Enhancing Students' Argumentative Writing Performance And Critical Thinking Skills Through The Incorporation Of Concept Mapping And Content-Based Instruction

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Date
2017-01
Authors
Maekong, Nureeyah
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Publisher
Universiti Sains Malaysia
Abstract
This study emphasizes the writing planning strategy, derived from cognitive process of writing, meaningful learning theory, and critical thinking skill, implemented by the incorporation of concept mapping strategy (CM) and content-based instruction (CBI). The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of this strategy on student‟s writing performances and critical thinking skills, in planning argumentative writing. This study employed a mixed-method research methodology on 78 research participants which is designed into two groups, experimental (N=42), and control (N=36) groups. These research participants are intact groups of pre-university English program students at English Center, International language Academy, Fatoni Unversity Thailand, which were taking English writing course of English Preparatory level 3 (EP 3), academic year 2014. The analysis of covariance, ANCOVA, was employed to analyze the quantitative data obtained from Non-randomized pre-test posttest design of quasi-experiment. The student‟s essays were analyzed in scoring the writing performances and critical thinking skills using the writing rubric and criteria for assessing critical thinking skills in writing. Two raters were invited to assess the students‟ essay and finalized the scoring with the researcher. The qualitative data obtained from student‟s concept maps, in-depth interview, and classroom observations to identify the effects of CM-CBI strategy on student‟s critical thinking skills, and their experiences and challenges using the strategy are also identified.
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Keywords
Argumentative writing performance and critical thinking skills , incorporation of concept mapping and content-based instruction
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