4. Learning Styles, Strategies, and Critical Thinking

Since from mid-1990s, when I was a junior high and senior high school student, English teaching styles in class at compulsory school haven't changed so much (at least from my perspective). As a learner, I learned English in teacher-centered classes with grammar-translation method at school. There were 40 students on average in class and we sat and listened to the teacher; no interaction with peers and studied in a passive way. Seen from the perspective of Bloom's Taxonomy, our learning at that time aften covered lower level thinkings, such as remembering and understanding. 

I am not complaining about or blaming the classroom situation at that time since it was the educational scheme in the past specific period. However, it is problematic that the teaching context in English class still remains the same after 30 years.

Because of the learners' Multiple Intelligences (Howard Gardner, 1985), teaching styles should meet students' requirements for maximizing their strengths. While my multiple intelligences as a learner are Linguistic, Naturalist, and Kinesthetic, my current students at our school seem to prefer Visual, Interpersonal and Kinesthetic styles (G. Howard, 1985). Therefore, I often incorporate pictures and short video clips into activities to support their mind-mapping and summary. Think-Pair-Share; letting students make pairs and telling their answers and reasons with each other, is also part of a common learning style in my class now. 

According to O'Malley's (1985) Learning Strategies, Metacognitive Strategies: learners are thinking about the process of learning, Cognitive Strategies: learners create strategies for specific assignments, and Socio-affective Strategies: learners work together to get knowledge, are effective to enhance Higher Order Thinking skills, such as creating, evaluating, and analyzing (Bloom's Taxonomy). 

Led by the revised guidelines of education by the Ministry of Education, which emphasizes the importance of nurturing critical thinking skills of students, a lot of English classes have started to employ challenging activities in English lessons, such as discussions and debates. This change was drastic for most of the 'traditional' English classes at school but I suppose it was effective to stimulate the stubborn settings. As for how much critical thinking activities could be applicable to classes would depend on the situation; level of the students, students' learning styles, class size, etc. Besides, the compulsory textbook's coverage for term tests would be an issue. We also need to proceed in accordance with colleagues if we accomodate the drastic changes, if any.

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