Effects Of Pbl Model On Students’ Critical Thinking And English Reading Achievement In Senior High School

Critical thinking(CT)refers to making reasonable judgments by adopting CT skills and dispositions.Its research has been focused on by domestic and international education circle.The 2022 Edition of English Curriculum Criteria for Regular High School also suggests that CT is one of the essential elements in developing students’ core competencies.At present,the problem-“deficiency of CT” still exists in China’s English education.Problem-based learning(PBL),a student-centered teaching model,advocates that the problem is the starting point of learning and that students’ existing knowledge,group work,teacher’s scaffoldings exert significant influences in problem solving.PBL has been regarded as an effective way to cultivate CT and improve English reading ability in various fields.PBL drives reading activities through problems,promotes the comprehension of reading text and application of CT.However,the previous studies on CT have primarily focused on college students and mainly stressed CT skills;there have not been enough empirical studies on the application of PBL to develop senior high school students’ CT and English reading achievement in English reading.In the study,a total of 70 students were randomly selected from first-year students in a senior high school in Weinan City,and California Critical Thinking Skills Test-Chinese Version(CTST-CV),Critical Thinking Disposition Inventory-Chinese Version(CTDI-CV),English reading comprehension tests were adopted as research instruments.PBL model was conducted in the experimental class(EC)and PWP model was implemented in the control class(CC).The experiment lasted for ten weeks.After inputting pre-and post-test data into SPSS 24.0,the study adopted Independent Sample t-test and Paired Sample t-test to analyze students’ scores in the two classes and test whether there are significant differences in students’ CT and reading achievement.Specifically,the study aims to explore the three questions:(1)What are the effects of PBL model in English reading teaching on students’ overall and sub-scale CT dispositions?(2)What are the effects of PBL model in English reading teaching on students’ overall and sub-scale CT skills?(3)What are the effects of PBL model on students’ English reading achievement?The results are as follows:(1)PBL model in English reading teaching positively enhances students’ overall and sub-scale CT dispositions,especially truth-seeking,open-mindedness,analyticity,self-confidence and inquisitiveness.However,students make little changes in terms of systematicity and maturity.(2)PBL model in English reading teaching significantly enhances students’ overall and sub-scale CT skills,especially analysis,evaluation and inference.(3)PBL model improves students’ English reading achievement.The study provides certain empirical basis for the application of PBL model in English reading teaching to cultivate CT and improve English reading achievement in senior high school.However,there are some limitations for further studies to discuss to some extent.