Changes In In-service Teachers’ Cognitions About The Development Of Students’ Thinking Ability Through The Teaching Of English Reading

This study explored how the teachers’ cognitions about the development of students’ thinking ability through the teaching of English reading had changed since the issue of English Curriculum Standards for Senior Middle Schools(2017 Edition)in the late 2017.The researcher followed 29 primary,secondary and high school English teachers from Ningbo who voluntarily took part in a short training program in Beijing aimed at inspiring teachers in terms of the development of students’ thinking ability through English teaching.Data including the teachers’answers to three open-ended questions,lesson plans and interviews were collected from three teachers selected from the 29 teachers participating the program Through the data,changes in teacher cognitions and the reasons why some teachers’cognitions had changed significantly while others had not since the newly issued English Curriculum Standards were investigated.The results indicated the three teachers,cognitions had changed differently in the four dimensions(cognitions about the concept of thinking ability in English teaching,cognitions about teaching goals of the English lesson designed to develop students’ thinking ability.cognitions about the strategy of the development of thinking ability and cognitions about the development of students’ thinking ability through the teaching of English reading).One teacher’s cognitions in the development of thinking ability through the teaching of English reading had changed significantly while the other two had not.The reason lies in her changed cognitions in the strategy of developing thinking ability.