Effect of Critical Thinking-infused Paragraph Writing Instruction on University First-year Students’ Intellectual Traits

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of critical thinking-infused paragraph writing instruction on enhancing university first-year L2 students’ intellectual traits. Two randomly selected first-year Social Science classes were involved in the study – one as a non-treatment group (taught argumentative paragraph writing conventionally), and the other as a treatment group (provided critical thinking-infused paragraph writing instruction). The embedded design was employed for the study was mainly conducted using quantitative data augmented by qualitative data to probe reflections of some participants in the treatment group on the experience they gained from the treatment. The quantitative and the qualitative data were analyzed using one-way between groups ANCOVA and thematic analysis method respectively. The finding indicated that participants in the treatment group were better in their intellectual traits scores (F (1, 60) = 123.649, p = 0.000, partial Eta squared = 0. 805). The result of the interview analysis also revealed that participants in the treatment group had a better interest in using elements of thought and intellectual traits after the intervention. Hence, it was recommended that integrating critical thinking instruction into APW lessons needs to be considered among all stakeholders to enhance university first-year EFL students’ intellectual traits. Keywords: Argumentative paragraph; critical thinking, intellectual traits, critical thinking model DOI: 10.7176/NMMC/101-03 Publication date: April 30 th 2022