关键词: 评判性思维; 概念建构; 微信微课; 教学支架; 学术英语

Abstract: Taking a pedagogical approach to critical thinking in line with social constructivism, the present study has designed and implemented a Wechat-based micro-course in which information technology and instructional scaffolding combine to build nurturing educational conditions to facilitate critical thinking development. Namely, three types of scaffoldings - multimedia interpretation, teacher modeling and question guide - are incorporated with the messaging, platform and social interactive functions of Wechat. The micro - course for EAP learners is composed of 8 units, each comprising 3 modules-TED speech learning materials, online group discussion and learner reflection via Wechat public platform. Besides Wechat backstage data digging, content analysis is also conducted of triangulated data (participant observation notes, after-viewing group chat-log and focus-group-interview notes). Two findings were obtained: 1) in non-school curriculum course context, utilization rate of public online learning resources is very low with a high dropout rate and shallow learning depth; 2) the full course attendees, though low in number(only 9), succeeded to different degrees in constructing an explicit concept of critical thinking and, under “Wechat-scaffolding” dynamics, their conceptualization process manifests itself in three development phases from distorted thinking experience to reflective correction to self-reinforcement. The above findings imply that social-media-based micro-course, with enhanced interactive activities and teacher presence, may prove to be effective supportive resources for college EAP learners to develop a global concept of critical thinking.

Keywords: critical thinking; conceptual construction; wechat-based micro-course; instructional scaffoldings; EAP