A Comparative Study Of Reading Activities Based On The Old And New Senior High English Compulsory Textbooks (FLTRP Edition) From The Perspective Of Thinking Quality

The English textbook is the carrier of English curriculum content and the core part of the English curriculum resources,which should conform to students’ age characteristics,psychological characteristics and cognitive development level,and help students to develop their thinking ability.In recent years,the “5C Model of Core Competence in the 21 st Century” and the new round of senior high English curriculum have brought more and more attention to the cultivation of students’ core competence,especially thinking quality.There are many studies on thinking quality at home and abroad,but further research is needed in combination with English textbooks for secondary students.Since the new curriculum reform,the new senior high English textbooks(2019 FLTRP version)have been published,which is highly different from the old 2016 version in structure and content,reflecting the new requirements for English education nowadays.In addition,reading teaching is of great significance to the cultivation of students’ core competence,and thinking quality reflects the mental characteristics of it.Finally,the effect of the textbooks should be implemented in specific use,so it is necessary to know the views of teachers on them.Therefore,in order to explore the thinking quality of reading activities in the old and new version compulsory textbooks as well as the feedback of teachers,this study proposes the following research questions based on the revised Bloom’s taxonomy of educational objectives in cognitive domain and the definition of thinking quality in the National English Curriculum Standard for Senior High School(2017 version 2020 revision):(1)What are the features of reading activities in the old and new textbooks in terms of logical thinking,critical thinking and creative thinking?(2)What are teachers’ feedback on logical thinking,critical thinking and creative thinking of the reading activities in the old and new textbooks?To answer the above questions,this study adopts content analysis method.Moreover,quantitative and qualitative analysis are made on the reading activities in the textbooks(eight volumes in total)from three aspects of logical thinking,critical thinking and creative thinking.Specifically,according to literature review,the author constructs a specific analysis framework of reading activities from the perspective of thinking quality,and then uses Nvivo12 Plus software and SPSS 26.0 software for data statistics and analysis.Finally,questionnaires are designed to investigate the feedback of teachers on the thinking quality of reading activities in the textbooks.The research results show that there is a significant difference between the two version textbooks in thinking quality of reading activities.The proportion of the reading activities from high to low are logical thinking,critical thinking and creative thinking in sequence,which conforms to Bloom’s taxonomy from lower-order thinking to higher-order thinking.Specifically,the amount of creative thinking reading activities in the old textbooks are obviously insufficient,which in the new version is considerably increased.Besides,the reading activities in the old textbooks are characterized by superficial information acquisition,fragmented theme judgment and simplified meaning inference.In contrast,the new textbooks pay more attention to cultivating students’ thinking quality,which reflects the deep and integrated design for students’ thinking training.The main differences of the two version textbooks show in the amount of reading activities,the unit structure distribution and the question types of reading activities.For the feedback on the old textbooks,some teachers point out that the reading content is out of date,and many topics are not closely related to students’ real life.Besides,the reading exercises are mainly mechanical exercises,which have higher requirements for students’ logical thinking ability.In addition,the goal of thinking training in reading activities of each module is not clear enough,showing dispersed and fragmented characteristics,and the integrity and coherence of thinking training need to be further improved.Moreover,the old textbooks have been used for more than 10 years,and teachers have formed a set of reading teaching modes.As for the feedback on the new textbooks,most teachers hold a positive attitude towards the three dimensions of thinking quality reflected in the reading activities,but their understanding is not accurate and comprehensive enough.In addition,some teachers also realize that they need to further research the textbooks,combine with the specific students’ learning situation,and explore reading teaching strategies in order to cultivate students’ thinking quality.Finally,the author puts forward some suggestions as well as a specific teaching lesson plan based on the research results,hoping to provide help for teachers to better use the new textbooks.