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Effects of classroom debate and socratic method on critical thinking and speaking ability of Malaysian undergraduate ESL learners

The present research is an attempt to study the effects of classroom debate and Socratic Method on critical thinking and speaking ability of Malaysian undergraduate ESL learners. In addition, the study tries to determine which of these two methods is more effective in developing the participants‘...

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Main Author: Zare, Pezhman
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: 2016
Online Access:http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/65690/1/FPP%202016%2027IR.pdf
http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/65690/
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spelling my.upm.eprints.656902018-10-09T07:01:52Z http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/65690/ Effects of classroom debate and socratic method on critical thinking and speaking ability of Malaysian undergraduate ESL learners Zare, Pezhman The present research is an attempt to study the effects of classroom debate and Socratic Method on critical thinking and speaking ability of Malaysian undergraduate ESL learners. In addition, the study tries to determine which of these two methods is more effective in developing the participants‘ critical thinking and speaking ability. Furthermore, students‘ perceptions and feedbacks are investigated and explored toward these two methods. The study adopts a quasi-experimental mixed method design (pre-test, post-test design) in which both quantitative and qualitative methods of data collection is employed. The participants of the study consisted of an intact class of thirty two undergraduate students doing TESL at the Faculty of Educational Studies, Universiti Putra Malaysia. The participants had completed two years of their degree program; the class was selected based on purposive sampling. The New Jersey Test of Reasoning Skills (NJTRS) and content analysis method (Newman et al., 1995) were administered to assess the learners‘ critical thinking skills at the beginning and at the end of the study. Participants‘ speaking ability was measured at the beginning and at the end of the study. To triangulate the data, semi-structured interviews were conducted to investigate the students‘ perceptions on the two teaching methods of the study. In addition, the participants provided their responses to a number of open-ended questions. Furthermore, ongoing observations were made to monitor the developments in participants‘ behavior and the classroom atmosphere. Based on the findings, the learners‘ critical thinking showed improvement after going through classroom debates and Socratic discussions for nine and ten sessions respectively. Both classroom debate and Socratic Method were equally effective in improving the participants‘ critical thinking. The participants‘ speaking ability showed significant progress after going through the classroom debates and Socratic discussions. Classroom debate, however, showed to be more effective in improving speaking ability. The research participants also found the two methods of the study innovative, interesting, constructive, and helpful to teaching and learning. The respondents also believed that participating in classroom debate and/or Socratic discussions helped them overcome the fear of talking before a crowd, boost their confidence to talk and express their opinions, improve their speaking ability, and enhance their critical thinking skills. 2016-04 Thesis NonPeerReviewed text en http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/65690/1/FPP%202016%2027IR.pdf Zare, Pezhman (2016) Effects of classroom debate and socratic method on critical thinking and speaking ability of Malaysian undergraduate ESL learners. PhD thesis, Universiti Putra Malaysia.
institution Universiti Putra Malaysia
building UPM Library
collection Institutional Repository
continent Asia
country Malaysia
content_provider Universiti Putra Malaysia
content_source UPM Institutional Repository
url_provider http://psasir.upm.edu.my/
language English
description The present research is an attempt to study the effects of classroom debate and Socratic Method on critical thinking and speaking ability of Malaysian undergraduate ESL learners. In addition, the study tries to determine which of these two methods is more effective in developing the participants‘ critical thinking and speaking ability. Furthermore, students‘ perceptions and feedbacks are investigated and explored toward these two methods. The study adopts a quasi-experimental mixed method design (pre-test, post-test design) in which both quantitative and qualitative methods of data collection is employed. The participants of the study consisted of an intact class of thirty two undergraduate students doing TESL at the Faculty of Educational Studies, Universiti Putra Malaysia. The participants had completed two years of their degree program; the class was selected based on purposive sampling. The New Jersey Test of Reasoning Skills (NJTRS) and content analysis method (Newman et al., 1995) were administered to assess the learners‘ critical thinking skills at the beginning and at the end of the study. Participants‘ speaking ability was measured at the beginning and at the end of the study. To triangulate the data, semi-structured interviews were conducted to investigate the students‘ perceptions on the two teaching methods of the study. In addition, the participants provided their responses to a number of open-ended questions. Furthermore, ongoing observations were made to monitor the developments in participants‘ behavior and the classroom atmosphere. Based on the findings, the learners‘ critical thinking showed improvement after going through classroom debates and Socratic discussions for nine and ten sessions respectively. Both classroom debate and Socratic Method were equally effective in improving the participants‘ critical thinking. The participants‘ speaking ability showed significant progress after going through the classroom debates and Socratic discussions. Classroom debate, however, showed to be more effective in improving speaking ability. The research participants also found the two methods of the study innovative, interesting, constructive, and helpful to teaching and learning. The respondents also believed that participating in classroom debate and/or Socratic discussions helped them overcome the fear of talking before a crowd, boost their confidence to talk and express their opinions, improve their speaking ability, and enhance their critical thinking skills.
format Thesis
author Zare, Pezhman
spellingShingle Zare, Pezhman
Effects of classroom debate and socratic method on critical thinking and speaking ability of Malaysian undergraduate ESL learners
author_facet Zare, Pezhman
author_sort Zare, Pezhman
title Effects of classroom debate and socratic method on critical thinking and speaking ability of Malaysian undergraduate ESL learners
title_short Effects of classroom debate and socratic method on critical thinking and speaking ability of Malaysian undergraduate ESL learners
title_full Effects of classroom debate and socratic method on critical thinking and speaking ability of Malaysian undergraduate ESL learners
title_fullStr Effects of classroom debate and socratic method on critical thinking and speaking ability of Malaysian undergraduate ESL learners
title_full_unstemmed Effects of classroom debate and socratic method on critical thinking and speaking ability of Malaysian undergraduate ESL learners
title_sort effects of classroom debate and socratic method on critical thinking and speaking ability of malaysian undergraduate esl learners
publishDate 2016
url http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/65690/1/FPP%202016%2027IR.pdf
http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/65690/
_version_ 1643838381367492608
score 13.211869

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