Enhancing students' thinking skills and promoting media and information literacy


Background

Media and Information Literacy (MIL), a concept comprising media literacy, information literacy and information and communications technology skills (Journalism Education Foundation, 2022), is one of the focuses in values education stipulated in Values Education Curriculum Framework (Pilot Version) (2021), and should be reinforced among students across key stages. To be media literate, students should not only be able to search, select, communicate, use and create media and information, but also be able to understand, analyse and integrate them (Journalism Education Foundation, 2022). Since media is exerting influence on information consumers' perceptions and even behaviour, students should be equipped to evaluate and respond to media and information critically so that they can cautiously interact with the mass media and make informed decisions.

Participating in the Learning Community (LC) for English Language Teachers (Secondary) in 2023/24, the English Panel Head of St. Clare's Girls' School (the teacher hereafter) opened his one-hour pre-writing lesson demonstrating how to infuse MIL into an English classroom, using the school-based writing materials developed, to enhance S4 students' MIL.


Level

S4


Strategies used

The teacher adopted three strategies in the pre-writing English lesson to enhance S4 students' thinking skills and MIL.

  1. Investigating an issue using multiple perspectives
    Exploring a topic from different perspectives enables students to understand the issue more holistically, critically examine and evaluate each stakeholder's viewpoints and develop their own argument and counter-argument for their writing. The teacher provided S4 students with different texts to understand the issue "plastic surgery" from six perspectives – historical development, teenagers, teenagers' parents, a surgeon, a psychologist and advertisers (added in 2023/24), serving as input to develop argument for the writing task – debate speech.

  2. Deepening students' understanding through visual texts
    Visual texts, which can be in the form of cartoons, advertisements, illustrations etc., convey meaning to the reader through images instead of words (Visual Literacy, n.d.). In addition to using a written text and online videos, the teacher provided S4 students with two relevant advertisements about plastic surgery to deepen their understanding about plastic surgery and critically examine how images and words work together to convey meaning to the target audience.

  3. Nurturing students' critical literacy through thinking routines
    Developed by the researchers at Project Zero, thinking routines are thinking tools helping students deepen their thinking and making their thinking "visible" to teachers (Harvard Graduate School of Education, 2022) – revealing their thoughts by drawing, writing, speaking, etc. (Ritchhart & Perkins, 2008). Thinking routines are also good tools to enable students to think in a systematic way. When students' ideas and questions are documented, they can see how their thinking and understanding are being developed (Harvard Graduate School of Education, 2022).

    In the pre-writing lesson, the teacher deployed three thinking tools to make his students' thinking visible to him, classmates and students themselves:

    Thinking tools

    Purposes

    Step Inside

    To deepen students’ understanding about plastic surgery from a particular stakeholder’s perspective

    See, Think, Wonder

    To cultivate students’ MIL through scrutinising and questioning visual texts

    I used to think … Now I think…

    To reflect on their attitudes towards plastic surgery

What happened

  1. Before the lesson observation
    Students were formed into four groups, and each group was assigned a text. Through the text assigned to them, students could understand more about the stakeholder's viewpoints on plastic surgery.

    Perspectives/roles

    Types of texts

    Attitudes towards plastic surgery

    Teenage girls

    An online video

    Positive

    Parents of the teenage girls

    An online video

    Positive (but with some reservations)

    A surgeon

    An online video

    Positive

    A psychologist

    An adapted written reading text

    Neutral

  2. During the open lesson
    The one-hour pre-writing lesson aimed to achieve three objectives:

    1. To strengthen students' two reading strategies: summarising and making inferences;

    2. To deepen students' understanding about the issue to be investigated (i.e. plastic surgery) from different stakeholders' perspectives; and

    3. To nurture students' MIL and reflective ability.

    The table below captures the details of the lesson.

    Purposes of the activities

    Lesson objectives addressed

    Details

    To activate students’ prior knowledge

    ii

    • The teacher started the lesson by recapping with students what they had learnt in the previous two lessons:

      • Vocabulary related to plastic surgery (e.g. rhinoplasty, breast augmentation) and

      • The historical development of plastic surgery

    • Students were asked to explain why people at different times underwent plastic surgery (e.g. non-beauty-related reasons such as slave’s scar removal).

    • The teacher conceptualised the shift of the reasons for undergoing plastic surgery from practical ones to the influence of media.

    • Each student used Mentimeter to share two words that most capture their feelings after watching the assigned video or reading text. Some students were invited to explain the words shared on Mentimeter.

    To deepen students’ understanding about plastic surgery

    ii

    • Taking the role assigned and using the thinking routine “Step Inside”, students discussed the answers to the three questions on the worksheet (see Figure 1) after watching a video or reading a text on the subject matter. They were then invited to present their ideas after group discussion.

      Figure 1. Students using the thinking routine Step Inside to complete the worksheet Figure 1. Students using the thinking routine Step Inside to complete the worksheet
      Figure 1. Students using the thinking routine "Step Inside" to complete the worksheet

    To help students understand plastic surgery from the advertisers’ perspective and cultivate their MIL

    i, ii & iii

    • Each student used the thinking routine “See, Think, Wonder” to:

    See

    Summarise the commonalities of two advertisements about plastic surgery. 

    Think

    Provide evidence to support what they saw from the two advertisements.

    Wonder

    Ask follow-up questions after reading the two advertisements.

    • Students discussed the answers in groups and shared their group answers on Padlet.

    • The teacher guided students to think about the gender stereotypes presented by the advertisements (e.g. the use of female models and male surgeons).

    • Through questioning, students made inferences:

      • How the images were presented (e.g. hands on the frontal part and cheek)

      • Why certain phrases were used (e.g. Band Aid Facelift, natural identity)

      • What a client’s quote on the advertisement suggested.

    • The teacher concluded that advertisers used different strategies to convince the readers to use the service.

    To help students reflect on proper values

    iii

    • Students were asked to answer the questions below:

      • Which perspective (i.e. the interviews with teenage girl and her parent, the surgeon’s viewpoint and the psychologist’s viewpoint) represents the commercial perspective?

      • Have you changed your attitudes towards plastic surgery?

      • Would you consider undergoing plastic surgery in the future? Why or why not?

      • Do you think one’s beauty, excellence and perfection should be judged by one’s appearance? If not, what is beauty in your opinion?

      • Do you think advertisements about plastic surgery should be banned? Why or why not?

    To promote MIL through an extended task

    -

    • The teacher asked students what strategies they would use to create a poster discouraging the readers from undergoing plastic surgery.

    • Students suggested using quotes.

Impact

The observed lesson and the subsequent discussion which included the teacher's self-reflection and professional dialogue among the participants revealed a positive impact on both students' learning and teachers' professional development.
Figure 2. Teacher participants conducting professional dialogue during the Post-lesson observation conference
Figure 2. Teacher participants conducting professional dialogue during the Post-lesson observation conference

  1. Teacher level
    The open lesson enhanced the teacher's pedagogical knowledge, skills and strategies for conducting English lessons. He used tools such as Mentimeter and thinking routines that were not used before. Since the thinking routine "Step Inside" was initially a challenge to him, the teacher spent some time doing research on how to use it, encouraging him to use Van Gogh's painting in the lesson to help students understand how to use "Step Inside". Additionally, through professional exchange with the participating teachers, he learnt how to use Padlet more effectively to enhance students' learning.

    The open lesson benefitted the participating teachers, too. They observed how to use thinking routines and indicated afterwards that they would use them in lessons. Those teachers were also inspired by how the teacher asked thought-provoking follow-up questions to prompt students' further responses and reflections. Additionally, they gained a better understanding of infusing MIL into English lessons through adopting controversial issues that are motivating to students, and using advertisements to raise students' awareness of strategies used in those texts.

  2. Student level
    Students engaged in the lesson, and showcased their language and thinking skills. They grasped the opportunities to participate in group discussion, report, and present ideas in English. As observed by the participating teachers, students were able to summarise ideas from the texts assigned to them and extracted evidence from the texts to support their ideas. More importantly, under the teacher's guidance, students questioned the gender stereotypes presented in the advertisements. They inferred and critically evaluated the messages conveyed by analysing the images and referring to the expressions and quotes used in the advertisements.

    Furthermore, students showed their own judgment about plastic surgery, as well as their proper values and attitudes. One student shared her opinions near the end of the lesson:

    Questions

    The student’s responses (edited)

    Would you consider undergoing plastic surgery in the future? Why or why not?

    I choose not to undergo plastic surgery in the future because I don’t think it’s worth the money. And we were all born special, so we should learn to love our natural self and should learn not to live up to people’s standard…

    Do you think one’s beauty, excellence and perfection should be judged by one’s appearance? If not, what is beauty in your opinion?

    We should not be judged by appearance because though when we meet people for the first time, we will see their appearance first. But afterwards, what matter are the inner beauty, our personalities and behaviours we have in our life.

    Do you think advertisements about plastic surgery should be banned? Why or why not?

    Advertisements should not be banned because we all have our own choices and some people do want to conduct plastic surgeries to change their appearance…

All in all, the feedback on the open lesson from the participating teachers was positive. Teachers' professional development was fostered, and students' engagement, skills and proper values and attitudes, including MIL, were demonstrated.


Way forward and conclusion

In addition to enhancing students' English proficiency, English Language teachers are playing a vital role in enhancing students' thinking skills and MIL. Seeing its importance, the teacher will make further effort in cultivating students' MIL in the school English Language curriculum. In 2024/25, the teacher and his team will continue cultivating S4 students' MIL at the pre-writing stage. Additionally, they intend to nurture S3 students' MIL by guiding them to evaluate the reliability of websites.

To infuse MIL into the school's English learning and teaching, English Language teachers can make use of authentic materials such as short movies, advertisements, posters and social media for students to analyse and critically evaluate the content and message conveyed in them. For example, through media products, students can learn how visuals, figures, and choice of words etc., can influence the perception and behaviour of the readers, and the writers' or creator's attitudes towards the issue they are investigating. English Language teachers can establish students' habit of using thinking routines, which not only enable students to deepen their understanding about the issue being investigated, but also to actively engage in the thinking process and reflect on their learning.


Bibliography

Curriculum Development Council. (2021). Values Education Curriculum Framework (Pilot Version). Hong Kong: Author.

Harvard Graduate School of Education. (2022). Project Zero's Thinking Routine Toolbox. Retrieved from: https://pz.harvard.edu/thinking-routines

Journalism Education Foundation. (2022). Media and Information Literacy Education Unit 1: Understanding Media and Information Literacy (MIL). Retrieved from:
https://www.edb.gov.hk/en/curriculum-development/kla/technology-edu/resources/mil/resources.html

Ritchhart, R., & Perkins, D. (2008). Educational leadership. Teaching students to think, 65(5). pp.57 – 61. Retrieved from: https://pz.harvard.edu/sites/default/files/makingthinkingvisibleEL.pdf

Visual Literacy. (n.d.). What is visual literacy. Retrieved from: https://visual-literacy-skills.weebly.com/what-is-visual-literacy.html



St. Clare's Girls' School
Janet HO (Language Support Officer)