Learners’ Perceptions of Summary and Essay Writing Tasks:

A Preliminary Study on Critical Thinking and Creativity

Abstract

Critical thinking (CT) and creativity (C) have attracted increasing attention, and teachers are encouraged to nurture these skills in English language learners. However, no framework exists to help teachers prepare CT and C tasks. Thus, this preliminary study aims to (a) develop frameworks that can nurture and assess these skills and apply them to the design of appropriate tasks, and (b) examine learners’ perceptions of these tasks. We first reviewed previous studies on CT and C, such as Ennis (1987, 2018) and Bloom’s revised taxonomy (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001), and selected summary and essay writing as suitable tasks for cultivating CT and C. To evaluate learners’ experiences with these tasks based on the frameworks created, we implemented the tasks with 112 Japanese students and administered a questionnaire asking which skills they employed while completing the tasks. The results confirmed that summary and essay writing can elicit the skills we had intended. The finding also suggests that the frameworks can be useful for educators and researchers in designing CT and C tasks and assessing students’ cognitive skills.