Evaluating Critical Thinking Skills in Moroccan EFL Textbooks: Gateway to English 2 as a Case

Abdelfattah Es-salhi, Mohamed Elfatihi

Abstract


The aim of this study is to evaluate critical thinking skills (CTS) in a Moroccan textbook of English as a foreign language entitled Gateway to English 2 (GTE2 henceforth) according to Bloom’s taxonomy. Alongside with this, a survey is conducted to investigate the perceptions and attitudes of a sample of Moroccan high school teachers towards CTS and their inclusion in the aforementioned textbook. The research design adopted in this study is the mixed methods research approach and three instruments are used to collect data: document analysis, a content analysis card and a questionnaire. The participants’ sample consists of 75 Moroccan high school teachers of English who use GTE2 textbook. The three instruments were intended to gather both quantitative and qualitative data. The findings of the study revealed that the current educational policy aims to foster the CTS of Moroccan students, but the textbooks used, namely GTE2, targets only lower order thinking skills, especially comprehension, and application at the expense of higher order thinking skills which will benefit students both academically and professionally. For this reason, the study suggests activities and materials to enrich the textbook in terms of thinking skills.


Keywords


Bloom’s taxonomy; Critical thinking; EFL; Textbook evaluation

Full Text:

PDF

References


Abdallaoui, N. M. (2012). Critical thinking and the Moroccan educational context. Almadrssa Al-Maghribiya, 4(5), 26-48

AbdelWahab, M. M. (2013). Developing an English language textbook evaluative checklist. IOSR Journal of Research and Method in Education (ISOR-JRME), 1(3). (file:///C:/Users/hp/Downloads/Evaluative%20checklist%20(6).pdf)

Bessick, S. C. (2008). Improved critical thinking skills as a result of direct instruction and their relationship to academic achievement. Unpublished doctoral dissertation. Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Indiana.

Birjandi, Parviz & Alizadeh, Iman. (2013). Manifestation of critical thinking skills in the English textbooks employed by language institutes in Iran. International Journal of Research Studies in Language Learning. 2. 10.5861/ijrsll.2012.100.

Bloom, B. & al.(1956). Taxonomy of educational objectives: Classification of educational goals. London: Longmans, Green and COLTD.

Bloom, B. S. (Ed.). (1956). Taxonomy of educational objectives: The classification of educational goals. Handbook I: Cognitive domain. New York: David McKay.

Bowen, G. A. (2009). Document analysis as a qualitative research method. Qualitative Research Journal, 9(2), 27-40 (http://www.rmitpublishing.com.au/qrj.hytml).

Bransford, J.D., &Stein, B.S. (1984). The ideal problem solver: A guide for improving thinking, learning and creativity. San Francisco: Freeman.

Breen, M. & Candlin, C. (1987). What materials? A consumer’s and designer’s guide. In L. E. Shelden (ed.). ELT textbook and materials: Problems in evaluation and development. ELT Documents 126. (pp. 13-28) Oxford: Modern English Publications in association with The British Council.

Bruner, J. S. (1960). The process of education. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

Bruner, J. S. (1961). The act of discovery. Harvard Educational Review, 31, 21-32.

Butterworth, J. and Thwaites, G. (2013). Thinking skills: critical thinking and problem solving. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Central Specialist Coordination. (2007). English language guidelines for secondary schools: Common core, first year, and second year baccalaureate. Rabat: Ministry of Education Committees for reviewing the primary, lower and upper secondary educational curricula.

Court, D. (1991). Teaching critical thinking: What do we know? The Social Studies, 82(3), 115-119

Cunningsworth, A. (1984). Evaluating and selecting EFL teaching materials. London: Heinemann Educational Books.

Davidson, J. E., & Sternberg, R. J. (1984). The role of insight in intellectual giftedness. Gifted Child Quarterly, 28, 58-64.

Day, R. (2003). Teaching Critical Thinking and Discussion. Paper presented at the 23rd Annual Thailand TESOL Conference, Bangkok, Thailand.

Dornyei, Z. (2007). Research methods in applied linguistics: Quantitative, qualitative and mixed methodology. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Elboubekri, A. (2013). Multilingual education in Morocco and the question of cultural identity: Toward implementing a critical thinking approach in high school English textbooks. ( http://www.academicjournals.org/journal/ERR/article-full-text-pdf/CD6438241394)

Elfatihi, M. (2010). Implementing critical thinking in the department of English: Aspirations and Challenges. Martil: Proceedings of the 30th Annual of MATE Conference.

Ellis, R. (1997). The empirical evaluation of language teaching materials. ELT Journal, 51(1), 36-42

Ennis, R. H. (1989). Critical thinking and subject specificity: Clarification and needed research. Educational Researcher, 18(3), 4–10.

Facione, P.A. (2011). Critical thinking: What it is and why it counts. California: Measured Reasons and The California Academic Press.

Fereday, J., & Muir-Cochrane, E. (2006) Demonstrating rigour using thematic analysis: Hybrid approach of inductive and reductive coding and theme development. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 5(1), Art. 7, available at http://www. valberta.ca/~iiqm/ backissues/5_1/5_ltoc.html

Feuerstein, R. (1980). Instrumental enrichment: An intervention Program for cognition modifiability. Baltimore: University Park Press.

Forehand, M. (2005). Bloom’s Taxonomy. (http://epltt.coe.uga.edu/index.php?title=Bloom%27s_Taxonomy)

Gagne, R. N. (1980). Learning aspects of problem solving. Educational Psychologist, 15, 84-92.

Grant, N. (1987). Making the most of your textbook. Essex: Longman Group UK Limited.

Guyote, M. J., & Sternberg, R. J. (1981). A transitive-chain theory of syllogistic reasoning. Cognitive Psychology, 13,461-525.

Halpern, D. F. (1998). Teaching critical thinking for transfer across domains: Dispositions, skills, structure training, and metacognitive monitoring. California: The American Psychological Association.

Hassim, M., Blibil, M. & Rasmy, A. (2007). Gateway to English 2. Rabat: Nadia Edition.

Higher Council of Education Training and Scientific Research. (2014). Official report. http://www.csefrs.ma/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/R_analytique_ar.pdf

Hughes, J. (2014). Critical thinking in the language classroom. Eli. (www.ettoi.pl/PDF_resources/Critical_ThinkingENG.pdf)

Jebbour, M. (2016). Critical thinking in the Moroccan textbooks of English: Ticket to English as a case study. International Journal of Cognitive and Language Sciences, 3(1).

McDonough, J. & Shaw, C. (1993). Materials and methods in ELT. Oxford: Blackwell.

Moore, B. N., & Parker, R. (2009). Critical thinking. Boston, MA: McGraw-Hill.

Perkins, D. (1981). The mind’s best work. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

Renzulli, J. S. (1976). The enrichment triad model: A guide for developing defensible programs for the gifted and talented. Gifted Child Cluarseray, 20, 303-326.

Sheldon, L. E. (1988). Evaluating ELT textbooks and materials. ELT Journal, 42(4), 237-246.

Skierso, A. (1991). Textbook selection and evaluation. In M. Celce-Murcia (Ed.) Teaching English as a second or foreign language. Boston: Heinle &. Heinle.

Special Royal Committee (COSEF). (1999). The national charter for education and training. Kenitra: Dar Elfharf Lil-Nacher .

Sternberg, R. J. (1985). Critical thinking: Its nature, measurement, and improvement. Washington DC: National Institute of Education. (http://eric.ed.gov/PDFS/ED272882.pdf)

Sternberg, R. J. (1986). Understanding and increasing your intelligence. San Diego: Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich.

The Kingdom of Morocco, Ministry of National Education. (2002), White Book.

Williams, B., Anderson, M. C., & Day, R. (2007). Undergraduate nursing students’ knowledge of and attitudes toward aging: comparison of context-based learning and a traditional program. Journal of Nursing Education, 46(3).

Zamani, G., & Rezvani, R. (2015). HOTS in Iran’s official textbooks: Implications for material design and student learning. Journal of Applied Linguistics and Language Research, 2(5), 138-151.




DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3968/11284

Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


Copyright (c) 2019 Abdelfattah Es-salhi Abdelfattah, Mohamed Elfatihi

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Share us to:   

Reminder

  • How to do online submission to another Journal?
  • If you have already registered in Journal A, then how can you submit another article to Journal B? It takes two steps to make it happen:

1. Register yourself in Journal B as an Author

  • Find the journal you want to submit to in CATEGORIES, click on “VIEW JOURNAL”, “Online Submissions”, “GO TO LOGIN” and “Edit My Profile”. Check “Author” on the “Edit Profile” page, then “Save”.

2. Submission

  • Go to “User Home”, and click on “Author” under the name of Journal B. You may start a New Submission by clicking on “CLICK HERE”.


We only use three mailboxes as follows to deal with issues about paper acceptance, payment and submission of electronic versions of our journals to databases:
[email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]

 Articles published in Higher Education of Social Science are licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC-BY).

HIGHER EDUCATION OF SOCIAL SCIENCE Editorial Office

Address: 1055 Rue Lucien-L'Allier, Unit #772, Montreal, QC H3G 3C4, Canada.
Telephone: 1-514-558 6138 
Website: Http://www.cscanada.net Http://www.cscanada.org 
E-mail: [email protected]; [email protected]

Copyright © 2010 Canadian Research & Development Center of Sciences and Cultures