Maximizing Students’ Critical Reading through Virtual Literature Circle Strategy: A Conceptual Framework

Abstract

With the advancement of the 21st century, Indonesia, like other countries, is also facing challenges in education, particularly for primary and secondary school students. Undoubtedly, literacy is one of the crucial skills in 21st-century education, which encompasses critical thinking and critical reading skills. In an effort to maximize students’ critical reading skills, the researchers conducted virtual conferences and workshops for the teachers of English in primary and secondary schools on the practice of Literature Circle Strategy (LCS) to maximize students’ skills in critical reading. In total, 25 teachers from Malang City and 183 teachers from the Kediri area were included in the study. In Kediri, a one-day conference was held that focussed on the concepts and rules of practicing the LCS in online classes. In Malang, a virtual conference was held on the first day followed by a workshop on the second. While the first day was spent explaining the LCS to the participants, on the second day, they practiced the strategy, in offline sessions. At the end of the workshop, the participants shared their perceptions on this strategy by filling in a questionnaire, stating what they thought would be the process of practicing this strategy both in online and face-to-face classes. This study therefore reports the results of the analysis on their perceptions.
 Keywords: EFL teachers, perceptions, LCS, virtual