Scaffolding First Year English Degree Students’ Critical Thinking Skills through Dynamic Assessment

Abstract

How to think rather than what to think has been a subject of research among educational psychologists and philosophers. As a matter of fact, different definitions have germinated due to the opposing views about the meaning of critical thinking. Practical strategies have also been developed in order to help individuals reason more and become reflective thinkers. However, how to assess foreign language students’ critical thinking skills has gained little attention in the area of English Language Teaching, specifically in the Algerian context. To address this gap, the content of this thesis explored the effect of scaffolding first year English degree students’ critical thinking skills through dynamic assessment. The latter combines assessment and instruction in one activity. In this perspective, we relied on Depth of Knowledge as a type of instruction in the present research. Two major aims were targeted; first, to gain a deeper understanding of assessment practices in higher education in general; and second, to experience an alternative approach of assessment that would assist students in acquiring critical thinking skills in their academic and professional careers.