A case study of Chinese university instructors’ perceptions and teaching practices of critical thinking

• In Event: Publication mentoring workshop session
  In Special Session: Adult Education

Proposal

Werklund School of Education, University of Calgary
PhD Supervisor, Dr. Yan Guo

Cultivating students’ critical thinking abilities as an important objective of education is a prevalent theme in the literature on higher education (Abrami et al., 2008; Manalo et al., 2015). With the internationalization of higher education, western educators are facing an increasing challenge of teaching students from multicultural backgrounds (Guo & Chase, 2011). In particular, Chinese international students are reported as lacking critical thinking skills for many reasons, including deficiencies in their Chinese cultural and educational backgrounds, English proficiency, relevant discipline knowledge, and assessment of what critical thinking skills are (Lu & Singh, 2017).
My research intends to better understand the perception that Chinese students lack critical thinking skills through a case study at a university in China. I intend to reflect on teaching practices of critical thinking in Chinese higher education through the voices of university instructors. Also, I seek to identify how their perspectives of critical thinking influence their living teaching practice. I will explore the Chinese models of critical thinking instruction used by the participants. I hope the findings of my study will address the challenge of providing culturally appropriate critical thinking instruction to Chinese students in higher education (both local and international).
Therefore, my study will be guided by the following research questions:
1) What are instructors’ perceptions of critical thinking?
2) How do instructors teach critical thinking?
3) How do the culture and education backgrounds of the instructors influence their understanding and teaching practice regarding critical thinking?
To frame this study, I employ Thomas’ (1997, 2002) culturally appropriate pedagogy to help situate and make meaning of the phenomenon of critical thinking. Thomas’ framework emphasizes that the task of culturally appropriate pedagogy is to make teaching more sensitive to cultural contexts and relative determining factors. He highlights the role of culturally specific knowledge, behavior, attitudes, and skills in pedagogy. Besides the components of teacher and teaching, the framework includes six influencing factors, political, economic, societal, professionalism, research and culture innovation (Thomas, 2002). This framework is derived from culturally relevant pedagogy and explores environments with high levels of cultural diversity. It focuses on the importation of Western educational theories and practices in non-western, developing countries like China. The question is to what extent can culture render Western approaches ineffective and even counterproductive (Nguyen, Terlouw & Pilot, 2006). This research tries to provide an in-depth understanding of teaching critical thinking in China.
Through a critical literature review, I situate the concepts of critical thinking within both Western and Chinese contexts. Three different teaching approaches (Bloom’s taxonomy, inquiry approach and collaborative approach) are later examined in the context of higher education. The review illustrates how critical thinking theories are used in teaching practice, which serves to provide a foundation for the study and a link between the literature and further interpretation of the study.
To gain a deeper understanding of participants’ individual views and behaviors, I chose a qualitative paradigm for this study. I engage case study as a research methodology and also as a method to define the boundaries of the participants. Purposeful sampling was used to select 24 instructors from eight departments of the participating university. Three methods, interview, focus group, and classroom observation were applied to collect data. Altogether, 24 instructors participated in one-hour, face-to-face interviews and four of them also participated in a ninety-minute focus group discussion. With the permission of instructors and their students, I also observed four classes. Besides, eight students from the four classes were also interviewed to provide data from different perspectives and also increase the trustworthiness of the study. The three qualitative methods help to identify the relationship between participants’ perspectives and teaching approaches.
Currently, I have finished the data collection process and began data analysis. To interpret the data, open coding and theory-generated coding for data analysis are being used.
Preliminary findings show that there are significant field differences in defining critical thinking between the humanities and natural science. Findings suggest that participants’ perception of Chinese students’ lack of critical thinking are diverse and dynamic. Findings also indicate that an education system that promotes transmission of knowledge, instructors’ lack of expertise in teaching critical thinking skills, students’ exam-oriented learning styles, and an over-reliance on technology for problem solving constitute some of the major challenges of teaching critical thinking skills. Moreover, three main approaches to teaching these skills are identified, including micro-lecture blended teaching, project-based learning, and outcome-oriented instruction.

Author

• Xiaoli Liu, University of Calgary