An investigation of teachers’ and students’ perceptions of the application of tasks for thinking skills in primary English classrooms

Abstract

The purpose of this study aims to investigate how primary school teachers and students perceive the application of tasks for thinking skills in primary English classrooms. Taking into account the teaching and assessment context of primary English teaching, and the mainstream theories of thinking skills and tasks designed to teach English language and thinking, some task types of thinking skills were selected. To conduct the research, a general perception of tasks for thinking skills was investigated by analyzing 647 worksheets written by teachers who participated in the in-service program for primary school teachers in 2019. Also, a group of primary school students’ perceptions was investigated after they addressed the tasks in their classroom. According to the results of the study, the teachers generally believed that the proposed tasks for thinking skills were interesting and considerably easy, and doable in their English classes. The students also perceived that the tasks were interesting, quite easy, and led them to think hard. However, there are still some issues that need to be addressed, such as difficulty adjustment for the slow learners, designing task sheets according to the English levels of the students, providing the teachers and students with clear stages and procedures. Some particular areas and issues needing further investigation were identified in the last part of the study.