Svetozar Postic

Development of Critical Thinking Skills in Literature Classes

Development of Critical Thinking Skills in Literature Classes

Svetozar Postic

Vilnius University Faculty of Philology, Institute of Foreign Languages, Lithuania

Abstract

This paper analyses the use of techniques through which critical thinking skills can be developed, honed, and nurtured during university literature classes. First, it reviews all the definitions of critical thinking, paying special attention to how they have evolved during the last one hundred years, and selecting those that are useful for literature teaching. Further, it uses the critical thinking skills, listed by an international expert group and described by Peter Facione in his 2011 article entitled “Critical Thinking: What It Is and Why It Counts,” and recommends ways in which they can be developed in a literature classroom. The six consensual skills listed by the group are interpretation, analysis, inference, evaluation, explanation, and self-regulation.

The recommended techniques in the following section heavily rely on the Dialogue Teaching Model, described in a 1990 work by William Hayes entitled “Critical Thinking through Literature: A Dialogue Teaching Model.” The model this author uses involves five basic steps: getting students to respond to their reading in some significant open-ended way, comparing their reasoning to that of others, reflecting on their own reasoning after considering what others have said, revising or maintaining their responses in the light of other viewpoints, and demonstrating their understanding of a literary piece through a written or oral assignment. This procedure cultivates the expression of one’s own opinion, the ability to listen and comprehend other people’s views and opinions, the encouragement of open-mindedness to different opinions, and the willingness to adapt your own stance according to the information and arguments collected from others. The principle aim of the work is to demonstrate how discussions about literature are one of the most effective ways to develop critical thinking skills.

Keywords: Critical Thinking, Literature, Dialogue Teaching Model, University Classroom

References

Facione, P.A. (2011). Critical thinking: What it is and why it counts. Insight assessment.

Hayes, W. H. (1990) Critical Thinking through Literature: A Dialogue Teaching Model. Critical and Creative Thinking Capstones Collection. 140. https://scholarworks.umb.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1139&context=cct_capstone

Shukri, N. A. and Makundan J. (2015). A Review on Developing Critical Thinking Skills through Literature Texts. Advances in Language and Literary Studies 6(2): 4–9.

Tung, C. and Chang, S. (2009). Developing Critical Thinking through Literature Reading.

Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences 19: 287–317.

Biodata

Associate Professor, Institute of Foreign Languages, Faculty of Philology, Vilnius University, Lithuania

Research interests: Comparative Literature, Cultural Studies, Second-Language Acquisition.