Integrating critical thinking skills in writing activities an action research project at an english center in vietnam

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIOAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ĐỖ THỊ DIỄN INTEGRATING CRITICAL THINKING SKILLS IN WRITING ACTIVITIE

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIOAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-

GRADUATE STUDIES

ĐỖ THỊ DIỄN

INTEGRATING CRITICAL THINKING SKILLS IN WRITING ACTIVITIES: AN ACTION RESEARCH PROJECT AT AN

ENGLISH CENTER IN VIETNAM

LỒNG GHÉP KỸ NĂNG TƯ DUY PHÊ PHÁN THÔNG QUA CÁC HOẠTĐỘNG VIẾT: NGHIÊN CỨU CẢI TIẾN SƯ PHẠM TẠI MỘT TRUNG TÂM

ANH NGỮ Ở VIỆT NAM

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111

HA NOI, 2017

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIOAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-

GRADUATE STUDIES

ĐỖ THỊ DIỄN

INTEGRATING CRITICAL THINKING SKILLS IN WRITING ACTIVITIES: AN ACTION RESEARCH PROJECT AT AN

ENGLISH CENTER IN VIETNAM

LỒNG GHÉP KỸ NĂNG TƯ DUY PHÊ PHÁN THÔNG QUA CÁC HOẠTĐỘNG VIẾT: NGHIÊN CỨU CẢI TIẾN SƯ PHẠM TẠI MỘT TRUNG TÂM

ANH NGỮ Ở VIỆT NAM

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111

Supervisor: Dr Nguyễn Thị Minh Tâm

HA NOI, 2017

STATEMENT OF OWNERSHIP

I hereby declare that this thesis is my own work and that, to the best of myknowledge, it contained no material previously published or written by another person (except where explicitly defined in the acknowledgements), nor material which has been submitted for award of any degree or diploma of a university or other institution of higher learning

Signature:………

Name: Đỗ Thị Diễn

Date: ………

Besides, I would like to send my heartfelt thanks to twelve students in myclass, who enthusiastically participated in the data collection process In fact,without their help, I could not complete this thesis.

Also, I owe a great debt of gratitude to my parents and my husband, whohave constantly encouraged me during the time when I conducted my researchpaper

Last but not least, I would like to thank my readers for their interests andcomment on this study

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Critical thinking skill is an important aspect in learning and teaching aforeign language Thinking skills lessons should be part of the curriculum ifstudents are to solve problems individually, cooperatively and creatively Teachers

on the other hand must be conversant with relevant techniques needed for teachingcritical thinking skills This study was conducted in an English class with 12 student

of grade 7 in the design of an action research The hypothesis of this study isintegrating of critical thinking skills in writing activities can promote students‟creative writing skills and learning motivation The teacher used action research ofintegrating the detailed requirements for student‟s use of critical thinking skills ofhigher levels, or higher order thinking skills (HOTS) in writing activities Classobservation, writing analysis and group interview were employed for datacollection After data analysis, the finding was discussed to figure out what extentstudent‟s use of HOTS in learning process to promote student‟s academicachievement, creativity and motivation to learn

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

HOTS: Higher order thinking skills

EFL: English as a Foreign Language

L2: Second or Foreign Language

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LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS

Table 1: The framework of integrating critical thinking skills in writing activities 12

Table 2: HOTS integrated in writing activities 21

Table 3: HOTS levels as evidenced in their writing 25

Chart 1: Students‟ levels of motivation throughout five weeks 23

Chart 2: Summary of students‟ writing analysis 25

TABLE OF CONTENT

STATEMENT OF OWNERSHIP i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

ABSTRACT iii

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS iv

LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS v

TABLE OF CONTENT vi

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Rationale for the study 1

1.2 The purpose of study 3

1.3 Significance of the study 3

1.4 Method of the study 4

1.5 Structure of the study 4

CHAPTER 2 :LITERATURE REVIEW 5

2.1 Theory of learning 5

2.2 Critical thinking skills and language skills development 8

2.3 Writing skills and creativity 10

2.4 Teaching critical thinking skills 11

2.5 Review of previous study 12

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 14

3.1.Rationale for the use of action research 14

3.2.Data collection instruments 15

3.2.1 Class observation 15

3.2.2 Writing analysis 15

3.2.3 Group interview 16

3.3 CONTEXT OF THE STUDY 16

3.3.1 An overview on English center 16

3.3.2 Students 17

3.3.3 Teachers 17

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3.3.4 Materials 17

3.4 THE ACTION RESEARCH PROCEDURE 18

3.4.1 The action research process 18

3.4.2 Research procedure 19

CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 23

4.1 Findings 23

4.1.1 Findings from observation 23

4.1.2 Findings from writing analysis 24

4.1.3 Findings from the interview 28

4.2 Discussion 30

4.2.1 Students‟ creative writing skills 30

4.2.2 Students‟ motivation in learning 36

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTIONS 39

5.1 Recapitulation 39

5.2 Implications for classroom practice 41

REFERENCES 42

APPENDICES I

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale for the study

The practice of teaching critical thinking skills has recently attractedincreased interest in the field of the teaching of English as a Second or ForeignLanguage (L2) It is no doubt to say that critical thinking is one of the mostimportant skills in learning and teaching a foreign language Students are expected

to show evidences of critical thinking in their academic essays in the form anargument and by demonstrating related skills such as analyzing, evaluating andcreating This means that L2 teaching should no longer focus on thecompartmentalized teaching of language skills, but should embrace critical thinkinginstead, although this is not going to be easy Willian and Burden (1997) state thatcritical thinking is cognitive process, in which the students are emerged to use theirminds to observe, think, categorize, and hypothesize Therefore, it takes a longjourney to make the students become more critical and more independent InWestern countries, integrating critical thinking has been significantly started fromelementary school while most Asian countries still consider critical thinking as achallenging in the education In fact, this can be related to the culture of Asianlearners who always believes that “silence is gold” And the students tend to bequite, passive and obedient in order to get information from their teachers

Having been an English teacher for 5 years at some centers in Hanoi, I haverecently realized the fact that most of my students lack the ability to present theirown original views or opinions which are regarded as a key criterion of successfulacademic writing This clears that Vietnamese students are not often taughtargumentative or persuasive writing at schools They rarely had a chance to write insituations and write a topic in class, so their writing skill was even worse althoughthey were very good at doing exercises in structure forms Students should betrained to know how to share and communicate their ideas through writing becausethis ability has been proved to be very important in education in general and in

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higher education in particular Writing skill is regarded as the means through whichmany educational objectives and values are achieved and disseminated (Condon etal., 2004).

I have a sense of the responsibility to train and equip my students withcritical thinking skills in their learning process because without comprehensivepractice in critical thinking, my students would miss the opportunity to be moreindependently and self-confident to actively participate in the internationalenvironment Hence, teaching critical thinking is necessary to help my studentsdevelop their ability to analyze, synthesize and evaluate problems A statement byCondon and Kelly-Riley (2004, p 56) that “writing is a tool of thinking” meanswriting is a real practice tool of critical thinking skills because “when we teachstudents how to write, we are teaching them how to think‟ Not only do the studentsneed to have a good command of the language, they also need to be critical as theyexamine viewpoints, facts and arguments and synthesize them In Vietnam, the aim

of the new English curriculum for Secondary School includes developing student‟sability to use language ịn combination with other skills such as negotiating,questioning, hypothesizing, critical thinking, and evaluating creatively Amongthese skills, students‟ creative and critical thinking skills and their ability to writelogically and intelligently are parts of the objectives of English teaching in Vietnamnowadays Therefore, I have always been wishing and trying to find the way to help

my students develop creative thinking and critical thinking skills through languageskills in my classes, and then apply these skills in their writing effectively All thethings stated above drives me to the decision of conducting the research entitled

“An action research on integrating critical thinking skills in writing activities at

an English center in Vietnam” Especially, the study will be conducted with the

focus on thinking skills of high levels which all students should learn and apply it tosolve unfamiliar problems, difficult questions, uncertainties and dilemmas Withthis action research, I hope to coin a different method in teaching of writing at myworkplace and also contribute a reference to the literature in this field

1.2 The purpose of study

This research aims at integrating critical thinking skills in writing activities topromote students‟ ability to express their view creatively in writing and engagestudents in critical and creative learning activities in English classes Theseobjectives can be achieved through the process of finding the answer to thefollowing questions:

-To what extent does the integration of critical thinking skills in writing

activities promote students’ creative writing skills?

- To what extent does the integration of critical thinking skills in writing activities improve students’ learning motivation?

1.3 Significance of the study

The study focuses on how to integrate critical thinking skills in writingactivities to improve students‟ creative writing and learning motivation at anEnglish center in Vietnam It can be useful contributions for both students andteachers at my workplace In term of useful contributions for teachers, theresearcher is expected to provide more lesson plan and scaffolding of integratingcritical thinking skills in writing activities More interestingly, the research alsosupports a useful teaching strategy with the applying critical thinking skills to thediverse activities in writing skills In addition, this thesis is hoped to serve as areliable and useful reference material about integrating critical thinking skills inacademic writing in Vietnamese pedagogical environment for other readers andresearchers in their further studies on related subjects For students, the findingsand conclusions of the research are anticipated to encourage their use of criticalthinking skills to perform meaningful tasks More importantly, they will to beable to find news and means to solve their daily problems and make appropriatedecisions Furthermore, students are trained to know how to share and

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communicate their ideas through writing, which is an important goal of education

in general and in higher education in particular

1.4 Method of the study

In order to achieve the aim, in this action research, qualitative method wasexploited with the facilitation of some statistical analysis The data were collectedfrom a combination of three different instruments: classroom observation, writinganalysis and group interview

1.5 Structure of the study

The study will be presented in four chapters: introduction, literaturereview, methodology, data collection and discussion, and conclusion

Chapter one, Introduction, introduces the rationale, the aims of the study,

scope of the study, method of the study, signification of the study and structure

of the study

Chapter two, Literature Review, aims at reviewing some concepts as

well as the theory involving critical thinking, classroom activities that will be afirm foundation for the study

Chapter three, Methodology, describes the participants of the study, the

research questions, data collection and data analysis procedure

Chapter four: Findings and Discussion – reveals the results of the study and gives some suggestions.

Chapter five: Conclusion – summarizes the main points of the study.

Implications and suggestions for designing classroom activities to teach writingskills with an integration of critical thinking skills development will be presented

in this part

CHAPTER 2 :LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter will present the theoretical background of the study, including the insights of teaching writing and critical thinking skills It reviews issues related

to both writing and critical thinking such as theory of learning, thinking skills and language skills development, writing and creativity, and review of previous studies

on developing critical thinking skills

2.1 Theory of learning

A theory is a scientifically acceptable set of principles offered to explain aphenomenon Theories provide frameworks for interpreting environmentalobservations and serve as bridges between research and education (Suppes, 1974).Research findings can be organized and systematically linked to theories Withouttheories, people could view research findings as disorganized collections of data,because researchers and practitioners would have no overarching frameworks towhich the data could be linked (Learning Theories, Daleh Chunk, p.23) Integratingmay lack theoretical conceptualization which is necessary for making applications

of findings to other integration Hence, it is integral to determine a theory which iscapable of orientating the study so that the information about a phenomenon can besystematically unified so the findings from studies add to the body of knowledgeand deep understanding of the theoretical basis of the research topic Additionally,according to Chapelle (2003), theory is acted as the framework for the research onsome levels: from literature review of the study to the research questions as well asdevelopment of methodology and the interpretation of data to gain the findings,which then can be discussed to reach the results and conclusions of the study Forthese reasons, it was principal to clearly determine a theoretical framework for thepresent study

Learning theories are an organized set of principles explaining howindividuals acquire, retain, and recall knowledge By studying and knowing thedifferent learning theories, we can understand better how learning occurs Theprinciples of the theories can be used as guidelines to help select instructional tools,techniques and strategies that promote learning Although there are many different

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approaches to learning, the three dominant learning theories are: Behaviorism, Cognitive and Constructivism.

Behaviorism originated as a social science, the goal of which was to predict

and control behavior Learning was manifested by a change in behavior, with anemphasis on a connection between a stimulus and a response From a behavioristperspective, the goal of education is to „ensure survival of human species, societiesand individuals‟ (Merriam and Caffarella, 1999, p.252) The main principles ofbehaviorism have a visible impact on third level education, producing theappearance in the curriculum of behavioral objectives or outcomes, the importance

of feedback, skills development and training, computerized and programmedinstruction, competency-based education, and constructive pre-alignment ofcontent, teaching methods and assessment

Cognitive theorists recognize that much learning involves associations

established through contiguity and repetition They also acknowledge theimportance of reinforcement, although they stress its role in providing feedbackabout the correctness of responses over its role as a motivator However, even whileaccepting such behaviorist concepts, cognitive theorist view learning as involvingthe acquisition or reorganization of the cognitive structures through which humansprocess and store information (Good and Brophy, 1990, p.187)

In Constructivist model, learning is viewed as a process of making meaning.

The learner interacts with experience and environment in the construction ofknowledge The process is essentially learner-centred However, while theConstructivist theory encompasses a number of inter-related perspectives, theorists

„differ as to the nature of reality, the role of experience, what knowledge is ofinterest, and whether the process of meaning making is primarily individual orsocial‟ (Merriam and Caffarella, 1999, p.261)

In general, most definitions of learning involve a change in an individual'sknowledge, ability to perform a skill, or participate in an activity with otherindividuals; there is considerable variation among the theories about the nature ofthis change All three theories contribute greatly to enlightening readers, especially

teachers, in their understanding about students learn and what learning strategiesthey could use For the teachers, when deciding which teaching strategies to use, it

is important to consider about the level of learner‟s knowledge, the thoughtprocessing demands and the desired outcome In my research, I choose Cognitivetheory to follow in my teaching process because of some reasons Firstly, this theoryfocuses on Educational problems and solutions It emphasizes on the role oflearners‟ thoughts, beliefs, attitudes, and values The ways that learners processinformation determine what, when, and how they learn, as well as what use theywill make of the learning In addition, to guiding students practice more inEducation and think to learn Cognitive learning theory is best used to guidelearning when trying to build useful knowledge structures and teach clinicalreasoning Cognitive, on the other hand, overcomes the key limitation of theprevious learning theory by viewing the learning as a thought processes behind theobservable behavior, which means that “Learning is viewed as a process of inputs,managed in short-term memory, and coded for long-term recall” (George Siemens

2005, p.4) Furthermore, the Cognitive Learning Theory explains why the brain isthe most incredible network of information processing and interpretation in the body

as we learn things Willian and Burden (1997) state that critical thinking is cognitiveprocess, in which the students are emerged to use their minds to observe, think,categorize, and hypothesize This theory can be divided into two specific theories:the Social Cognitive Theory, and the Cognitive Behavioral Theory In the SocialCognitive Theory, there are three variables: behavioral factors, environmentalfactors (extrinsic), personal factors (intrinsic) According to Bloom (1956),Cognitive Objectives are concerned with intellectual outcomes The classificationsystem ranges from lower – level knowledge outcomes to higher-level intellectualabilities and skills The mental processes in the Cognitive System take action fromthe knowledge domain, give people access to the information and procedures intheir memory and help them manipulate and use this knowledge

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2.2 Critical thinking skills and language skills development

Critical thinking is a fundamental skills for both language and literacysuccess Language and critical thinking grow together and nurture each other‟sdevelopment

Firstly, concerning about critical thinking skills, it involves the development

of dispositions which, among other things, include probing, inquisitiveness andkeenness of mind, zealous dedication to reason, and hunger or eagerness for reliableinformation Secondly, critical thinking refers to the development and application ofinterrelated cognitive and meta-cognitive skills involved in solving problems,understanding and expressing meaning, identifying relationships, assessingcredibility of statements, identifying elements needed to draw reasonableconclusions, presenting the results of one‟s own reasoning coherently and self-consciously monitor one‟s own cognitive actions In the third place, criticalthinking comprises the development of habits of mind (Costa & Kallick, 2009:15-41) Critical thinking is associated with quality thinking, it provides learners withmore skillful way of communicating with other people, acquiring new knowledge,problem solving In critical thinking approach to teaching both language skills andthinking skills are of much importance, and are integrated In fact, they are notisolated anymore The activities categorized as critical thinking activities are onappearance writing, that is the final product is a piece of writing In order to assessstudent‟s critical thinking, teachers use academic writing as an effective tool inlearning process There are mainly two kinds of ways for teaching critical thinking.One is to set a special course to directly teaching critical thinking strategies andrules, emphasizing the cultivation of students‟ critical thinking skills The other is

to combine subject teaching with the training of critical thinking, focusing oncultivating students‟ query and analytical thinking about the subject, and combiningthe cultivation of critical thinking with individual quality Fisher (2007) and Fisherand Scriven (1997) argue that critical thinking should be seen as a basic academiccompetency, akin to reading and writing, which needs to be taught Beyer (2001)claims that teaching thinking skills is worth considering for the crucial role it plays

in teaching, learning, and daily life Swartz (2001) believes that teaching skillful

thinking not only enhances students‟ thinking abilities and learning in the contentareas but also greatly improves the quality of their lives, including their professionalwork, after they leave school Such thinking also improves their self-image andtheir motivation to learn Beyer (2001) indicates that mastery of at least fourthinking skills - comparing, classifying, sequencing, and predicting - is essential forstudents to become effective readers, writers, and learners.

In term of the language skills, which are divided into two groups: productiveand receptive skills? “Both production and comprehension form the basis oflanguage teaching" (Richards, 1998), students language skills must be developedthrough speaking, writing, listening and reading tasks or activities: These tasks must

be provided in a way that helps learners to "make transition from the classroom tothe real world" Tasks, such as pair work, role plays and group works which aim atproviding opportunities for optimal learning must be presented in the SecondLanguage teaching materials These activities are facilitated by the teacher and thencompleted by the students using their own resources of language Through theseactivities students are engaged in active and creative participation in classroom.They are free to express their own knowledge, idea, opinions and experiences Notonly does teacher‟s task help them become proficient in the English language, butalso make them become critical thinker Studies about the characteristics of goodlanguage learners have shown that good language learners make efforts to think intheir second language as soon as possible (Rubin, 1979) Carroll writes that onecharacteristic of good language learners is that they try to understand the logic andstrategies that native speakers use in communicating (1977) Rubin concluded thatthey are good at making guesses and inferences (Rubin, 1979) It appears that goodlanguage learners have at least some of the same characteristics of critical thinkers.Perhaps in teaching critical thinking skills teachers can help them to become betterlanguage learners

To conclude, there is a strong link between critical thinking and languageskills development It is necessary to integrate critical thinking into Englishacademic purposes and English second language classroom Developing the critical

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thinking skill help prepare to students who are learning English attend aninternational community and their workplace in the future.

2.3 Writing skills and creativity

“Writing - the art of communicating thoughts of the mind - is the great invention of the world… Great, very great, in enabling us to converse with the dead, the absent, and the

unborn, at all distances of time and space, and great not only in its direct benefits, but its great help to all other inventions.”

Abraham

Lincoln -Writing skills are specific abilities which help writers put their thoughts intowords in a meaningful text and to convey their message Hampton (1989) stated thatwriters gain creativity when they can write their own ideas, not copy what hasalready been written, so that they can be read and understood

One of the expectations of students in essay writing is to demonstrate theability to develop an argument (Wingate, 2012) A good academic writer should beable to present “evidence and arguments that he can then defend and from which hecan draw conclusions” (Alagozlu, 2007, p.119) In order to become an academicwriter, he is needed to support about argument writing skills which related tocritical thinking which is regarded as a part of the process of evaluating theevidence collected solving or the results produced by thinking creatively ( Crowl etal.,1997;Lewis &Smith, 1993) Furthermore, other scholars claimed that writingability depends on the ability to think clearly about substantive matters (Nickerson,Perkins, & Smith, 1985).So, writing skills are invariably dependent on clarity ofthought Moreover, Marzano (1991) suggested that “writing used as a mean torestructure knowledge, improves higher-order thinking and in this context, writingmay provide opportunity for students to think through arguments and use higher-order thinking skills to respond to complex problems” (p.521) A statement byCondon and Kelly-Riley (2004, p.56) that “writing is a tool of thinking” marks thelink between critical thinking and writing McNamara et al (2008) stress that,although a challenge for many, writing well is of great importance for success in awide variety of institutions and professions They share the same view that writingskills are among the best predictor of student success at university, describing good

writing as writing that articulates ideas clearly, argues opinions, synthesizesmultiple perspectives, presents information effectively and consistently with well-chosen details, and avoids grammatical and mechanical errors Similarly, Paul and

Elder (2006, 2007) describe „substantive writing‟, as that which has a clearly

defined purpose, makes a clear point, and supports it with specific informationwhich is clearly connected and coherent

In general, though definitions of writing skills are numerous, all linguists

share the same idea that a good writing is related to creativeness, ideas clearly,

argues opinions, synthesizes and writing is a tool of thinking There is also strong

link between critical thinking and academic writing skills developing

2.4 Teaching critical thinking skills

Critical thinking skills are teachable and learnable, students should applythese to their learning to solve unfamiliar problems The development of criticalthinking skills are from low levels to higher levels, from lower order thinking skills

to higher order thinking skills (HOTS) In this study, HOTS were expected to beintegrated in different activities in learning processes in the writing classes In thisstudy, the framework describing how thinking skills could be integrated intolearning activities was designed basing on Marzano‟s (2007) thinking skillstaxonomy This framework was used as the reference to design prewriting, while-writing and post-writing activities with detail requirements of thinking skill levels.This framework was then used to be the reference for seeking the evidence of howthinking skills, especially HOTS, were actually used by students

The revised version of framework is designed as follows:

IV.20 Figure out a way to reach your goal under certain conditions

IV.19 Figure out a way to solve a problem under certain conditions

IV.16 Select the best among the following alternatives solution SKILLS

III.15 Specify the argument/ideas on a certain issue ANALYSIS

III.14 Generalize information from the given input data (III)

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III.13 Revise/edit the others‟/ ones‟ own argument s/ writing

III.12 Evaluate the other‟s idea / degree of seriousness of the problem

III.11 Organize ideas from the brainstormed ideas

II.10 Summarize the brainstormed ideas

II.9 Explain the ways in which the things described happens

(II) II.7 Illustrate the arguments / Represent the ideas in visual forms

(I) I.2 List the issue(s) from the given input data

I.1 Recognize the issue(s) from the given list

Table 1: The framework of integrating critical thinking skills in writing

activities 2.5 Review of previous study

There have been a number of previous studies on the integration HOTS inwriting skills that researcher of this study has looked at and read Some studiescarried out by both foreign researchers and Vietnamese researchers as follows:

Sarjit (2014) from Malaysia did an action research on “ESL Students‟

Perceptions of the use of HOTS in English Language Writing” The study explored

the impact of using HOT skills in a secondary ESL writing classroom The findings

from the focus group interviews revealed the following student perceptions: felt

engaged in active learning, experienced learner autonomy, developed their writing,

researching and personal skills Furthermore, the study suggest that using HOTS in

ELS writing lessons facilitate students‟ writing ability and interest and it is

recommended that HOTS be explicitly infused in teaching and learning writing

activities

Shaarawy (2014) attempted to investigate the effect of Journal Writing onStudents‟ Cognitive Critical Thinking Skills” with first year university students(semester two) in one of the Egyptian private universities The researcher based onBloom‟s taxonomy to design her own critical thinking assessment tool which wasused in the pre and posttests Results indicated that journal writing had contributedstrongly to the development of the cognitive critical thinking skills of the

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experimental group, which validates the new assessment tool and proposes a newtechnique of developing critical thinking skills in Egyp.

In Vietnam, there are some studies on the implementation of critical thinking(CT) in English writing A study on “Critical Thinking‟s Effect on VietnameseStudents‟ Writing Attitude and Performance: Action Research” by Nguyễn ThịKhánh Thi in 2016 is one of the examples The study shows the effect of criticalthinking skills on students‟ writing attitude and performance The result alsoindicates that students perform well in writing advice, introduction, and theirattitude to a problem, but are not good at giving suggestions and convincing people

Nguyễn Thi Minh Tâm (2016) conducted a study to show that using HOTS

in learning process may promote student‟s learning in terms of academicachievement, creativity, and motivation to learn She provided a framework ofreference in designing HOTS integrated learning task in the linguistic course Herstudy proved that the importance of HOTS in learning process

Another research is carried out by Ngô Thu Trang (2017) about an actionresearch project on “developing students‟ critical thinking skills through project –based learning” It provides an overview of the concepts of critical thinking andprojects – based learning, seek to investigating the effectiveness of using project –based learning to develop critical thinking skills The results show that project-based learning has some positive effects on improving students‟ critical thinkingskills

In conclusion, with regard to the literature review, using critical thinkingskills in teaching language skills is conducted by many teachers in many countries

in the world and also in Vietnam Many studies were employed to develop criticalthinking skills which combined with language skills They proved that criticalthinking skills could promote learner‟s academic achievement and their creativity.However, integrating critical thinking skills and its implementation in education isquite new in my English center Hence, my thesis is carried out with purpose helpstudent apply HOTS in their learning in general, write effetely and creative inparticular

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CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY

This chapter provides the rationale for the use of an action research in thisstudy In addition, it gives information about setting of the study, the participants,and the research procedures as well as research instruments used in this study

3.1.Rationale for the use of action research

Action research which was developed by Kurt Lewin in 1946 concerns itselfwith taking action According to Burns (2005), actions research “takes an explicitlyinterventionist and subjective approach” (p.60) The research method has beenwidely used in the investigation of human behavior and the social world It emerged

as a new approach to research which is more directly relevant to the ongoing work

of practitioners Wallace (1998) stresses „the systematic collection and analysis ofdata relating to the improvement of some aspect of professional practice‟ (p.1)

Action research has had a great impact on educational research and literature

It has been extensively used to research changes in teaching practice Nunan (1989)refers to action research as a form of „teacher-research…distinguished from otherforms of research by its practical focus Teacher-research should grow out of theproblems and issues which confront teachers in their daily work‟ (pp.15-16) Field(1997) considers action research as „a small-scale investigation undertaken by aclass teacher‟ (p.192)

From above statement, my research study with the purpose of changing from

my former traditional teaching practices to new practices critical thinking skillsapproach is to evaluate the effectiveness of change on students‟ learningperformances and also to look for an appropriate method to teach writing skills forSecondary students at Vkids center I decided to use the action research modelNunan (1992) which is composed of seven phases: Initiation, Preliminary,Hypotheses, Intervention, Evaluation, Dissemination, Follow-up Its fundamentalnotion of changing or improving practice is relevant to the main goal of my enquiry

3.2.Data collection instruments

To get a collection of sufficient, reliable and valid data for the study, acombination of classroom observation which is conducted from teacher‟s take note,writing analysis, and group interview were employed as the data collectioninstruments Thus, both qualitative and quantitative research methodology werechosen for this action research

3.2.1 Class observation

- Purpose: Class observation was used to collect data about how the

integration of critical thinking skills in writing activities to promote students‟ learning.Observation was also conducted to know whether integration activities made any effects

on students‟ motivation during the teaching and learning process

- Procedure: the teacher takes note what is observed in her diary to examine

the overall class motivation, even each student because of the small number of

participants (12 students: 5 females and 7 males) here The observation sheet (See Appendix 1) adapted from Nunan (1989, p.110) was used to assess overall class

motivation generated by the application of integration activities during the intervention.The observation was manifested by levels of learner interest, enthusiasm, and persistencewith writing activities, concentration and enjoyment during class Each item was scored

on a scale of one (low) to five (high) Observations were made for the whole 5 weekswhile the experimental teaching was carried out

- Participants: 12 students of grade 7 throughout 5 writing sessions

3.2.2 Writing analysis

- Purpose: the writing analysis is used to assess type of HOTS It is a useful

tool to collect data about the way students apply HOTS in their writing

- Procedure: After each lesson, students are asked to write a piece of writing

as the result of using HOTS in learning process Criteria for HOTS assessment wereadapted from the new version of the framework of HOTS by Marzano‟s (2007),including four levels: Retrieval and Comprehension (lower level), Analysis and

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Utilization (higher level) The marking scales range from 1 (lowest) to 4 (highest)due to the proficiency of participants when performing the final writing (seeAppendix 4).

- Participants: all of the 12 students of grade 7 ( 7 Females and 5 Males).

Most students‟ English proficiency level is not very high because all these studentscome from rural areas where they did not have many good enviroments to learnEnglish at their school

3.2.3 Group interview

- Purpose: The group interview is conducted as a tool to collect more

information about how students used HOTS in their learning process and writing

- Procedure: After all students‟ writing is analyzed, a group interview is

conducted with five students in the action class

- Participants: this research selected 5 students (3 Males: S1, S3 and S5, 2

Females S4 and S12) for group interviewing: 2 students (S1 and S12) with the significantimproving as most of students in this class, 2 students (S4 and S5) with the low mark inHOTS integrated tasks and low motivation during intervention, 1 student (S3) withunsteady motivation in these lessons

3.3 CONTEXT OF THE STUDY

3.3.1 An overview on English center

This study is conducted at Vkids English center which was founded in 2013and it has been developing and strengthening It is opened to train English for allstudents from 5 – 16 years With modern equipment and professional staffs, Vkidscenter attracts more students yearly with the amounts to 600 students so far TheEnglish Curriculum of the center is focus on both four skills: listening, speaking,reading and writing Furthermore, this place also train and equips to students‟knowledge of mover test, flyer test and ielts examination And it has become one ofthe best centers for primary and secondary students at Quoc Oai district

3.3.2 Students

At Vkids center, most students‟ English proficiency level is not very highbecause all these students come from rural areas where they did not have manygood environments to learn English at their school Moreover, a large number ofstudents and the limited class time in one class are main reasons which make theirteachers cannot give the questions and feedbacks for each student in the lessons atschool Therefore, in order to have more chances to practice and improve theirEnglish proficiency and well – prepare for IOE, Mover, Flyer, IELTS examinations,they attend courses at Vkids English center as an outside class to achieve theirgoals Most of them are lazy to think and do not know how to organize an essayeffectively They feel afraid of making mistakes because of their poor English andlack of ideas to write Consequently, as my observation, students are usually toolazy and unconfident to take part in writing activities This is the reason why themajority of students have difficulty in academic writing

3.3.3 Teachers

There are ten English teachers (8 females from Vietnam, 2 male nativeteachers: one from Africa, another from India) at Vkids center, aging from 23 to 30year-old Five of English teachers at Vkids center are teaching at public schoolwhere almost English teachers usually keep in traditional way in teaching.Therefore, they do not well understand how to teach critical thinking skills inwriting It means that they need to learn more about critical thinking skills thatshould be trained and equipped to their students

3.3.4 Materials

The course book is based on Vkids center documents and “Tiếng anh 7”textbooks by Hoàng Văn Vân (2015) and supplementary document “Learn to writebetter academic essays” by Collins (2015) It consists of twelve units and tworeviews Each unit includes four main parts which focus on skills: listening,speaking, reading, and writing However, I only deal with the first five units in thefirst part (course is divided into two parts on five weeks) I have to cover five unitsand one review on five weeks, with two hours for a day Besides, there are some

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supplementary books like “Ôn luyện kỹ năng đọc, viết” by Nguyễn Kim Hiền and

Lê Hoàng An (2001) are used for students to study further at home By using thiscourse book, the teacher can help students well – understand more vocabularyusage, pronunciation and grammatical structures, especially the teacher can developfour main skills including listening, speaking, reading and writing for every studentwith the longer time than in school

Most the students here only focus on studying speaking and listening, they donot pay much attention to writing or reading skills Therefore, their writing is notcreative and lacks of ideas which make readers are not interested in To solve thisproblem, planning to guide students develop critical thinking skills and apply it totheir essays are important and necessary

3.4 THE ACTION RESEARCH PROCEDURE

3.4.1 The action research process

In my study, Nunan‟s (1992) action research model is applied because it issimple to carry out in my classroom and the steps are clear to follow This modelincludes seven small steps: initiation, preliminary investigation, hypothesis,intervention, evaluation, dissemination and follow-up presented in details asfollows:

Step 1 Initiation The teacher notices a problem in class

Step 2 Preliminary The teacher spends time observing the class and taking notes of

investigation students‟ behaviors

Step 3 Hypothesis After observation, the teacher forms a question or hypothesis.Step 4 Intervention The teacher tries several solutions to solve the problem

Step 5 Evaluation After some weeks, the teacher consciously observes or measures

the class again to see if there has been any improvement

Step 6 Dissemination The teacher shares her findings with others

Step 7 Follow-up The teacher explores alternative solutions for the problem.

Step 2: Preliminary investigation

Being a teacher at language center, the researcher participated in teachingmany courses with the same students‟ types and recognized that her students areinfluenced by their traditional learning style, they usually passive in writingactivities and keep quiet in class Researcher discovered that this is commonsituation of her students through many courses at Vkids center Therefore, theresearcher would like to find out the solutions to this problem An intervention isnecessary in classroom to bring about higher-level cognitive thinking

Step 4: Intervention

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Based on teacher‟s classroom observation in the pre-action phase, theresearcher found that the students had low motivation and participation in writing.

To overcome the problems, the researcher integrated critical thinking skills inwriting activities as a solution to support the writing lessons According to coursebook of Vkids center, the author designed a lesson plan template to integrate criticalthinking skills in writing activities with the aims at providing an alternativeinstructional environment for the writing skill lessons This study based on 5 lessons

in the first part of course book with five topics of intervention process The classmeets two hours per week for writing lessons in the classroom and other days arefor other skills The participants were also required to perform their writing in everylesson whose scores could be considered as a final assessment of the course Withinthe framework of the present study, the writing learners enrolled in a 5-week writingcourse Two hours per week, each participant was asked to complete a variety ofassignments both in class and in home with instructional teacher Thanks to thelessons in the textbook „Tiếng Anh 7” and supplementary documents the studentswere equipped enough knowledge and skills to do the five critical thinking tasks Inthis study, the researcher integrated critical thinking skills in writing activities topromote students‟ creativity and learning motivation as follows:

Table 2: HOTS integrated in writing activities

The action plan was implemented in five writing lessons, each of whichlasted 120 minutes (from Unit 1- Unit 5) In week 1, students were asked to write aparagraph about classmate‟s hobbies Before writing, they asked to work in pairs to

list of the hobbies, work individually to paraphrase the points logically, organize ideas and specify with examples and supporting the ideas about classmate‟s hobbies Then, the students were asked to revise on the words, ideas and grammar in

writing In the first week, the level of critical thinking skills was required with thelow level (see table 2)

In week 2, students were supposed to write about exercises is good for ourhealth, give their point of view with evidences to support Firstly, teacher provided

some activities and asked students to identify issues from the given list the activities

which they often do or want to do Next, they worked in group to describe aboutbenefits of doing exercise based on the questions “What activities do you often do

or want to do? How often do you do it? Why we should do it? Why do you think

these activities are good?” Then, students organize ideas brainstormed while from the discussion and specify the arguments for their opinion about exercises that are good for health or not Finally, they edited their writing by checking logically

words, grammar mistake, getting comments from teacher and classmates

In week 3, students were asked to write an essay about benefits of volunteeractivities and give reasons to explain for their opinion Before writing, teachershowed some pictures about volunteer activities and students were asked to work in

small group to identify and illustrate or clarify their ideas the benefits of volunteer activities In writing stage, students asked to specify their view point and evaluate the benefits of volunteer activities Revising and editing the writing for ideas,

grammar, spelling, and words were assigned for the post-writing stage

In week 4, a topic was raised “Traffic jam is a big problem in ourcommunity? Suggest the possible solution to reduce it” In this week, level 4 HOTSwere expected in writing tasks Firstly, teacher provided several solutions to reduce

traffic jam in some countries and asked student to list out the solutions that fit in

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Vietnam Then, they worked in group to evaluate and decide the best solutions to

reduce the traffic jam in their community

In the final week of action, participants had to work harder because the moredifficult requirements from teacher They were asked to using HOTS (higher level)

in solving problems which teacher requested in lesson 5 With the topic “Dirty food

is becoming a serious problem in our country Explain the main causes and suggestsome possible solutions to prevent it.” The level 4 HOTS were expected in this

week like generalizing, evaluating, figuring out a way to solve a problem, and revising In addition, they could get more information related to the topic from the

Internet, books, newspaper, etc to complete the writing

After each lesson, the teacher collected student‟s writing which was analyzed

in the data In addition, at the end of action phase, group interview (Appendix 6)was carried out to get students‟ information about writing and the effectiveness ofthe integration in writing activities

3.4.2.3 Phase 3: Post - action

Step 5: Evaluation

Having finished the implementation for integrating critical thinking skills inwriting activities, the data from observation and writing analysis was analyzedbasing on the observation sheet and HOTS checklist in (Appendix 1 and 4)

After student‟s writings were analyzed, an interview was conducted with 5students who have been taught the writing lesson used critical thinking skills

Thematic analysis, together with statistical analysis, was then used in thisphase to evaluate the effects of the intervention and to find the answer to theresearch question

Step 6: Dissemination

The action research procedure and its results were reorganized and presented

in form of a thesis, which was share with the researcher‟s colleagues and someother teachers, especially teachers in Vkids center

CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

This chapter analyses the data collected during the intervention and data

collected after the intervention Then, action research evaluation as well as the

findings and discussions will be presented

4.1 Findings

4.1.1 Findings from observation

The observation was conducted during the 5 intervention week sessions (the

application of integration activities) There were 8 items in observation sheet and

each item was scored on the Likert 5-point scale (see Appendix 1), so the highest

total score for overall class motivation in each week (each lesson per week) was 40

(equivalent to 100%) The teacher, as a researcher herself, observed the class for the

whole five weeks Below is the summary of students‟ levels of motivation

throughout 5 intervention weeks

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23 25

19 20

15

10

5 0

Chart 1: Students’ levels of motivation throughout five weeks

As can be seen from Chart 1, there was a significant improvement in learning

motivation Although the motivation score was decreased in L4 and L5, the scores

were still higher L1 and L2 The improvement in motivation was clearly

demonstrated in L3 with score 31 In L4 and L5, the score slightly decreased (which

might be because of the higher levels of HOTS were required by the teacher), but

the overall motivation levels in L4 and L5 were still higher than L1

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Generally, the number of students‟ motivation gradually increased after fivelessons of intervention The students were motivated and involved by theresearcher„s application of critical thinking skills in teaching writing Besides,observing overall class motivation, researcher observed individual motivation based

on observation sheet which was synthesized in Appendix 2 From observation sheetshowed that nine out of twelve students (S1, S2, S6, S7, S8, S9, S10, S11 and S12)improved gradually their motivation in the lessons However, the data shows thatnot all students had the same the improvement in motivation in the lessons Whilestudents S1, S2, S12 were highest motivation, S4 and S5 increased at least ofmotivation during intervention Besides, there was a student (S3) with unsteadymotivation in the lessons

In short, the overall class motivation gradually increased throughout fivelessons and it gained the highest in L3 Then, it decreased slightly in the last twolessons although the tasks were rather appropriate

4.1.2 Findings from writing analysis

As mentioned, the writing analysis used in the course is for HOTSassessment, i.e., by analyzing students‟ writings, the researcher wants to seek forevidence of whether the integration activities implemented did help improvingstudent‟s writing or not In order to collect data, students were required to writeindividually a piece of writing after each lesson The critical thinking skillsintegrated activities were designed to promote students‟ creative writing andmotivation learning in learning process by teacher The analysis of writing aimed tofind out how each individual student mastered writing skills and critical thinkingskills in learning process Writings were scored based on the HOTS checklistadapted from Mazano‟s (2007) framework (see Appendix 4) In order to assessstudent‟s HOTS in their writing, assessment criteria were coded from 1 to 3 (1- not

at all, 2- only little, 3- completely)

Table 3 below shows how the students used HOTS in writing

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Table 3: HOTS levels as evidenced in their writing

Table 3 shows how students used HOTS in their writing after five weeks ofintervention As can be seen, there are a positive difference of results from week 1

to week 5 To be more precise, the students‟ writing performance was shown in thefollowing chart:

Chart 2: Summary of students’ writing analysis

As indicated in Chart 2, there was a clear improvement in students‟ ability touse HOTS in their writing It can be seen that there was a significant differencebetween the results of weeks (week 1: Mean = 1.85, week 2: Mean = 2.33, week 3:Mean = 2.5, week 4: Mean =2.56, week 5: Mean = 2.6) The result of week 3 is

strongest increase by 0.17 in comparison with week 2 While the result of week 2increased slight only by 0.48 in comparison with week 1 After increasing strongly

in week 3, there was a slight increase in week 4 and 5 by 0.6 and 0.4 in comparisonwith each week right before Therefore, it can be referred that students graduallylearnt how to learn effectively and creatively and they also concentrated more on thewriting activities It is clear that students gradually constructed their ability to useHOTS and became proficient learners We can see the students‟ writingperformance increase clearly by integrating activities as follow:

In week 1, students were asked to write a paragraph about classmate‟s

hobbies The critical thinking skills were required such as I.2- list of issue, paraphrase the points logically, III.11- Organize ideas from the brainstorm ideas, III.13- revise the writing and IV.15- specify the argument on certain issue As

II.6-shown in Table 3, most students were participated in writing activities in lesson 1.Although the Mean scores are not very high, score 1 and 2 were most in this item

for each student, they enjoyed the activities when the Mean of I.2 (2.75) It is easy

to find that, some students mastered the lower level of HOTS, but were not verygood at level 2 and 3 of HOTS

In the second week, the HOTS requirements in lower levels I.1-recognize from the given list and I.5 – describe the issue were changed to confirm the

students‟ mastered – lower level of HOTS And the results were as expect, Mean of

I.1 (2.92) and I.5 (2.33) were very high It confirms one more times that most

students in this study mastered lower level of HOTS The results of students

achieved of 3 HOTS with III.11 - Organize ideas from the brainstorm ideas, III.13

- revise the writing and III.15 - specify the argument on issue in the first week were

very low (Mean under score 2) Students were required to used again these skills in week

2 and got the more positive scores with III.11 (Mean = 2.08), III.13 (Mean = 2.33), and III.15 (Mean = 2.0) It also can be seen from Table 3 that the Mean score values in week

2 were higher than week 1 It proves that students went gradually up in their writingperformance Besides, the writing activities were quite appropriate for students and theyfound the activities quite interesting as well

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