewing .................................................................................................. 31

Audiotapes/Videotapes ......................................................................................................... 31

Verbal Protocols ..................................................................................................................... 32


Students’ artifacts .................................................................................................................. 32

Chapter Four............................................................................................................. 33

Instructional Design .................................................................................................. 33

Setting and Participants ......................................................................................................... 33

Initial Observations ................................................................................................................ 34

Diagnosis ................................................................................................................................ 34

Diagnostic Instruments .......................................................................................................... 34

Findings of Diagnosis .............................................................................................................. 35

Description of Research Problem ........................................................................................... 35

Instructional Objectives ......................................................................................................... 36

Pedagogical Intervention .......................................................................................... 37

Methodology .......................................................................................................................... 40

Student’s Role ........................................................................................................................ 41

Teacher’s Role ........................................................................................................................ 42

Types of Learning and Teaching Activities .............................................................................. 42

Role of the Materials and Resources ...................................................................................... 42

Criteria Assessment ................................................................................................................ 43

Achievements to Evaluate ...................................................................................................... 43

Schedule ................................................................................................................................. 45

Chronogram for Pedagogical Intervention ............................................................................. 45

Chapter Five .............................................................................................................. 46

Data Analysis............................................................................................................. 46

Categories .................................................................................................................. 50

Students’ exposure to environmental problems .................................................................... 50

Learning strategies to accomplish common goals .................................................................. 53

Chapter Six................................................................................................................ 58

Conclusions ............................................................................................................... 58


Pedagogical Implications .......................................................................................... 60

Limitations of the Study ........................................................................................... 61

References ................................................................................................................. 63


List of Tables

Table 1 Table of Preliminary Observations and Research Question……….….. 4

Table 2 CT Stages in the new version of Bloom’s Taxonomy…………………12

Table 3 Characterizing CT Processes of Primary Students Developing

Collaborative Reading Activities………………………………..…….36

Table 4 Methodology…………………………………………………………..41

Table 5 Frequency table according to the use of CT skills………….…………49

List of figures

Figure 1 Bloom’s Taxonomy New version………………………………..…….12

Figure 2 Foundation of the pedagogical intervention……………………..…….37

Figure 3 Bloom’s Taxonomy (Revised). (Stein, 2015)……………………..…...44

Figure 4 Characteristics in CT Stages……………………………………..…….49

Figure 5 Use of CT Skills in the instruments……………………………………50

List of Annexes

Annex 1: Format of Journals

Annex 2: Interview

Annex 3: Format of transcriptions

Annex 4: Consent form format

Annex 5: Lesson plan format

Annex 6: Schedule

Critical Thinking in Collaborative Learning Activities 1

Chapter One

Introduction

The present study looks into critical thinking and collaborative learning disciplines and it

is involved in the line of research focused on literacy developed by la Universidad Distrital

Francisco Jose de Caldas. Furthermore, this research project aimed at describing how

primary students use their critical thinking skills as they develop reading activities in

collaborative groups. The purpose of the study is to understand the role of CT skills and the

influence of social interactions during activities based on reading. In addition, our goal is to

write a research project and later on an article about CT and collaborative learning processes

taking into account our experiences into the classroom.

In this research project the reader will find six chapters. The first chapter presents our

research interests, the research setting and the participants. The chapter also describes the

initial observations of the researchers and how these helped us make informed decisions

about diagnosis. The findings of the diagnosis, the description of the research problem, the

problem statement, the research questions, the research objectives and the justification are

also in the final part of this chapter. Chapter two presents the literature review in which the

constructs and all the theoretical bases that support our research project are explained in

detail from a specific critical perspective. Chapter three describes the research design. The

fourth chapter contains the instructional design and the description of the pedagogical

intervention in which is mentioned the approach used. Fifth chapter outlines important

aspects of the results of the project and the data analysis process. Finally, in chapter six the


reader will find the conclusions along the research, the implications for further pedagogical

and research practices as well as the limitations of this study.

Research Interests

Our research interest stems from our desire to understand how the students can develop

critical thinking in class, as a natural process resulting from a number of aspects including

collaborative work, which aimed at promoting meaningful learning. This interest led us to ask

ourselves about how students can bring their own life experiences to the class in order to

understand their lives and the things around them in a critical way. Also, it is important to

show students a variety of cognitive tools they can resort to in order to analyze every aspect

that they find in their lives, starting with their own process of learning. Our focus in this

regard was to strengthen the critical thinking processes in the students so that they, in turn,

could improve their reading and social skills. To attain this, we planned to implement critical

reading strategies within collaborative group activities to foster the development of critical

thinking skills in the English class. Accordingly, we also resorted to metacognitive strategies

to improve writing and reading processes.

Problem Statement

During our experience as pre-service teachers working with fourth graders, we observed

that when students performed reading activities individually, they limited themselves to

repeat the ideas from the reading without making a deep analysis or reflection about the topic.


Through the analysis of the data gathered by means of classroom observation protocols

(See Annex 1), we identified some difficulties in our students’ critical thinking and critical

reading processes as they engaged in in-class discussions and reading activities. The students´

participations were abundant but characterized mostly by personal arguments and discussions

ended in an array of personal opinions in which the most repetitive expressions were of the

kind “I believe it is good” and “I consider it is bad” but without any kind of support. Often

times they just spoke about the text, and they never tried to go beyond facts. Additionally, we

found that the students enjoyed group work more than individual work, and the results

whenever they engaged in the former type of work was better; that is, participation increased

and students lead better discussions and better overall performance.

Although personal arguments or opinions are important in the learning process, our main

concern in terms of classroom instruction was that of developing academic-like type of

reflection or argumentation (intellectually engaged thinking) in our students. We believe that,

within academic settings, students are to learn how to articulate their points of view with

traceable, verifiable and reliable information found in other sources or resulting from their

ability to weave intertexts.

That being said, we conclude that our research problem can be stated as follows: It is of

utmost importance to develop insights into how our students’ use / develop critical thinking

skills when engaged in collaborative reading activities. (See Table 1)


Table of preliminary observations and research question.

Findings (data analysis, observation protocol)

Description of research problem Research question / sub-questions

There were some students who

depicted a limited understanding

(critical reading) of the texts they

read. These students failed to

associate the readings to their

realities and, finally; individual

work minimized their participation

in class.

Students did not analyze readings

critically, especially whenever

working individually. Additionally,

these students barely participated in

class.

What characterizes students’ use of

critical thinking skills when they

develop collaborative reading

activities?

(Table 1)

Research Question

What characterizes students’ use of critical thinking skills when they develop collaborative

reading activities?

Research Objectives

To characterize students’ use of critical thinking skills when they develop collaborative

reading activities.


Justification

The importance of this study is supported in the need to reflect upon and describe

students’ processes regarding the use of critical thinking skills while they engage in reading

activities in small groups in order to provide teachers with clear evidence on how the process

happens and, consequently, how he/she can re-shape his/her teaching strategies to attain

better results in terms of development of critical thinking. Additionally, we consider that it is

important to analyze the way in which students make sense of the texts they read and relate

them to their contexts, experiences and previous knowledge to finally shape their social

interactions with their partners.

The research project was deemed important to students because it aimed at helping them

gain a better understanding of how their social interactions shape important aspects of their

context, their personalities and attitudes (interpersonal relationships, critical attitudes towards

life). The project was also considered to have potential for the development of students’

reading skills, which are of utmost importance within academic settings. This improvement in

reading should, in turn, positively affect their learning processes as it enables them to process

information in a more informed and critical way.

Moreover, we considered that this research project could contribute to the field of EFL

because it could help the community in general to see that reading or learning a new language

is not attained simply by studying the grammar rules of the target language or by repeating

them. Learning is also influenced by the context and the people the students interact with.

Thus, we wanted to promote scenarios based on this understanding of learning as a social

interactional process by fostering collaborative activities.


Finally, this study will guide us to continue with our further studies in these two

disciplines which are interesting for us in terms of professional development. We want to

understand the importance of CT skills into the classroom and promote contexts based on

social interactions because it reinforces the learning process.


Chapter Two

Theoretical Framework

This chapter explains the theoretical concerns about the main constructs of the study from

various perspectives. The researchers have grouped the constructs in such a fashion that they

can stand together in two groups, namely a group concerned with pedagogy (critical

pedagogy and critical thinking) and a group concerned with learning as the result of social

interactions (collaborative learning and social interactions centered in students or learner-

centeredness). The constructs in both groups bear a strong psychological and philosophical

bases in as much as our main referents are (Collins & O'Brien, 2003) for learner-centered

learning based on collaborative learning and social interactions; and Paulo Freire (1921-

1997) and Henry Giroux (b. 1943) for critical pedagogy (CP) and critical thinking as

philosophical aspects of human learning.

Critical Pedagogy

We review critical pedagogy based on the theory proposed by Henry Giroux and Paulo

Freire. According to Giroux, H. (2013), critical pedagogy is a political and moral project that

illuminates the relationship between knowledge, authority, and power. This type of pedagogy

also focuses on who has control over the conditions for the production of knowledge, values

and skills, identifying various aspects in life e.g. knowledge, identities, and authority, which

are constructed in a set of social relations. Finally, Giroux views critical pedagogy as an

outcome between particular struggles which is always related to the specificity of particular


contexts, students, communities, and available resources, the histories that students bring

with them to the classroom and the diverse experiences and identities they inhabit.

Supporting this idea Freire mentions in the introduction to his Pedagogía de la Esperanza:

“el acto de educar y de educarse sigue siendo en estricto sentido un acto político... y no solo

pedagogico” (Freire, 1985: 17). Critical pedagogy is a political issue which involves

education, as Freire and Giroux mention, creating an environment where the students can

speak about their reality by means of a “dialogical process of problematizing the reality of the

lives of students and teachers, and posing questions that seek to unveil the social, cultural,

economic, and political contradictions present in their lives” (Freire, 1985: 17). Taking into

account these definitions, we understood critical pedagogy as a social element that seeks a

better understanding of the different features of the society through pedagogy, using the

classroom and the students to discuss and analyze society in order to develop critical

thinking. In this research, critical pedagogy is the means to understand how education

involves the entire society through different kinds of actors in the school and the importance

of dialogue using not only academic issues with the students, but also political and social

issues. This is why critical pedagogy is the means to characterize critical thinking processes

in students.

Many researches have been carried out in the field of critical pedagogy, some of which are

referred to next. To begin with, Mary Breuing carried out a studied consisting in

“Problematizing Critical Pedagogy”, a study conducted to characterize seventeen (17) self-

identified critical pedagogues’ encounter and how they turn the theories of critical pedagogy

into post-secondary classroom practices. In this study, phone interviews were used in order to

identify the ways teachers defined CP, including what they considered the pedagogy’s central

aims and purpose. The interviews also explored how they advance critical pedagogy in their


classrooms. The results show the importance of Paulo Freire as the major theorist in this

movement, because Freire was mentioned 54 times throughout the 17 interviews. Other

theorists such as Giroux and Dewey were mentioned fewer times (between 8 to 5 times). The

author concluded that it is difficult to define critical pedagogy, since it is an important

element that we cannot reduce to just a little place or a few words; and whenever we do

reduce CP to a brief definition and we fail to see it as a universal field, we observe how

critical pedagogy has a multiple purpose and depends on praxis. This study helped us to

understand and to highlight the importance of CP and how it is a macro frame of small unities

aimed at enhancing the academic experience and critical thinking processes in the students.

Another study sample we read was “Teacher Education, Critical Pedagogy, and Standards:

An Exploration of Theory and Practice” by. Bercaw and Stooksberry (2000). The purpose of

this study was to ask whether a relationship can truly exist between a critical pedagogy and

teaching standards, using two qualitative studies, the first being an ethnographic based on

preparation of teachers to work with culturally diverse students. The second was a descriptive

study making an analysis with the INTASC (Interstate New Teacher Assessment and Support

Consortium) and CP. The authors concluded that schools are, and should be, public places

where classrooms are essential to bring and to discuss public and social problems into the

classroom as a democratic environment. Therefore, one goal of a successful teacher education

program is to make the INTASC Core Principles explicit and to provide opportunities for

prospective teachers to explore the standards, both in thinking and in action. Concurrently, as

teacher educators, we must offer prospective teachers the tools by which they can critically

examine the expectations of the principles of CP, knowing that it is by these standards that

many prospective teachers may eventually be assessed. This study is essential to our to

research, because it is concerned with the need to implement applied CP in schools no matter


the context, since CP is a way to think using the school as a means to interpret and bring

society to the class, bringing school and society together.

Critical Thinking

Closely related to critical pedagogy is the concept of critical thinking (CT). CT has been

discussed in many recent studies on education because it is part of the new perspective of

education where the focus of learning is based on experiences and socialization rather than

memorization and quantification of knowledge as was common in traditional education.

First, Ennis (2002) defines critical thinking as a "reasonable, reflective thinking focused

on deciding what to believe or do" (p. 44 - 46). He describes a person with critical thinking as

one that is not limited only to understanding the information that he or she receives from the

environment, but one who is able to judge the credibility of sources of information, to open

his/her mind to new knowledge, to identify conclusions on a specific topic and develop an

opinion of her/his own. Taking into account Ennis’ definition about critical thinking, we can

observe that it is actually what, in our understanding, needs to be developed within the

school. The purpose is to forget what Freire called banking education, which is based on

memorization and collection of knowledge, in order to reach a much deeper level of

interpretation i which students analyze and evaluate information to finally assume a position

regarding a specific topic based on arguments.


To complement the definition of the concept of CT given by Ennis, we consider Facione’s

definition. According to Facione (1990) critical thinking is a "purposeful, self-regulatory

judgment which results in interpretation, analysis, evaluation, and inference, as well as

explanation of the evidential, conceptual, Methodological, criteriological, or contextual

considerations upon which that judgment is based" (p. 26). CT is considered as the ability to

judge the information given through interpretation, analysis, evaluation and inference. From

Facione’s definition of the concept of CT we understand it as the ability to evaluate and judge

the information given by the context in order to make conclusions or restructure previous

knowledge.

It is important to bear in mind that CT cannot be measured. However, we can identify the

complexity of the CT processes based on a set of stages proposed by Bloom (1976).

According to him, CT has different stages which he classified based on six cognitive levels of

complexity. Accordingly, the levels proposed were: knowledge, comprehension, application,

analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. Later on, (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001) created a new

version of Bloom’s taxonomy in which they established the following stages: remembering,

understanding, applying, analyzing, evaluating and creating (See figure 1). Creating is the last

stage and this is the main objective of CT: to able not only to understand and analyze

something but also to propose ideas around a specific issue.


Bloom’s Taxonomy New version Forehand, M. (2005)

(Figure 1)

In the following table it is possible to observe the main characteristics of each stage. (See

table2)

CT Stages in the new version of Bloom’s Taxonomy

(Table 2)


Remembering.

It is the lowest level in critical thinking skills, defined as: ¨Retrieving, recognizing, and

recalling relevant knowledge from long-term memory¨ (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001: 67-68;

cited by Forehand 2010). In this stage the person recognizes information and develops simple

relations between the text and its meaning answering basic questions.

Understanding: It is defined as ¨Constructing meaning from oral, written, and graphic

messages through interpreting, exemplifying, classifying, summarizing, inferring, comparing,

and explaining¨ (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001: 67-68; cited by Forehand 2010). In this

second stage, the person associates the text with his or her own knowledge in order to

understand it in his or her own context.

Applying: The next stage is application. Application is defined as the capacity of

¨Carrying out or using a procedure through executing, or implementing ¨(Anderson &

Krathwohl, 2001: 67-68; cited by Forehand 2010). In this stage the person makes predictions

and creates relations with his or her own life in order to show how to apply the information

given.

Analyzing: It is defined as: ¨Breaking material into constituent parts, determining how

the parts relate to one another and to an overall structure or purpose through differentiating,

organizing, and attributing¨ (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001: 67-68; cited by Forehand 2010).

In this step, the person develops a process in which he or she understands the different parts

of the text in order to grasp its meaning and create inferences from the text.


Evaluating: Evaluating has been defined as: ¨Making judgments based on criteria and

standards through checking and critiquing.¨ (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001: 67-68; cited by

Forehand 2010). In this stage the person makes comparisons and conclusions between the

text, positions, point of view etc. In a critical way to show what he or she thinks about the

text, discussing; if the person agrees or disagrees with the text.

Creating: This is the last level in thinking skills defined as: ¨putting elements together to

form a coherent or functional whole; reorganizing elements into a new pattern or structure

through generating, planning, or producing¨. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001: 67-68; cited by

Forehand 2010). When the student understand and comprehend the text as a whole and they

are able to associate the text with his or her own context, he or she can create a new way to

understand the text expressing their critical point of view.

Based on these stages proposed by (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001), we analyzed the way

in which students used their critical thinking skills since we considered that the development

and promotion of CT in the field of education is very important because these enable students

to interpret their reality in a deeper way. Thus students are able to analyze different situations

around them in terms of politics, economy, science, arts, etc. in order to state their opinions

and share their knowledge about such situations. Taking into account that students are the

future society, being critical (analyzing, interpreting, evaluating and creating) allows people

to advance and make better and informed decisions. People would not adopt beliefs without

any reason because they will be able to take a stand and analyze any situation. This is why

we focused our research project in the description of CT skills. We wanted to observe how


students enhance their critical thinking in order to be more analytical and become creators of

solutions to different problems in our context.

Critical thinking skills could be applied using different sources such as oral information,

images, symbols, written information, etc. We implemented reading and critical reading as

the means to create a collaborative learning environment where CT could be observed.

Some studies around the concept of CT have been carried out in the last years. Here the

authors discuss and summarize some of them.

One of these studies was called Teaching Critical Thinking Skills to Fourth Grade

Students Identified as Gifted and Talented by Debra Connerly - Graceland University (2006).

The purpose of this study was to work intensively with a group of 4th grade gifted and

talented students at Linn-Mar Bowman Woods Elementary School in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, in

order to evaluate if critical thinking skills could indeed be taught. Using The Miniature Guide

to Critical Thinking for Children developed by Linda Elder (2001) and a “thinking of

thinking” approach. The data suggested that teaching CT skills does have a positive impact

on students’ awareness of their thinking because students were presented five intellectual

standards of critical thought, practiced those skills in a variety of situations, and were asked

to apply them to a real situation. Based on this, the author concluded that it is possible to

enhance critical thinking skills but it is a constant process which demands effort and

awareness in terms of teaching and learning.


Another study which was carried out in our country was called Characterizing 9th

graders' critical thinking skill of evaluation when implementing a macro frame of reading

strategies by Eliana Caro Aguilar y Jackeline Reyes Franco - Universidad Distrital Francisco

Jose de Caldas (2013). The purpose of this study was to analyze and describe students’

critical thinking when they were developing reading activities. The authors used a macro

frame of reading strategies in order to promote critical thinking of ninth grade students in a

public school in Bogota. The results of the study showed that the application of a set of

reading strategies promote critical thinking and enhance critical thinking skills. The authors

conclude that those reading strategies help students to become critical readers who are able to

analyze and evaluate the information given to later on relate to others in a real-life context.

Reading

Once the concepts of critical pedagogy and critical thinking have been defined, we now

proceed to define reading. There are many definitions of this concept but based on a critical

thinking perspective we define reading taking into account Wilson, Peters, Weber, &

Roeber´s (1987) definition. For them, reading is the process of constructing meaning through

the dynamic interaction among: (1) the reader's existing knowledge; (2) the information

suggested by the text being read; and (3) the context of the reading situation. Reading from

this perspective means to interpret the text through two important aspects: the previous

experiences and the current context where the reading is taking part. These two aspects

influence the reader´s understanding of the text. Reading is not to take some information

from a text and repeat it without any kind of analysis. Reading is to go beyond the text. It is


to use the context of the people and their own knowledge to interact with the text and to

develop a critical analysis and a deeper understanding about the reality.

In addition, we agree with Schoenbach, R., Greenleaf, C., Cziko, C. & Hurwitz, L.

(Undated) as they defined reading as a rigorous process which involves memory, knowledge

and experiences in order to analyze and comprehend the text in a deeper way. Thus, reading

implies memory, which, in this perspective implies remembering and associating these

previous experiences and knowledge with the content of the reading to later analyze and

identify the ideas behind the text and construct a better understanding of it. The reader will

face a lot of challenges as he or she develops a deeper analysis of the text because this

process requires that people use their own knowledge and life experiences in order to grasp

the ideas of the text for a deeper and wider understanding.

Considering the concept of reading as a process which resorts to students’ previous

knowledge and experiences in order to analyze and comprehend the text in a deeper way, we

consider that it is important to promote reading in the classroom because students need to

understand and conceptualize other worlds, contexts and perspectives. It is important that

students start to make relationships between what they already know and the new knowledge

that they can construct from texts. Moreover, we consider that in terms of teaching and

learning, the process of reading cannot be perceived as simple interpretation or

summarization of a text, but as analysis, relation to previous experiences, demand for more

information and understanding the texts in a deeper way. We carried out our research project

taking into account this conception about reading so, in this case the process of reading

becomes the means to enhance CT skills. Therefore, from this moment we are going to


discuss the use of critical reading in the language classroom because it relates to the concept

of reading that was already presented and CT which is the backbone of our research project.

Critical Reading

According to Kurland, D. (2000) critical reading is an analytic activity in which the

person identifies patterns or useful information in order to build an interpretation or assign

meaning to a text. Hans-Georg Gadamer has demonstrated that the way we read and interpret

texts is dependent on our "pre-understanding" and "prejudices". Taking into account these

aspects, critical reading involves a rigorous process in which the person has to use the text,

as Wallace,C. (2013), mentioned, only as a tool to convey a deeper meaning by using of his

or her previous knowledge, his or her previous experiences and his or her context. So, the

goal of critical reading is to convey a deeper (more informed) understanding of a text

because reading cannot be limited to summarizing the information presented.

The University of Leicester determined the following characteristics of a critical reader:

● the reader examines the evidence or arguments presented;

● checks out any influences on the evidence or arguments;

● examines the interpretations made; and

● Decides to what extent he is prepared to accept the authors’ arguments, opinions, or

conclusions.


In this sense, a critical reader becomes an analytic person who is able to understand the

information given, analyze it, evaluate it and assume a position based on other sources,

previous knowledge and his or her perceptions about the topic.

Critical reading becomes even more important in the field of education than just the

concept of reading which was explained before because in this case, the concept of reading is

related to the concept of CT as students have to understand the possible sense of the text,

analyze and evaluate the information given with the help of their previous knowledge,

experiences and context to finally be able to create new understandings around a specific

topic. We consider that it is important to enhance critical reading skills in the classroom

because we want that students will be able to argue, analyze and evaluate what they learn

instead of assimilate knowledge without any rejection “just because the teacher said”. That is

the reason why we implemented critical reading as a tool to perceive CT skills of students.

Once the concepts of reading and critical reading were defined and considering that both

concepts points the use of CT we have to take into account that all this process is close

related to social interactions because it is through the communication and the language that it

is possible to share and get new perspectives and understandings about a topic.

Many studies around the concept of reading have been carried out in various contexts.

Some of them are related to reading comprehension while others are more related to reading

strategies and critical thinking. We discussed one of these studies which focused on reading

comprehension. The study was called Improving Eleventh Graders’ Reading Comprehension

Through Text Coding and Double Entry Organizer Reading Strategies by Rocío Mahecha,


Stella Urrego y Erika Lozano - Policarpa Salavarrieta School, Colombia (2011). The project

was carried out with a group of eleventh graders at a public school in Bogotá. The aim of the

study was to encourage students to improve reading comprehension of texts in English using

two reading strategies: text coding and double entry organizer. The results of this study

suggest that reading strategies appeared to be good tools to help students improve their level

of comprehension in reading short texts in English. Also, participants in this study were able

to identify and comprehend new vocabulary, grammar rules, main ideas and conclusions

about a text. Moreover, the application of these reading strategies enhanced students’ self-

esteem which allowed them to become more confident readers.

Another research carried out around the concept of reading from a critical thinking

perspective was called the relationship between reading comprehension and critical thinking:

A theoretical study by Abdulmohsen S. Aloqaili - King Saud University, Saudi Arabia

(2011). The purpose of this theoretical study was to review and analyze the relationship

between reading comprehension and critical thinking. The results revealed that: (1) there is

well established relationship between reading comprehension and critical thinking, (2)

schema theory provides a rational premise for that relation, and (3) there is no consensus

regarding the definition of critical thinking which might be interpreted as a lack of an

accepted framework for critical thinking.

Social Interactions

Social interaction is a process of reciprocal stimulation or response between 2 or more

people. According to Vygotsky (1962), social interaction plays an important role in the


learning process and he proposed the zone of proximal development (ZPD) where learners

construct the new language through socially mediated interaction. Social interaction

contributes to the learning process because in that interaction learners can share experiences,

previous knowledge and toughs which complement their existing knowledge. In this research,

social interaction is a fundamental element because thanks to the social interaction the

students can share his thoughts, beliefs and previous knowledge in order to create a critical

environment in which the students can develop different stages of the critical thinking using

the critical reading as a means to develop social interaction.

Collaborative Learning

Collaborative learning is defined from the constructivist theory of Vygotsky in which he

highlights the role of social and cultural interaction in the learning process and states that

knowledge is co-constructed and that individuals learn from another. Vigotzky (1962) called

this process as the Zone of Proximal Development which refers to “a range of tasks that are

too difficult for an individual to master alone, but can be mastered with the assistance or

guidance of adults or more-skilled peers”.

Taking into account collaborative learning definition, it is possible to distinguish two

types of group working: cooperative learning and collaborative learning. We focused on the

collaborative learning because instead both concepts have similarities in terms of that they

are centered in the learner, in both cases students work together in small groups (of 2–5

students per group) and the teacher plays a facilitative role, in collaborative learning, students

have to solve a problem, complete a task, or create a product and at the same time, they have


the opportunity to interact with their partners, present and defend ideas, exchange diverse

beliefs, make questions about different issues, and create new understandings about their

reality. “In collaborative learning environment, the learners are challenged both socially and

emotionally as they listen to different perspectives, and are required to articulate and defend

their ideas”. (Smith and MacGregor, 1992). It is important to take into account that the main

goal of the collaborative learning is to create new knowledge through the continual exchange

of ideas and thoughts from the participants involved.

In other words, the goal of the collaborative learning is to enhance students to think about

and solve abstract problems, problems that may have no specific answers, or multiple

solutions. As well, there is no commitment to group members that each will learn and be

successful as a result of the process. Collaborative learning is, fundamentally, an intellectual

process within a laissez-faire social framework. (Olivares, 2005).

The collaborative learning is a way to organize the students in order to apply critical

reading to create social interactions in order to characterize the critical thinking stages when

the students develop collaborative activities. For that reason, collaborative learning is

essential when we look for to create a critical pedagogy environment.

Collaborative learning (CL) has been an important element in schools and academic fields

around the world for long.Therefore, in the area of CL there abundant research material, an

example of which is the research called Analyzing EFL University Learners’ Positionings

and Participation Structures in a Collaborative Learning Environment by Aida Montenegro,

Universidad Minuto de Dios (2012). The purpose of this study was to understand the


learners’ participation and interaction in the English class when they were working in

collaborative learning environments, using two data analysis methods: Conversational

Analysis (CA) and Transactional Analysis (TA). The data gathered showed that the reasons

why some learners did not participate in groups were related to the fear of making mistakes in

English and disinterest in assuming responsibilities as members of the group. The author

concluded that (1) the rights and responsibilities during group work were given according to

the way the learners mutually acknowledged their skills, (2) the participation structures were

characterized by the use of words related to leadership and collaboration, and (3) the

responsibilities were divided among the members of the group, mainly taking into account

their time availability and skills. The school and social skills recognized by the peers were

related to (a) checking each others’ work in English, (b) building consensus among peers, and

(c) guiding the development of the task and helping assign responsibilities. This research

highlights the connection between collaborative learning and social interaction, two key

words in our research project. Also, the importance of collaborative learning environments in

schools, is used to enhance the interaction between students and to strengthen the

responsibilities and values in the students. In our research this study is important because it

supports the idea that CL environments are fundamental to observe and comprehend

interactions among students, and how the ideas of the students flow in the groups,

emphasizing the idea of CL as a necessary element when we want to characterize any type of

knowledge; in this specific case, those referred to as critical thinking stages.

Student-Centeredness

Our research project was based on collaborative work and social interactions in order to

analyze critical thinking skills. These theories were also complemented with the concept of


student centeredness; which is referred to the idea that in the class environment, the focus

should be placed on the students rather than on the teacher or the methodology applied by the

teacher.

The concept of student-centeredness is referred to an instructional approach in which

students influence the contents, activities, materials, and place of learning. This learning

model places the student (learner) at the center of the learning process. The instructor

provides students with opportunities to learn independently and from one another and

coaches them in the skills they need to develop effectively. The Student Centered Instruction

(SCI) approach includes techniques such as substituting active learning experiences for

lectures, assigning open-ended problems and problems requiring critical or creative thinking

that cannot be solved by following text examples, involving students in simulations and role-

plays, and using self-paced and/or cooperative (team-based) learning. If properly

implemented, SCI can lead to increased motivation to learn, greater retention of knowledge,

deeper understanding, and more positive attitudes towards the subject being taught (Collins &

O'Brien, 2003).

Student centeredness places the learner as the focus and the most important aspect in the

process of learning. It challenges the teacher / expert approach concept in which the most

important aspect is the teacher and the instructional design implemented by the teacher.

Student-centered learning aims to develop learner autonomy and independence (Jones, Leo,

2007) so, autonomy is the result of SCI as students are responsible for their own learning.


It is important to implement a student-centered approach because it allows students to

develop autonomy, leadership and confidence as well as it encourages their learning process.

We consider that we need to leave the past behind and overcome the traditional education

which seems to be still alive in many context. In this type of education, the teacher is

considered a wise individual who cannot be rejected. The participation of students rather that

the participation of the teacher is more important. The teacher should be considered a guide

for students and their role is to be responsible in order to achieve their own goals in terms of

learning.

In our study, we implemented an approach based on the learners, not the teacher. We

focused on the analysis of students’ interactions while developing reading activities and our

role was to guide them in order to bring experiences and previous knowledge to the class, to

understand different readings, to develop critical thinking skills through a process approach

and to go beyond surface interpretation of texts.

Following are some student-centered practices as examples that show the way in which

this approach has been implemented taking into account an article published by McKenna

(2014).

“In San Francisco, at City Arts and Technology High School, the curriculum includes a

strong focus on social justice and identity. Social justice themes are used as a strategy to

empower youth and encourage them to think critically. Often there is an interdisciplinary


dimension to the integration of social justice issues, particularly between social studies,

English, and art.” McKenna. (2014)

“At Life Academy of Health and Bioscience in Oakland, the culminating and most

rigorous work for students is the senior research paper, a yearlong assignment that many

graduates describe as one of the academic experiences that was most helpful for the first year

of college. For the senior paper, each student researches a question that emerges out of her

internship experiences and about which the student is authentically curious.” McKenna.

(2014)

As depicted above, all of these practices and programs based on student-centeredness

show that students are the main characters in the learning process. They have to participate

and create new perspectives and projects based on their interests in order to achieve a specific

goal and the teacher only represents a guide for them during the process.

All of these concepts represented the backbone of our research project. Starting from a

critical pedagogy environment, where students reflected their critical thinking skills which

consist on: knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation

through reading as the means which emerged this CT process. The analysis of these

processes were developed from social interactions that students took part in collaborative

learning. Taking into account the authors presented before in the theoretical framework, we

consider that the learning process is motivated by communication with others, by previous


experiences and the wish to share those experiences with classmates or partners in order to

create new understandings about a specific issue or topic.


Chapter Three

Research Design

This chapter presents the type of research that we conducted, the type of study, the

instruments used to collect the data and the criteria followed to select the sample.

Type of Research

This was a qualitative research in which the main objective was to describe the way

students used their critical thinking skills when they were developing reading activities in

collaborative groups. We based our research project in a qualitative paradigm because of the

nature of the data collected and because this type of research made it possible for us to

identify many aspects according to the focus of our research.

We understand qualitative research as the type of research which describes particularities

from people such as behaviors, attitudes, perspectives, etc. All of these particularities

represent the basis to support the paradigm of our research project. Taking into account this

definition about qualitative research we agree with Denzin & Lincoln’s definition of the term,

according to which:

Qualitative research is a situated activity that locates the observer in the world. It

consists of a set of interpretive, material practices that make the world visible. These

practices transform the world. They turn the world into a series of representations,

including field notes, interviews, conversations, photographs, recordings, and memos

to the self. At this level, qualitative research involves an interpretive, naturalistic


approach to the world. This means that qualitative researchers study things in their

natural settings, attempting to make sense of, or to interpret, phenomena in terms of

the meanings people bring to them. (2005: 3)

Qualitative research implies interpreting and describing the variables that the observer can

find in a specific context. It is possible to collect the information needed by the researcher

through the use of data collection instruments such as journals, field notes, surveys,

questionnaires, etc.

To complement the definition of qualitative research, we also consider that this type of

research allows researcher to comprehend the way in which people interpret the world.

Merriam (2009) says that “Qualitative researchers are interested in understanding the

meaning people have constructed, that is, how people make sense of their world and the

experiences they have in the world”. (p. 13) These aspects are very important in our research

because it is aimed at describing how students learn with others and construct new

understandings about their lives and about their context.

Type of Study

From this qualitative type of research we developed our research project based on a

descriptive study in which the information is collecting without making any modification to

the environment where the research is carried out. According to The Office of Human

Research Protections (OHRP), a descriptive study is “Any study that is not truly

experimental.” This means that the researcher does not modify the context and he or she


maintains the focus of the research on the observation of behaviors, attitudes or other

characteristics of a particular group.

Moreover, we carried out a longitudinal descriptive study which is defined as an

investigation in which participant outcomes (…) are collected at multiple follow-up times.

We observed how students used critical thinking skills while participating in collaborative

learning at different times in order to analyze every important aspect.

Sample Selection Criteria

The target population selected for this project was a group of primary level students. They

were students from fourth grade whose ages ranged from 8 to 10.

We selected the participants for the study taking into account a purposive technique for

sample selection (Patton,1990). This sample selection consists in the selection of the

participants taking into account some characteristics or relevant aspects that are significant

for the purpose of the study. We selected students who were participatory, those who

interacted and were more involved in the development of the activities and those who used

their critical thinking skills in a remarkable way.

Data Collection Instruments and Techniques

We implemented instruments such as focused group interviews, audiotapes/videotapes,

verbal protocols and students’ artifacts as the means to collect the data. We will define them


and explain them considering at the same time the importance of these instruments for our

research purpose.

Focused Group Interviewing

We organized students in groups of 5 students and we followed a focused group

interviewing in which “the interviewer creates a supportive environment, asking focused

questions, to encourage discussion and the expression of differing opinions and points of

view. These interviews may be conducted several times with different individuals so that the

researcher can identify trends in the perceptions and opinions expressed, which are revealed

through careful, systematic analysis” (Krueger, 1988, p. 18). So, we consider that the focused

interviews are useful tools which allow us to characterize and describe students’ perspectives

and important aspects of their learning process.

Audiotapes/Videotapes

Audiotapes or videotapes are useful to understand how people interact, how they use body

language, what is happening in conversations among multiple participants or focus groups,

etc. This is why we used this data collection instrument taking into account that we wanted to

observe in a detailed way how students interacted with one another and used their critical

thinking skills as they were discussing about specific topics.


Verbal Protocols

Verbal protocol is a method to gather data using the interaction among students and the

mental reactions when an individual develops a task, activity, exercise, etc. In order to

analyze how the critical thinking stages operate when students carry out an activity or task.

Cummings defines verbal protocols as “think aloud”, in which individuals say what is going

through their minds while they are in the process of solving the problem or performing the

task (Cummings, 1990). For this reason, verbal protocols are essential to observe interactions

and critical processes of students.

Students’ artifacts

Rockford, (reference cited by Mills, 2010) refers to students’ artifacts as

“classrooms’ sources (written or visual) of data that contribute to our understanding of what

is happening in our classrooms and schools” (pg. 72). From this perspective we understood

students’ artifacts as each work, draft or written activity from students where it is possible to

observe and identify their learning process. We implemented a set of activities using graphic

organizers where students could evidence their use of CT skills.


Chapter Four

Instructional Design

In this chapter we describe the pedagogical intervention implemented in a public school of

Bogotá during our research. It includes the description of research setting and participants,

initial observations, diagnosis, diagnostic instruments, findings of diagnosis, description of

the problem, the approach, the methodology and objectives, besides an explanation of the

lessons and the activities proposed during the sessions. There is also a description of the

learners and teachers’ role, the achievement indicators, and the assessment criteria.

Setting and Participants

This research project was carried out in a public school located in Fontibon in Bogotá city.

This is a bilingual school where some subjects are taught in English considering “El plan

Nacional de Bilinguismo”. (MEN, 2004 – 2019)

This study was carried out with students from fourth grade whose ages ranged from 8 to

10. These students were selected taking into account purposive sampling (Patton, 1990) so,

we selected those students who most demonstrate participation and CT skills.


Initial Observations

We began our observation from August to November of 2014. During the development of

our journals (See Annex 1) and during the implementation of some classes, we realized that

when students were working individually in reading activities, they limited themselves to

reading comprehension without making a deep analysis about the texts they read. Also we

realized that, when they did the same type of activities in groups, they began to discuss about

the readings and some of them showed a reflective point of view and a deep analysis of the

readings.

Diagnosis

In order to state the problem, we decided to carry out activities based on group working

and reading activities. We observed that students demonstrated a better understanding about

the topic when they had to develop those activities in groups than individually.

Diagnostic Instruments

We implemented some specific lesson plans in which sometimes students had to develop

reading activities in groups or individually. Also, we implemented focused classroom

observations based on this organization.


Findings of Diagnosis

Based on the observation of some classes and the implementation of individual and group

class activities, we stated the following conclusions:

- Some students limited their understanding to a summary or simple repetition of

ideas when they work individually.

- Students did not associate the readings to their reality.

- Individual work minimized students’ participation in class.

Description of Research Problem

During the observation period time, we realized that some students limited themselves to

reading and summarizing a text instead of analyzing it in a deeper way when they had to

work individually. Students read and developed the exercises but they did not analyze the text

itself which made the class somehow superficial for students in terms of learning. We wanted

students to go beyond the information that is given by the teacher; it does not have any sense

to repeat what others say about a specific topic. The main purpose was for students to make

questions about what they read and discuss to gain new perspectives and understandings.

Moreover, we noticed, through focused group observations and teacher journals that when

students had to develop reading activities in groups, some of them analyzed the texts,

discussed them and drew conclusions together. From our observation of group work

activities, it was possible to identify that students showed variations in their use of critical


thinking skills when they worked in collaborative groups and all of those variations guided us

to construct the background of our research project.

The following table (see table 3), summarizes the process of diagnosis:

Characterizing Critical Thinking Processes of Primary Students

Developing Collaborative Reading Activities

Research interest

Observation

Diagnostic

instruments

Findings Description of

research

problem

Critical thinking as a

fundamental aspect in the context of each person, also Critical Thinking as a tool to interpret and analyze every aspect in students’ daily life.

Students ́critical

thinking skills

Collaborative reading activities.

(Lesson plans)

(Classroom focused

observations)

There were some

students who limited their understanding to a summary or simple repetition of ideas. Also, they did not associate the readings to their

reality and finally, individual work minimized their participation in class

Students do not

analyze readings when they work individually and they tend to summarize and repeat the same ideas that are written in the text.

(Table 3)

Instructional Objectives

- To foster reading as a social practice.

- To promote the use of CT skills while developing collaborative reading activities.


Pedagogical Intervention

Through this instructional design, we attempt to enhance students’ critical thinking skills

and conscious about the importance of social interactions in the learning process. The

foundation of our pedagogical intervention comes from Content Language Integrated

Learning – CLIL (Marsh, 1994) as the method implemented, the communicative approach

(Richards and Rodgers, 2001) considering language as doing things and the socio cultural

learning theory (Vygotsky, 1962) considering learning as analytical. These three concepts are

enclosed into the school’s vision of curriculum which is framed into a CT perspective and

students’ autonomy development. These concepts are correlated and represent the basis of

our research intervention. (See figure 3)

Foundation of the pedagogical intervention

(Figure 2)


Starting with the concept of CLIL, we implemented CLIL (Content and Language

Integrated Learning) as the background of our project. “The Content and Integrated Language

Learning (CLIL) is a generic term and it refers to any educational situation in which an

additional language-and, therefore it not the most frequently used in the context- used to

teaching different subjects in the language”. (Marsh and Langé, 2000: iii) The term CLIL

refers to an approach in which subjects such as history, geography or others are taught

through a foreign language. CLIL also represents an umbrella term which contains content

based instruction, content based learning, bilingual programs and immersion programs. CLIL

programs are focused on the development of a second language while students are leaning

other basic subjects.

Classroom Principles in CLIL

CLIL methodology includes the following principles:

Language is used to learn as well as to communicate.

It is the subject matter which determines the language needed to learn.

Additionally, According to the 4Cs curriculum (Coyle 1999), a successful CLIL lesson

should combine elements of the following:

o Content - Progression in knowledge, skills and understanding related to specific elements

of a defined curriculum

o Communication - Using language to learn whilst learning to use language

o Cognition - Developing thinking skills which link concept formation (abstract and

concrete), understanding and language


o Culture - Exposure to alternative perspectives and shared understandings, which deepen

awareness of otherness and self.

Taking into account CLIL methodology, we thought science and we focused on

environment protection and conscious about the nature.

Following with the theory of language, we started from both a functional and an

interactional view of language under a communicative approach. This means that we are not

to consider the proper way to use the second language (the form or use of grammar) but we

are going to consider the communication itself in order to get new perspectives or knowledge.

We understand the language as the means to construct knowledge or language as doing

things. Richards and Rodgers (2001) state that “language should be used for expressing and

communicating meanings; it should be seen as a mean to accomplish the purpose of

expressing opinions, ideas and beliefs” (pg.160). According to this, language is a means to

communicate and express ideas, beliefs, feelings or opinions to others in order to achieve

pragmatic goals.

In terms of the theory of learning, we consider the use of language to construct learning

based on social interactions. So, the vision of learning is based on a socio-cultural factor as

suggested (Vigotzky, 1962). The learning comes from social interactions and it is influenced

by the culture, social issues, personal experiences, etc. From this perspective, learning is

viewed as analytical which means that learning contributes to develop cognitive skills (take

decisions, analyze information, evaluate the information, etc.)


Methodology

We implemented 5 classes around different topics related to the class of science. The

topics were focused on the ecosystem and environmental care. Each session was designed

with the purpose to evidence the 6 stages on CT taking into account the CLIL framework for

the development of the reading activities.

This framework consists of 4 stages:

1. Processing the text: students identify the organization of the text (headings, subheadings,

etc.)

2. Identification and organization of knowledge: Students organize the information through

graphic organizers (CT evidence)

3. Language identification: students identify the use of the language, vocabulary and

meaning.

4. Tasks for students: Complete a specific objective or task taking into account group

working (reading task, listening task)


The following table (See table 4) shows the way in which we organized the contents, the

framework of lesson plans and the CLIL framework in reading activities:

Methodology

CONTENTS FRAMEWORK OF LESSON

PLANS

CLIL STRUCTURE FOR READING

ACTIVITIES

The ecosystem

Warming up Activity 1 Activity 2 Feedback

Processing the text

Problems that afect the ecosystem

Identification and organisation of knowledge

Stategies to protect the environment

Language identification

Recycling

Tasks for students Reflection about environmental

care

(Table 4)

Student’s Role

Student´s role is to be inquiry about their knowledge, in other words, going beyond of the

information that the teacher presents during the classes. Students have to ask themselves

about their own learning process, share their doubts and being participative in the class by

bringing their experiences and sharing them with the classroom. Black (2005) stated that

critical thinking requires students to take their own thinking apart: to analyze their own

thinking according to standards of clarity, accuracy, relevance, logic, and fairness. Students

need to develop autonomous practices, in which they can manage the way how and what they

learn, giving their opinions about the topics and activities of the class, questioning themselves

about if they are really learning or if they are just taking the information doing logical things

and passing the information.


Teacher’s Role

Teacher´s role is to be a leader, a guide, and a facilitator. That means being able to design

environments and materials in which students can interact with different type of contents and

realities, but always keeping in mind the critical thinking stages “In order to engage students

in critical thinking, the educator needs to act as a facilitator to allow for discussion and

encourage a freer thought process” (Tsai et al., 2013).

Also, the teacher has to give feedback to students because they need to understand how

they can improve their learning process in an autonomous way. The teacher has to take into

account students´ previous knowledge to create situations in which they can relate their

experiences to the new knowledge.

Types of Learning and Teaching Activities

- Critical readings (Word clouds, stories)

- Graphic organizers for reading activities (story maps, cluster word maps, etc)

- Discussions, presentations, role plays.

Role of the Materials and Resources

The Material´s role emphasizes critical thinking stages and it provides students the

opportunity to interact with some environmental problems around the world. We used

readings about science and natural environment as a means to promote CT skills. Also, the

materials focused on students learning new ways to organize the contents. In addition, we


created a context of discussion about different topics in which we implemented activities

using graphic organizers, because these tools were meaningful and practical to enhance CT

skills.

Criteria Assessment

To evaluate students’ processes we focused on the MEN standards. According to the MEN

(Ministerio de Educación Nacional) standards, students from fourth grade have to fulfill some

competences in a second language – English in our case -, so we based on these standards

specifically on the reading part because this part is the most related to our purpose.

READING

- Utilizo gráficas para representar la información más relevante de un texto. - Utilizo el diccionario como apoyo a la comprensión de textos Reconozco, en un texto narrativo corto, aspectos como qué, quién, cuándo y dónde

Achievements to Evaluate

To evaluate our student’s process during our intervention, we focused on the evidence of

the six levels of CT skills: remembering, understanding, applying, analyzing, evaluating and

creating stated in the revised version of Blooms’ taxonomy. These stages were evidenced in

students’ development of graphic organizers and their participation in class. Taking into

account these elements, we evaluated the coherence between the information in the graphic

organizers and the Bloom´s taxonomy. In the image (See figure 3) we can observe the stages

and the requirements of each one, so the evaluation was focused on these stages and how

students express their ideas in the graphic organizers when they worked in collaborative

groups.


(Stein, 2015) (Figure 3)

In addition, we implement the following rubric for evaluation in order to identify the

student’s use of CT skills.

Rubrics for Evaluation

Achievements 1 2 3

Students’ skills and

abilities in using of critical thinking stages when they are developing the activities

the student does not use

any critical thinking stage , and he or she is not able to identify these stages while they are developing the activities

The student uses some

critical thinking stages, but he or she still has some problems when he or she is using them in the activities

The student use correctly

all critical thinking stages, and he is able to fulfill the requirements of each critical thinking stage

Students’ ability to work in collaborative groups and

integrate and share their opinions and thoughts inside the groups

The students does not work in collaborative groups and

he divide the work in parts, also he or she does not share their opinion with the group

The student works sometimes in a

collaborative way but he or she does not share his or her opinion or he or she does not integrate the opinions of his or her mates.

The student works in collaborative way , sharing

her or his opinion and integrating all the opinions of his or her mates

Students’ capacity to reflect and identifying the

problematic in the Readings and their ability to connect these readings with their own contexts.

The student does not reflect about the reading

and he or she is not able to create a link between the reading and his or her context

The students sometimes reflect and identify some

aspects of the reading , but he or she is not able to connect these problematic to his or her context

The student identifies and reflect about the

problematic in the reading and he or she is able to connect and to link the reading with her or his context


Schedule (See annex 6)

Chronogram for Pedagogical Intervention

Date Monday 24th,

August, 2015

Wednesday

26th, August,

2015

Monday 7th ,

September,

2015

Wednesday

16th,

September,

2015

Monday 21th,

September, 2015

Instrument Verbal

protocols

Videotapes/au

diotapes

Verbal

protocols

Videotapes/au

diotapes

Verbal

protocols

Videotapes/au

diotapes

Verbal

protocols

Videotapes/au

diotapes

Verbal protocols

Videotapes/audio

tapes

Instrument Student’s

Artifacts

Student’s

Artifacts

Student’s

Artifacts

Student’s

Artifacts

Instrument Focused

Interview


Chapter Five

Data Analysis

This chapter presents the description of the approach that we implemented in order to analyze

the data which focused on characterizing student’s critical thinking skills when implementing

collaborative reading activities. It includes the description of the data management collected

from focused interviews, verbal protocols and students’ artifacts in order to conceptually

validate and expand a theory.

The approach that we used to organize and analyze the data was a Directed Content

Analysis (Hsieh & Shannon, 2005) which is a method that allows the researcher to interpret

the content of a text through the classification, coding and recognizing themes and

patterns. Moreover, the purpose of the Directed Content Analysis is to conceptually validate

and expand a theory, in our case, Bloom's revised taxonomy (2001).

We focused on students’ responses, reflections and thoughts about critical activities

implemented in our classes, for instance: graphic organizers, role-plays, discussions, etc. In

these activities we looked for classify and listing characters and ideas such applying,

illustrating , evaluating, creating possible solutions to problems, discussing and sharing their

ideas with their classmates, etc.

The data was collected through three different instruments: students’ artifacts, interviews

and verbal protocols. We will describe the function and the data gathered of each one next.

With the students’ artifacts we got a sample of the critical thinking skills and the graphic

organizers. Rockford suggests, (reference cited by Mills, 2010) students’ artifacts are

classrooms sources of data (written or visual) that contribute to our understanding of what is


happening in our classrooms and schools” (pg. 72). We organized the students’ artifacts in

two groups, and according to the graphic organizer, we used a chart based on Bloom’s

Revised taxonomy (2001) in order to find patterns among the groups. The artifacts were

collected at the end of each session and put in a folder.

Interviews were also used. The Interviews established dialogue with the students in order

to get their perceptions regarding the collaborative groups and themes worked during the

sessions; as Krueger mentioned “to encourage discussion and the expression of differing

opinions and points of view” (Krueger, 1988, p. 18). All questions were open - ended

questions that allowed the researcher to formulate or change the questions in order to better

understand the perceptions of students. Also, open - ended questions helped students to

express themselves freely. This interview was made at the end of our pedagogical

intervention.

The third data collection instrument was verbal protocols. Cummings defines verbal

protocols as “think alouds”, in which individuals say what is going on in their minds while

they are in the process of solving the problem or a task (Cummings, 1990). In this sense,

verbal protocols helped us to analyze how the students did the activities and how critical

thinking skills operated during the activities. Verbal protocols were recorded in specific

classes because we tried to take advantage of some activities which involved discussions or

critical perspectives.

Based on the Directed Content Analysis approach, we grouped the data by each instrument

and we classified the information taking into account the 6 stages of critical thinking

proposed in the new version of Bloom's taxonomy (2001). The framework was made taking

into account the following chart (See figure 4)


Characteristics in CT stages

(Figure 4)

At first, we analyzed CT skills presented in relation to the frequency of use in each of

the instruments. Thus, we organized the data in the following table (See table 5) and we

illustrated it in a bar chart (See figure 5):

Frequency table according to the use of CT skills

ct stages student artifacts interview verbal protocols

remembering 8 10 2

understanding 7 19 3

applying 5 7 1

analyzing 0 3 1

evaluating 2 4 2

creating 3 3 3

(Table 5)


(Figure 5)

According to the data presented in the table, it is possible to observe that in the case of

students’ artifacts, the most frequently used skill was remembering, followed by

understanding. While, the least used skills were Evaluating (frequency = 2) and analyzing

which was not presented. In the case of the focused interviews, the skill of understanding is

the most frequently used (frequency = 19), followed by remembering (frequency = 10) and

Applying (frequency = 7). While, analyzing and creating were the least skills

reported (frequency = 3). Finally, in the case of verbal protocols, it is possible to observe that

there is not a marked difference among the various skills. However, creating and

understanding were the most frequently used.

Once we identify the most and least used CT skills, we triangulated the information.

Triangulation “involves the collection of data from multiple sources with the intent to obtain

diverse views of the studied phenomenon with the purpose of enhancing the validity”. (Cohen


& Manion 1997; De Vos 1998). The information was collected from the students’ artifacts,

focused interviews and verbal protocols. We took our research question and the research

objective of the study as a reference point. Thus, we considered two aspects in order to

display the data collected: to analyze the factors that determine the use of critical thinking

skills and the concept of collaborative work as a tool and as a mediator. According to these

two factors, two items emerged which were classified by colors as follows:

Purple: Students’ exposure to environmental problems.

Green: Learning strategies to accomplish common goals.

These items represent the categories that emerged from our study. Each of these are

explained below:

Categories

Students’ exposure to environmental problems:

One of the findings collected from students’ artifacts, focused interviews and verbal

protocols was the necessity to maintain the students exposed to problem scenarios in terms of

nature and environment. The materials presented were meaningful, especially the readings,

because from this information, students were able to recognize, identify and memorize some

specific situations in regards to nature such as contamination, animal extinction, animal

abuse, etc. Moreover, it was possible to observe that students gave solutions to those problem

situations taking into account their classmates’ opinions and their discussions in class.

This is an example of a verbal protocol collected from group N° 1 in which students made a

reflection about how we can contribute to taking care of the environment:


Verbal Protocol:

Teacher: ¿Qué soluciones proponen para cuidar el medio ambiente?:

Student A: "que no maten a las vacas y que le den comida a los animales"

Student B: "mandándoles a todos un mensaje por whatsapp o por facebook, esos medios, que

dejen de matar los animales…".

Student C: "hay así como programas de televisión que son así de animales y hay como otros

q son así de muñecos. Por ejemplo en Disney channel que es para comenzar y un cambio y

todo eso, por ejemplo yo me veo esos programas para poder cambiar el mundo"

(Group 1, Audio 5)

In this recording, students proposed to use the social networks such as whatsapp or

facebook and other technologies (Tv programs) as a means to promote environmental

awareness.

Moreover, in terms of CT skills use, the students remembered some specific information

about problems in nature because they recalled information that was given during the classes,

and at the same time they analyzed, evaluated and created different solutions for a specific

problem.

There are two more examples of a student who made a reflection towards contamination

and environment destruction. These responses emerged from the focused interview.

Focused interview:

Question 1: What did you learn from the whole process?


"aprendí después... o sea a lo que pasa que si uno daña el medio ambiente, digamos si yo

daño un árbol o algo así pues ya no va a haber tanto oxígeno, así q yo prefiero cuidar el

medio ambiente a estar dañándolo aún más".

(Question 1 - St 2, Group 1)

In this case, student was able to identify the consequences of damaging a tree which has to

do with the lack of oxygen in our planet. The problematic presented allowed the student to

reflect and create awareness regarding environmental protection.

Question 2: How did the way in which you understand the topic change after the process and

the discussion with your partners?

"ya como se q ya por botar al menos solo un papelito en la calle ya se que puedo estar

dañando el medio ambiente, prefiero botarlo en canecas de basura por ahí, en vez de estar

botando basura como hay gente q al llegar antes a su casa y estén comiendo algo, lo botan.

Pero yo a veces lo guardo apenas en el bolsillo ahí yo hasta q llegue a la casa si lo puedo

botar".


This example shows how student became aware of contamination. He criticized actions of

people, in this case the fact that they throw garbage on the street, and he made a suggestion to

contribute to this problematic. So, he proposed to people keeping the garbage in their pocket

while they found a trashcan instead of throwing it out on the floor.

Finally, the next example of a student’ response collected from the focused

interview shows another solution in order to avoid contamination in nature. Here, it is

possible to identify the use of CT skills since he analyzed a situation of contamination such as


the smoke in the cities and then, he proposed to use bikes instead of cars in order to generate

less contamination in the city.

Focused interview

Question 7: What kind of things do you propose as a solution towards the topic?

"El medio ambiente pienso que no se deben utilizar los carros muy seguido, y me parece el

día sin carro como hoy, pues se utilizan más las bicicletas"


All of these examples let us to observe how students react when confronted with different

situations presented through the readings and the activities. We could observe how they used

different CT skills (specially remembering, understanding, analyzing and creating) while they

were exposed to an environment problem situation. Most of students gave solutions to protect

the nature such as taking care of the plants, do not throwing out garbage to the floor, using

bikes instead of cars and promoting awareness through social networks.

Learning strategies to accomplish common goals:

During the analysis of data, one of the main findings collected from students’ artifacts,

verbal protocols and interviews, was the students’ used of a wide set of strategies to solve

problems and fulfill the activities proposed. For these reason, this category is called

“Learning strategies to accomplish common goals”. Also, these strategies presented a critical

skill background because they emphasized on the discussion and the innovation in order to

solve a common task.


“Discussion” is one of the critical thinking items that belongs to understanding skill which

is defined as¨Constructing meaning from oral, written, and graphic messages through

interpreting, exemplifying, classifying, summarizing, inferring, comparing, and explaining¨

(Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001: 67-68; cited by Forehand 2010). In these terms, we can

understand “discussion” as the construction of a meaning through oral talk in which students

share opinions, explain and expose different ways to solve a problem. Students used

“discussion” as a strategy because they shared their opinions with their group and they

discussed the best way to solve the problem and fulfill the graphic organizers. Also, they

facilitated their understanding of the topics through “discussion”. These became evident in

the responses of students in the focused interview. For instance:

Focused Interview:

"primero, leíamos, después uno decía una idea. Por ejemplo yo decía la solución y los

personajes y el otro decía lo otro y así…"


“Pues lo íbamos aprendiendo, a veces decíamos cosas diferentes pues decíamos que él... o

sea lo que si fuera entendible lo que se oyera bien y si fuera de lo que estábamos hablando

pues lo poníamos digamos que yo decía una cosa y amir otra y digamos que la de amir se

oyó como mucho mejor entonces yo tenía la idea en la mente y nosotros y decíamos: si amir,

y la escribíamos".


Another item identified was “repeat”. “Repeat” belongs to the critical skill remembering

which is defined as Retrieving, recognizing, and recalling relevant knowledge from long-term

memory¨ (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001: 67-68; cited by Forehand 2010). Based on this


definition, we can understand “repeat” as the recall of relevant information on different

occasions in order to facilitate the response to questions. Students used “repeat” as an

strategy to solve easy questions or to define a term using the same words that we taught

during classes. ]]Also, they repeated parts of some readings to explain a term or to answer

an easy question. To illustrate “repeat” as an strategy we used two examples. One emerged

from the focused interview and another from verbal protocols.

Focus Interview:

“Lo de la extinción de los animales, yo más o menos lo entendía pero en clase lo íbamos

repitiendo”.

(question 1 – st 1 group 2)

Verbal protocols:

Teacher: ¿Qué elementos del medio ambiente se ven afectados según la lectura?

Student A: "la cadena alimenticia también, de las polillas porque las polillas se alimentan

del excremento de las aves. Afecta la cadena alimenticia".

(Group 2, Audio 9).

In the first sample, the student answered the question mentioning when he repeated a term

in various classes; they were able to remember and understand the term, and in the second

example as we mentioned in the previous paragraph, the student repeated a fragment of a

reading that we had worked in class.

The following images showed the use of “illustrate” as a strategy to solve a graphic

organizer


Students’ artifacts

(group 2, story map graphic organizer )

In the example above, we can observe the use of “illustrate”. “Illustrate” is an item which

belongs to Applying skill. Applying is ¨ Carrying out or using a procedure through executing,

or implementing ¨ (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001: 67-68; cited by Forehand 2010). In this

case, “illustrate” is to draw certain images in order to create a relation between their

understanding and a possible response to some problem or question. In the previous

examples, “illustrate” is used as a strategy because students decided to draw in order to tell us

the parts of the story. Also, they are innovating in the way they did the task since the students

implemented a creative way to solve the task proposed in class.

In these samples, we acknowledge the use of a variety of strategies when they had to face

different problems or situations. We observed how CT skills were used in different

opportunities; in some cases as “discussion” in other cases as an “illustration” or “repetition”,

but always keeping in mind a common goal, in the case of the students, the best way to solve

a common task.

In conclusion, these two categories allowed us to identify how students used different CT

skills and how collaborative work influenced this process. In the first category named


students’ exposure to environmental problems, one can see that the information presented and

the current events regarding environmental damage encouraged students to be more aware, to

participate and to create solutions in these scenarios. In the second category named learning

strategies to accomplish common goals, it was possible to identify the use of strategies such

as “discussion”, “repetition” and “illustration” as a group of strategies which helped students

to complete different objectives and also, to use CT skills. In this way, students´ exposure to

environmental awareness and the use of different learning strategies in collaborative groups

led students to use CT skills and develop CT competences as well as awareness in relation to

environmental care.


Chapter Six

Conclusions

The main objective of our research project was to characterize students’ use of CT skills

while they develop collaborative reading activities. After we analyzed the results collected

from students’ artifacts, verbal protocols and the interview, we concluded that when students

were exposed to readings which were focused on environmental problems, students were able

to use a variety of CT skills. Thus, in most of the activities, students demonstrated that they

remembered since they repeat, list or define some key concepts from the readings such as

contamination, recycling, animal extinction, etc. Then, students understood since they were

able to classify, exemplify, summarize or explain in a deeper level the information given.

Also, students applied since they illustrate, demonstrate, interpret and discuss about the

topics that emerged from the readings. Then, students analyzed since they distinguish and

criticize behaviors that, in this case, affect the environment such as the fact to throughout

garbage on the street or to kill animals for entertainment. Moreover, students evaluated since

they defend, support and test the knowledge acquired from the readings. Finally, students

demonstrated that they were able to create since they design, formulate, organize and

construct solutions towards environmental care. So, as an alternative to create environmental

awareness, students proposed ways to recycle at home, ways to communicate people about

the issue by the use of social networks and some ways to protect and save our planet.

In addition, we concluded that students increase the use of CT skills when they applied

different learning strategies in order to complete specific task in collaborative groups. Thus, it

was possible to observe that a collaborative group environment encourage students to use a


set of learning strategies such as discuss, repeat and illustrate which at the same time are

closed related to the use of CT skills since these items belong to a variety of stages of CT

as Anderson and Krathwohl (2001) proposed. Through the use of these learning strategies,

students improve and increase their CT skills while they became aware about the

environment and the nature.

Finally, we concluded that CT is a continuous and hard process which implies both:

autonomous work and collaborative group work. It is an autonomous process since the

student need to be responsible, he or she need to follow instructions but at the same time, the

student have to inquire and propose different alternatives to solve a task. It is also

collaborative work since students have to share their previous knowledge and discuss among

others in order to gain new perspectives. Also, students need to be critical, analytic and

leaders in regards to their own learning process.


Pedagogical Implications

As teachers, we can conclude that it is important to create learning environments focused

on critical thinking because this learning atmosphere allow students to be more analytic, more

autonomous and it allow them to go beyond and explore multiple alternatives to understand,

interpret, create and the most important: to learn.

In addition, we can conclude that collaborative group working is an important element in

the learning process since it is emphasized on social constructivism theory in which learning

is given through social interactions, previous experiences and the background context.

The methodology implemented and CLIL played an important role in the learning process

because students were immersed in the target language while at the same time they

understood and analyzed different texts and discourses, in this case, the texts were related to

environmental protection. Students became aware about the importance of taking care of the

nature because this is our home place and we have to conserve it. It also generated an impact

in the curriculum of the school in the sense that we considered the science class

Finally, one of the implications that we could observe in terms of teaching was the fact to

manage the action of read as an enjoyable activity and not as tedious. Reading as something

useful and meaningful which allows students to explore, imagine, create and discover other

perspectives and multiple visions of the world.


Limitations of the Study

In the process of developing of our research Project, we had different kind of limitations in

the schedule, organization of the classes and in regards to the participation of students. Some

of the schedule problems were because the students did not have classes in the days that we

assisted to gather the data, also because we had to share our class time with another teacher,

then the teacher taught different topics, and when we asked to the students about the classes,

they confused the two classes and the topics.

Additionally, we found different levels of understanding and language skills of students.

This situation caused that the students did not use higher levels of critical thinking skills

during the activities and the students did not participate during the classes or some activities.

Besides, when we observed the graphic organizers solutions students tried to answer using

English, but they presented difficulties in their levels of proficiency in English.

Finally, we had some difficulties because as we mentioned in the first paragraph the

organization and the time were hard situations for us because we planned a set of activities,

but when we arrived to the classes the students had to do another ones or the other teacher

was there. Besides, we only had one class per week, it was almost two hours to work in the

collection of the data and the students presented problems to remember the activities or the

purposes of the class. Then, we had to explain again the purpose of the thesis and how to

solve the graphic organizers, for that reason we lost almost twenty to thirty minutes of class.


Suggestions for Further Research

This research is an invitation for teachers to change the vision of learning a foreign

language. Traditionally and even nowadays, teachers tend to use methodologies focused on

grammar teaching and the correct use of the language but they forget many other aspects

from the language itself as it is multidimensional: it is related to cultural aspects from society,

it is pragmatic, it is also related to power relationships, etc.

In terms of CT, it would be possible to continue researching and exploring new ways to

enhance and promote CT because we need that students become more participative and active

persons in the learning process. We consider that since the educational field, we need to

change the vision that the teacher is the only one that could bring knowledge to the class and

students are limited to receive that knowledge. Contrary, the teacher should be consider as a

facilitator and as a guide for students but they have to be leaders and explore what happen

outside the classroom, in their context, in their society and how they will face this world

outside starting from CT skills.

Regarding to collaborative group, teachers can use it to work with the students in different

contexts with different variables, creating environments in which students can interact and

share their ideas with their classmates, keeping in mind critical ideas and the opportunity to

experiment new contexts with their classmates.

Finally, it is remarkable to highlight the importance of research in Colombian context

because the students and the teacher can learn different things through the results and the

process of a research since the students and the teacher are building knowledge as pairs.


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