1、基于英语议论文的中国高中生思辨技能研究英语专业外文翻译大学本科毕业论文苏州大学外国语学院本科毕业论文（2014届）题目：基于英语议论文的中国高中生思辨技能研究Acknowledgements I would like to extend my sincerest gratitude and appreciation to the following people, who have provided me with generous and constructive guidance, illuminating and inspirational instructions, warm-hear
2、ted and hospitable support during my undergraduate study at Soochow University. First of all, I owe all enormous debt of gratitude and respect to my supervisor, Professor Wang Haizhen, who has offered me invaluable instructions and generous encouragement in the process. Her devotion, patience and co
3、mpetence exert such a deep influence on me that I will cherish the experience for my whole life. My sincere thanks also go to the professors and teachers in the School of Foreign Languages in Soochow University, in particular, Professor Su Xiaojun and Professor Yuan Ying, whose lectures serve as an
4、unfailing source of inspiration in writing the dissertation as well as in my future study. In addition, I also want to thank the willingness and cooperation of all the participants in the study, whose great contributions make the paper become a reality. My heart-felt appreciation also goes to my stu
5、dy mates, especially Zhao Lijing, who cooperates with me in the painful but rewarding process of collecting data from different cities in Jiangsu Province. Last but not least, I would like to express my heart-felt gratitude to my parents, who have been giving me unconditional love and support all th
6、ese years. Abstract Critical thinking (CT) is regarded as an important disciplinary goal in education. To cultivate students CT skills has been listed in the objectives of the National English Curriculum (2011). However, existing studies mainly choose university students, especially English majors a
7、s participants. Considering that Senior High school is a critical period for CT development, so it is necessary to explore senior high school students CT skills. The research is intended to first describe the characteristics of Chinese high school students CT skills, to be specific, the characterist
8、ics of each grade and the developmental pattern across three grades, and then explore the correlation between the students CT skills and their English curricular grades. Moreover, it analyzes whether students gender and major (liberal arts or science) make difference to total scores of CT skills. Th
9、e participants of the study include 209 senior high school students from Changzhou Qianhuang Senior High School, Rugao Senior High School, Lian Yungang Yangji Senior High School in Jiangsu Province. A timed English argumentative writing test is designed as the instrument of the research. The researc
10、h adopts the classification of CT skills proposed in Delphi Report (Facione et al., 1990) that CT consists of six sub-skills, i.e. interpretation, analysis, evaluation, inference, explanation and self-regulation. An adapted form of Qualitative Florida Scale for Critical Thinking Skills (UF/QCTS) is
11、employed as the rating rubric in that the underlying assumption of CT skills is consistent with that proposed in Delphi Report. After the collection of timed English argumentative writings from March to June in 2013, two experienced researchers were trained to reach high inter-rater reliability (r=0
12、.82) in terms of each sub-skill of CT skills. The findings of the research are obtained through SPSS 19.0.The major findings of the study are as follows. 1. Senior high school students CT skills display different characteristics across three grades. Not all skills develop significantly and the skill
13、 of self-regulation exhibits reverse developmental pattern from Grade One to Grade Three. The overall pattern of Chinese senior high school students CT skills is progressive, however, the current global picture is not desirable. 2. There exists a weak positive statistical correlation between student
14、s English curricular grades and the total scores of CT skills. 3. Gender and major make no significant difference to CT skills of Chinese senior high school students. The implications of the research go as follows:1. The research is conducive to providing an objective description of senior high scho
15、ol students CT skills for teachers to adjust their educational praxis so as to foster more students who can meet the objectives of the National English Curriculum and face the challenges of society. 2. The research diagnostically examines senior high school students writing, revealing its strong and
16、 weak facets, so it sheds light on the possible remedy programs to facilitate students CT skills. This in turn helps teachers develop their own CT. Keywords: CT skills, Chinese senior high school, English argumentative writing摘 要思辨能力一直被视为重要的课程培养目标，2011版的全国英语课程标准已经把培养学生的思辨技能列入英语教学的目标之中。现存的关于思辨技能的研究主要
17、围绕大学生，尤其是英语专业的本科生。但高中阶段是思辨技能发展的关键时期，因此有必要以高中生为研究对象进行相关探索。本文的目的首先在于描述中国高中生思辨技能在高中每个年级的特点以及纵向的发展趋势; 其次，本文旨在研究学生思辨技能和英语学科成绩之间的关系，再者，本文将探索不同的性别和专业（文、理科）是否会对学生的思辨技能产生影响。本文的研究对象包括来自江苏省前黄高级中学，江苏省如皋中学和江苏省连云港杨集中学的209名高中生。本文的量具是笔者设计的限时英语议论文，采用Facione等人于1990年在德尔菲报告中提出的关于思辨技能的分类，思辨技能被分为六项子技能，即阐释、分析、评价、推论、解释和自我调
18、节。笔者对加利福尼亚大学开发的思辨技能量化评分表（UF/QCTS）进行修订，并依此对高中生的作文进行评分，因为此评分标准对思辨技能的分类与德尔菲报告中的分类完全一致。本文的语料在2013年3月至6月收集，两名经验丰富的研究者在经过专业训练后，对这些语料进行了评分，根据信效检验结果，两位研究者的评分具有很高的一致性。（r=0.82）本文采用统计分析软件SPSS 19.0 对所得数据进行处理，结果显示1）高中生思辨技能在每个年级段呈现不同的发展特征，不是所有技能都呈现显著发展，自我调节技能呈负增长；思辨技能的整体发展趋势是向上的，但现状并不乐观；2）高中生思辨技能和英语学科成绩未见显著相关性；3）
19、性别和文理科对思辨技能不产生重要影响。本文以英语议论文为媒介对中国高中生思辨技能的概况进行了客观描述，具有如下启示：1）为高中教师的教学提供了有效的反馈和参考，这将有利于高中教师调整课程设计以培养出更多符合新课标要求的、能够应对社会挑战的人才。2）本文诊断性地评估高中生的英语议论文，揭示了高中生思辨技能发展的强弱方面，给思辨技能培养和补救方案提供了思路，也有利于促进教师思辨技能的发展。关键词：思辨技能、中国高中、英语议论文ContentsAbstract II摘 要 IVContents VChapter One Introduction 11.1 Background 11.2 Object
20、ives and Significance of the Study 11.3 Layout of the Study 2Chapter Two Literature Review 32.1 Definition of Critical Thinking 32.1.1 Definition of Critical Thinking from the Philosophical Perspective 32.1.2 Definition of Critical Thinking from the Psychological Perspective 42.2 Dimensions of Criti
21、cal Thinking 42.2.1 Critical Thinking Skills 52.2.2 Critical Thinking Dispositions 92.3 Critical Thinking in Writing 112.3.1 The Importance of Writing 112.3.2 Theories on the Relationship between Writing and Critical Thinking 122.4 Related Studies on Critical Thinking 132.4.1 Related Studies on the
22、Relationship between Critical Thinking and Writing 132.4.2 Related Studies on the Developmental Pattern of CT in University Students 152.4.3 Related Studies on Factors Influencing Critical Thinking 16Chapter Three Methodology 173.1 Research Questions 173.2 Participants 173.3 Instruments 193.3.1 An A
23、dapted Form of UF/QCTS 203.3.2 The Timed English Argumentative Writing Test 223.4 Data Collection and Data Analysis 233.4.1 The Training Session and the Inter-rater Reliability 233.4.2 Sample Analysis 24Chapter Four Results and Discussions 274.1 Characteristics and Differences of CT Skills among Thr
24、ee Grades 274.2 Weak Correlation between Total Score of CT Skills and English Curricular Grade 414.3 No Significant Difference in Critical Thinking Skills with Different Genders 434.4 No Significant Difference in CT Skills with Different Majors 43Chapter Five Conclusion 465.1 Major Findings 465.2 St
25、udy Implications 465.3 Limitations of the Study 475.4 Suggestions for Future Study 48References 50Appendices 54Appendix I Timed English Argumentative Writing 54Appendix II: Rubric for Grading UF/QCTS Tests 55Appendix III: UF/QCTS 65文献综述报告 66Chapter One Introduction1.1 BackgroundCritical thinking has
26、 been viewed as an essential skill that an individual has to possess in his personal, academic and social life. In view of the rapid advancement of technology, Feuerstein (1999) remarks that modern technological society increasingly requires the development of individuals possessing critical and cre
27、ative thinking skills. The significance of CT is also highlighted in the National English Curriculum (2011). It dictates that “one of the high level goals of the nine-year compulsory education is to cultivate students abilities to observe, to memorize, to think, to imagine and to create, and to incr
28、ease their vision”. On the other hand, writing, being a thinking device, plays an equally prominent role in the cultivation and manifestation of students CT. Writing and communication of ideas are indispensable to all disciplines. What is more, after preliminary review into this sphere, it is found
29、out that existing researches tend to choose university English majors as participants, therefore senior high school students CT remains to be investigated. 1.2 Objectives and Significance of the StudyThe study aims to investigate, first and foremost, the characteristics of critical thinking skills a
30、mong three grades and its developmental pattern; secondly, the correlation between senior senior high school students total score CT skills and English curricular grades; thirdly, whether gender and major (science or liberal art) make significant difference to CT skills. The study is significant in
31、that firstly it provides a global picture of senior high school students critical thinking skills and the developmental pattern with a qualitative measurement supported by quantitative data, revealing both the weak and strong facets of senior high school students CT skills. It also makes efforts in
32、figuring out the relationship between several possible influencing factors and CT skills. Secondly, the research will draw more attention to senior high school education reform, with which senior high school students will be given more space and initiative to give their potential to full play. Thirdly, this study serves as a well-founded and cogent feedback to the faculty whereby teachers can adjust their teaching practice and include more critical thinking training program
