A Study Of Cultivation Of Thinking Skills In Senior High School English Reading Teaching In The Context Of Core Competencies

Core competencies,as the concrete objective of English curriculum,have been ceaselessly concerned by the academic circles after the proclamation of Senior High School English Curriculum Standard(2020).Thinking quality is an important part of core competencies and also the core of intellectual education.Therefore,high school English teaching focuses on how to cultivate students’ thinking skills.In view of this,this study investigates the current status of thinking skills cultivation in senior high school English reading teaching,using Defining Higher Order Thinking,Constructivism Theory and Taxonomy of Foreign Language Educational Objectives as the theoretical basis.There are three main research questions:(1)What are the current attitudes and cognitions of senior high school teachers and students on the cultivation of thinking skills in English reading?(2)What are the current methods of cultivating thinking skills in senior high school English reading teaching?(3)What are the difficulties and problems in cultivating thinking skills in the current senior high school English reading teaching?In order to answer the above questions,this study conducted a questionnaire survey of 86 senior high school English teachers and 185 senior high school students from five high schools in Yantai,as well as interviews with two teachers.The findings showed that teachers and students had some cognitions of thinking skills.Teachers are generally able to understand the connotation of thinking skills,value the role of thinking skills in teaching English reading,and consciously and proactively develop relevant thinking skills on their students,but are not yet mature enough to use a variety of approaches to teaching.The methods of teachers training students’ Critical Thinking Skills in daily reading teaching are relatively simple.Students are aware of their teachers’ development of thinking skills in their reading learning,indicating that they already have certain thinking skills.However,students remain uncertain about the overall meaning of thinking skills and how to develop their own thinking skills.They think highly of Analytical Reasoning Skills,Organizational Thinking Skills,Critical Thinking Skills and Creativity Thinking Skills,among which Creativity Thinking Skills are less important than the other three.Based on these findings,the author summarizes the methods,existing difficulties and problems of thinking skills training in English reading,and makes suggestions from both teachers and students.