| dc.description.abstract | Increasing attention has been given to the significance of fostering higher-order thinking (HOT) in the EFL (English as a foreign language) context globally. China has also followed this trend and published the New English Language Curriculum Standards in Senior High School Education in 2017 (the New Curriculum hereafter, updated in 2020). The New Curriculum specifies that HOT is one of the four core competencies. This research was designed to explore teacher cognition concerning HOT in secondary EFL writing in China from the perspectives of their knowledge, beliefs and teaching practices, together with the influencing factors.
A case study was designed to collect data using six semi-structured interviews and 29 class video recordings with seven teacher participants as well as their 363 students. Thematic analysis was employed to analyse the interview data and data reduction strategy in the analysis of class video recordings. The findings indicated that the degree and extent of teachers’ understanding of HOT differs, but some progress has been made compared to previous studies. HOT consists of skills and dispositions. Subskills of HOT were identified by participants, including analysing, evaluating, inferring, critical thinking, and creative thinking. In the local context, the understanding of critical thinking is narrower, with differences from the literature; creative thinking is given much attention due to the introduction of continuation writing in the high-stakes National College Entrance Exam (NCEE). Also, teachers possessed their own localised understanding regarding the thinking skills of memorising and summarising. The dispositional aspects are analyticity, open-mindedness, empathy, fair-mindedness and confidence to reason.
Teaching strategies have been identified in the study, including questioning, Spiral IRF (initiation-response-follow up), mind mapping, group discussions, real-life topics, and writing assessment. Among them, question chains are a unique questioning strategy in the local context. Teachers’ conflicting beliefs around promoting HOT were influenced by different contexts, particularly the high-stakes NCEE in the test-oriented education system and insufficient teacher training. The 3-year Covid-19 pandemic was a unique factor which should not be ignored. It led to school closure, the transfer to online instruction and teacher training, and the cancellation of many teacher professional development (TPD) programmes. Teacher cognition is dynamic, social and contextualised, and the in-depth exploration helps understand the inconsistency between teachers’ beliefs and practices.
This study provides some implications for policymakers, assessment changes, teacher professional development, local governments, and schools. Recommendations for future research are put forward. | en_GB |
