Effectiveness of the 4MAT model in enhancing students’ critical thinking skills in English reading classes

Abstract

This mixed method research study entitled “Effectiveness of the 4MAT Model in Enhancing Students’ Critical Thinking Skills in English Reading Classes” aimed to investigate the students’ critical thinking skills in English reading classes. Samples of the study were 50 students in Matthayomsueksa 4 class 3 at The Prince Royal’s College in Chiang Mai province. A critical thinking test, a questionnaire, an interview schedule and an observation form were used as instruments for data collection. For data analysis, the program SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Science for Windows) was used to analyze means, standard deviation and the t-test scores from the critical thinking test and the questionnaires, whereas the data from the interviews and observation were examined by Content Analysis. The results of the study reveal that the 4MAT Model enhanced the students’ critical thinking skills in five aspects: deduction, credibility and observation report judgment, assumption identification, induction, and meaning and fallacies at a level of statistical significance of 0.05. Meanwhile, it was also found that the students could enhance the characteristics of critical thinkers in three principle aspects: making inferences and drawing conclusions; categorizing and determining the credibility of the sources and observations; and assuming the identification and conducting experiments. The students’ attitude towards the teacher’s roles, students’ roles and the process of learning through the 4MAT Model were considered to be “very high” which were higher than other teaching processes before the implementation of the 4MAT Model. The students were pleased with the overall process of the 4MAT Model. Strikingly, despite the difficulties in the steps of writing paragraphs and doing group work, the students realized that 4MAT Model enhanced not only their confidence in speaking activities, but also their critical thinking skills. They also understood and positively described the changing roles of the teacher and students in the 4MAT Model classes. As well, they agreed that the 4MAT Model was suitable for other classes, and they could apply it to their daily lives. In conclusion, 4MAT Model enhances students’ critical thinking skills in English reading classes and helps motivate them to learn English.