2014 Fiscal Year Research-status Report
| Project/Area Number |
26370638
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| Research Institution | Waseda University |
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Principal Investigator |
SHEPPARD Chris 早稲田大学, 理工学術院, 准教授 (60350386)
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| Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha) |
MANALO Emmanuel 京都大学, 教育学研究科(研究院), 教授 (30580386)
木下 直子 早稲田大学, 付置研究所, 准教授 (40364715)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2014-04-01 – 2017-03-31
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| Keywords | 批判的思考 / 外国語教育 / 英語教育 / Critical Thinking |
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| Outline of Annual Research Achievements |
This project aims to determine better methods to teach critical thinking skills of Japanese through English. In the first year (2014), we collected English and Japanese data from Japanese sources (120 participants) and completed planning for data collection in the second year where data will be collected from English speaking participants. Data is also currently being analyzed.
Research results which included data analyzed from this and prior projects were presented at the Graduate Department of Education, Rutgers University, and New York State TESOL's Applied Linguistic Winter Conference.
(Sheppard, C., & Manalo, E. (2015). Developing critical thinking skills in an EFL context: Case studies from Japan. Paper presented at the New York State TESOL 36th Annual Applied Linguistics Winter Conference, 7 March, Columbia University.
Manalo, E., & Sheppard, C. (2015). Critical Evaluation in Students’ Written Work: Some Influencing Factors and Correlates. Colloquium presented at the Graduate School of Education, Rutgers University, 6 March.)
Finally on the 17th of March, 2015, the projects cooperating researcher, Prof. Clark Chinn was invited from Rutgers University to give an open lecture. A symposium entitled "Critical Thinking in Education" was also held on the same day. Eight presentations were given by fourteen researchers and educators providing different perspectives on critical thinking in secondary and tertiary education. In total, around 30 people attended this event.
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| Current Status of Research Progress |
Current Status of Research Progress
2: Research has progressed on the whole more than it was originally planned.
Reason
One of the studies cooperating researchers, for some reason, was not registered as a co-researcher, which has caused some confusion and slowed the project down for the first year.
The first study intended to compare the critical thinking skills of US students and Japanese students. However, the company which publishes the Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal instrument that we were planning to use does not have a Japanese version of the instrument and does not allow translations of their instrument. An instrument will be located (and translated) and validated in 2015. The data for this part of the project will be collected in 2016.
The second study attempts to look at any possible influence of language structure on the expression of critical evaluation. This study is proceeding as expected. Data from 120 participants was collected in the 2014 academic year. Data collection from the English native speaker side of the study will continue in 2015.
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| Strategy for Future Research Activity |
The following is planned for the 2015 academic year.
1) Critical Thinking Questionnaire development. A questionnaire which measures critical thinking ability will be located, translated into Japanese, and then this will be validated.
2) Experimental materials development. Materials which have been used to date for the Japanese native speakers will be developed and translated for English and Chinese native speakers.
3) Data collection and analysis: Critical evaluation data will be collected from 20-30 English and Chinese native speakers. As the data becomes available it will be coded and analyzed.
4) Research related to this project will be presented at Earli2015 in late August
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| Causes of Carryover |
It was planned to purchase a large number of Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal questionnaires. However, we found that there was no official Japanese version of the questionnaire, and that the company which holds the copyright does not allow us to make our own translations.
For this reason we were unable to purchase the questionnaires as we had planned.
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| Expenditure Plan for Carryover Budget |
The funds transferred from 2014 to 2015 academic year will be used to locate and purchase an instrument which will be able to measure critical thinking in both English and Japanese, which would hopefully enable a cross-cultural comparison.
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