Running Head: THINKING SKILLS IN THE ENGLISH

COURSEBOOK
Thinking Skills in the 12th Grade English Coursebook
in Timor Leste

A Thesis

By

Joaninho Xavier Hei, Lic. CSH.

8212713039

Masters in English Education Department

Graduate School

Widya Mandala Catholic University, Surabaya.

2015
THINKING SKILLS IN THE ENGLISH
COURSEBOOK
Abstract

This study aims to analyze the English coursebook of

(Manual do Aluno INGLS 12.o ano de
escolaridade/Students Manual English for 12th year of
schooling). The internal parts of the coursebook was
performed to determine whether the activities in the
reading and listening sections of the 12th grade English
coursebook stresses lower or higher levels of cognitive
process. The study attempted to answer the following
question: Do the cognitive levels of the activities that
relate to the focus on reading and listening in the 12th
grade English course book sufficiently represent all the
six levels of the New Bloom Taxonomy of thinking
skills?

The objective of this analysis was to discover the

activities of reading and listening sections that can
sufficiently promote the levels of cognitive process. The
activities that were determined as the criteria for analysis
were: Wh-questions, true/false question, yes/no question,
multiple choice question, complete the sentence phrase,
a chart, matching questions, statement question, and a
THINKING SKILLS IN THE ENGLISH
COURSEBOOK
key word request question. The activities were gathered,
listed and analyzed according to New Blooms
Taxonomy, for lower levels of cognitive domain:
remembering, understanding, and applying, and higher
level of thinking skills: analyzing, evaluating, and
creating. In addition, the researcher computed the
frequencies and percentages that appeared in each level
of cognitive process in each of the unit, distinguished the
variety of the levels, and combined all the nine units.
The findings indicated that the research tool were valid
and reliable. The results showed that 98 activities
emphasized mostly on lower levels cognitive order while
only 63 activities emphasized the higher levels of
thinking skills.

Keywords: Content Analysis, Coursebook Activities,

and New Blooms Taxonomy
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Chapter I

Introduction

Background

Many countries widely acknowledge English

language as the preferable language in international
communication, science and education. It is a lingua
franca. Therefore, it is chosen as one of the crucial
subjects to be taught in schools that is used for
communicative purposes, and enlarging the range of the
communication especially in the setting where English is
used as the foreign language (EFL). It is taught to equip
the learners to sustain and compete within the rapid
development of the science and technology in the 21st
century. In fact, understanding theoretical issues and
approaches in ELT plays an important role for evaluating
the instructional materials in order to obtain the
effectiveness for educational purposes which is based on
the goals of the current situation which is to develop the
creativity of thinking techniques. The theoretical issues
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that relate with this study will be more on the theories of
coursebook analysis using Blooms Revised Taxonomy.

As a matter of fact, the rapid changes-as

mentioned in the preceding paragraph, challenge the
learners to strive against the demand of information,
communication and technology. As a result, learners
expect to be provided with high standards of instructional
materials for the learning objectives, in terms of
production, design, and quality, and the content of its
activities that reflect education objectives. The
instructional materials here are cassette tape, CDs,
computerized materials, and course books, etc.
The essential materials for teaching and learning
process that play a fundamental role are coursebooks.
Coursebooks are considered essential for teaching and
learning instructions especially for countries where
English is used as a foreign language. There are many
ELT coursebooks that consider relevance with the settings
but unfortunately some of them are not associated with the
learners background, and expectation/needs (Davidson,
2005; Carol & Kupcyzk-Romanczus, 2007; MEYCS,
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2007).The background here is where English is used
whether as a first language, second language or foreign
language in ELT. And expectation is where the
coursebook can assist the teachers with clear and
comprehensive instructions and also can accommodate
the students toward thinking skills that can lead to
interaction among learners in order to become proficient
in dealing with the English language.
An English coursebook that can assist the learners
to be capable in communication should reflect on the
syllabus objectives so as in the content of its activities
which can equilibrate the learners thinking skills. Hence,
to support the educational system, most of the developing
countries all over the world including Timor Leste
recognize the importance of using the course books as the
instructional materials. Tomlinson (1998: 9) states that a
course book is a textbook that provides the basic materials
for a course and it serves as the only book used by the
learners during a course. It usually covers work on
grammar vocabulary, pronunciation, functions and the
four skills. Hutchinson and Torres (1994: 327) describe
a textbook as an important means of satisfying the range
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of needs that emerge from the classroom and its wider
context.
Timor Leste distinguishes the significance of
English as the preferred language in international
communication, and so as for the educational field, and
assuming the working language status in the Timorese
Constitution. Therefore, the first Constitutional
Government of Timor Leste through its Ministry of
Education has developed its first curriculum in 2004 after
adapting some curriculum as well as coursebooks such as
from Indonesia, Portugal, Brazil and Australia,
Curriculum takes content (from external standards
and local goals) and shapes it into a plan for how
to conduct effective teaching and learning. It is
thus more than a list of topics and lists of key facts
and skills (the input). It is a map of how to
achieve the outputs of desired student
performance, in which appropriate learning
activities and assessments are suggested to make
it more likely that students achieve the desired
results (Wiggins and McTighe, 2006: 6).
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However, these curriculum adaptations had been
criticized by the citizens (parents) because the process of
learning did not correlate with the cultural reality in Timor
Leste. The facts that the students were reluctant to go to
school led some of the parents to delay enrolling their
children to schools as early as possible. The instructional
materials (coursebooks) used were inauthentic with
students needs because the intention was only for the
market purposes (global markets) and presented
overlapping ideas about the world and failed to represent
real issues about the authenticity of relevant phenomena
and issues in the setting.
The adapted coursebooks also did not have central
core or accommodate students thinking skills in order to
achieve the educational objectives. Therefore, students in
different classes did not receive similar content which
became a jeopardy for any attempt to set students
standards or benchmarks. Besides, there were no students
manual that could facilitate each learner to get along with
the teaching instructions within classroom activities
which required more time for teachers to teach instead of
providing activities for learners to use the language, so it
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was more on teacher-centredness. Meanwhile, there was
no process in place to provide resources of coursebooks
aligned with the new curriculum to schools within the
territory of Timor Leste.
Ritesh Shah, (2009) indicated that, a technique
which continues to be observed in many classroom is
teachers copying elements of their curriculum notes onto
a blackboard, with students following suit, Lack of
appropriate resources(Heyward, 2005; Teachers rely
almost exclusively on Lafaek magazines Quinn, 2006;
Quinn, 2008).
Even after the new curriculum had been
established, it was still criticized by the stakeholders
because it still did not correspond with the learning
environment that is the books in terms of language and
content did not associate with the environment
(Davidson, 2005; Carol & Kupcyzk-Romanczus, 2007;
MEYCS, 2007). For that reason, some revisions were
made by the Fourth Constitutional Government of Timor
Leste which then published the new curriculum in 2011.
This is the current curriculum that is used in Timor Leste.
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The new establishment of the new curriculum
especially for the English program in 2011 with the
general goals of:
Enabling students to develop the languages
included in the curriculum, advanced comprehension
skills in oral and written expression and knowledge of
linguistics and culture, that allow access of information
from a variety of sources and exploring a repertoire of
communication channels. They interact and consolidate
their capacity orally in a suitable manner in a range of
social situations, contexts and culture, and were able to
use them for communicative purposes and dialogue in
everyday life. (Ministerio da Educao de Timor Leste
PlanoCurricular, 2011, 19).
And there is also the specific English program
goals which are the competence of using English language
activities such as understanding and interpretation -
listening/reading, and in production activities such as
speaking/writing, done by students in the first year of
three-year circle, are structured at increasingly complex
levels. The ultimate aim is for the learners to use it for
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communicative purposes and dialogue in everyday life.
(ProgramaIngles 2011, 33).
Yassine (2005: 32) explains that the methodology
to develop communicative competence as stated by
Perrenoud (1996) goes through problem solving
situations where the learners are actively involved in
thinking about the issue.
And in 2014 the 1st edition of the 12nd grade
English course book for secondary school in Timor Leste
was published based on the linguistic theories that a
coursebook will reveal the levels of comprehension skills
in oral and written expression, and knowledge of
linguistic, culture, and explore the range of
communication channels that can provide resources for
the learners to use English as a tool of communication
purposes and dialogue in everyday life. This English
coursebook for secondary school is also expected to assist
the teachers and students as a tool of teaching and learning
instruction related with the setting of where English
language is used as the Foreign Language. It is also
expected to have a wealth of resources within the content
in order to facilitate the learners to be competent in using
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English language as a tool of communication in various
settings.
Abbs and Freebairn (1990) highlight the students
need to communicate actively: Students need to know
that the language they are going to learn will enable them
to communicate their needs, ideas, and opinions. (p.
116). In addition, motivation comes from knowing that
language activities in the classroom are all the times
meaningful and aimed at real-life communication. And
The Cambridge English Course (Swan and Walter 1990)
recommends that language practice should resemble real-
life communication, with genuine exchange of
information and opinions. (p. 116).
The coursebook as mentioned above should aim to
provide as many resources as possible within its content
and should be sufficient to meet the learners needs in
order to achieve the learning objectives. So, the course
book selection and analysis seems to cover very
significant and relevant issues. The aims that have been
provided within the content of the course book should
assist the students cognitive capacity to learn what they
have to do in order to master the target language for
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communication and be conscious of its structures and
skills they have to obtain.

As a matter of fact, the content that is going to

enhance students thinking skills is from the activities in
the course book itself. Hence, the researcher curiously
would like to analyze this 12th grade English course book
that reflects the syllabus objectives with the reading and
listening instruction activities which can promote
students cognitive domain. This analysis will determine
whether the 12th grade English course book only makes
students memorize or actually encourages and enhance
their ability to analyze, evaluate, and create.

Ibtihal Assaly & Abdul K. I. (2014: 25) cited in

Bull and Andre (1973, 1979) who claim that activities
direct thinking processes with the following objectives:
Recalling previously taught material.
Examining new material using comprehension,
application, analysis and synthesis to better
organize and benefit from it.
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Evaluation - Drawing a connection between old
and new learning material by operating mental
processes.
The instruction activities are very crucial to
enhance students creative thinking. Besides, they are also
an important tool to assess students understanding and
levels of thinking in the process of learning.

The studies dealing with questions similar to those

conducted by Andre, T. (1979), Black R. Thomas (1980),
and Robertson, J. (1988), Ibtihal Assaly & Abdul Kareem
Igbaria (2014) and Bloom have proposed various
taxonomies. These taxonomies clarify the levels of three
educational objectives by which activities are categorized:
cognitive, psychomotor, and affective. Most of these
studies used Blooms Original Taxonomy to analyze the
textbook content of activities. There are merely few
studies that used New Blooms Taxonomy such as
Hoeppel (1980), Amin (2004), Mosallanejad (2008) and
Gordani (2008), and Gholamreza Zareian, & Mohammad
Davoudi, (2015).
THINKING SKILLS IN THE ENGLISH
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Therefore, this study will use New Blooms
Taxonomy to analyze the 12th grade English coursebooks
learning objectives of reading and listening instructions
activities. There are six levels of general description of
taxonomy in order to examine the goals of learners
cognitive domain such as knowledge, comprehension,
application, analysis, evaluation, and creation.
Bloom's taxonomy has several characteristics that
make it the most commonly used taxonomy in the field of
education:

1. The taxonomy is educationally oriented and can

be used to distinguish between groups of
objectives that teachers use for writing curricula,
study programs and lesson plans.
2. The levels are clearly and logically defined.
3. The taxonomy describes psychological
phenomena.
4. The taxonomy discusses thinking processes
ranging from the simple to complex with each
level resting upon the previous one.
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5. It is continuous, with each objective leading to the
one following it.
6. It is comprehensive in that each behavioral
objective can be categorized according to the
taxonomy.
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Blooms Revised Taxonomy described by
Anderson & Krathwohl (2001) define six levels of
learning objectives as below:
Learning Definitions
Objectives
Create Combining elements together to form
(level 6): a coherent or functional whole: We
organize elements into a new pattern
or structure.
Evaluate Making judgments based on criteria
(level 5): or standard.
Analyze Breaking down material into parts
(level 4): and determine how they relate.
Apply Knowing when to apply or use a
(level 3): procedure in a given situation,
recognizing patterns to transfer to
situations that are new.
Understand Constructing or interpret meaning
(level 2): from instructional message, including
oral, written and graphic
communication long term memory.
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Remember Identifying or describe relevant
(level 1): knowledge from long-term memory.

One of the crucial issues in the content of the

coursebooks is the questions containing instruction of
activities. These questions are studied in this research in
order to distinguish the activities in the coursebook which
can reflect various thinking skills as stated in Bloom's
Revised Taxonomy learning objectives. Because those
activities of the instruction questions from the coursebook
have powerful influences towards students cognitive
development.
As Edward and Bowman (1996) stated, questions
are vital components of the course books as they aim at
creating an interest in the subject. Hence, this analysis will
justify whether the course book places emphasis upon
higher levels of thinking processes, such as, analyzing,
evaluating, and creating or whether the activities merely
encourage lower levels of understanding, understanding,
and applying.
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The content of the 12th grade English coursebook
should correspond with specification of learning
objectives. As stated by Aviles (2000) that Blooms
taxonomy of educational objectives is a tool that can be
used in the wider context of education to help both new
and experienced educators to think more precisely about
what it means to teach and test for critical thinking.
"Content analysis is a multipurpose research
method developed specifically for investigating thinking
levels from the reading and listening sections activities
serves as basis for inference" (Holsti, 1969, p 2). It is a
systematic, replicable technique for compressing
extensive and large amounts of text into smaller, more
manageable content categories based on explicit rules of
coding. The resulting inferences can then be collaborated
using other methods of data collection (Krippendorff,
1980). The analysis serves as a tool to determine whether
the activities should be saved, changed, or modified.
Most of the previous coursebooks adaptation were
expected to achieve satisfactory result during their
performance in the process of learning English language.
On the contrary, the reality of result has negative impact.
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In fact, at the end of the semester most of the students did
not have positive results of cognitive domain and failed to
achieve the communicate competence as expected. It must
be the coursebooks that had been used did not provide
enough sources such as activities to sharpen the thinking
skills and did not relate with the settings in order to
achieve learning objectives.

Some of the related literature has revealed that

teachers tend to pay more heed on lower order cognitive
skills. It means there is a lack of higher level learning
objectives and concomitant lower-level cognitive
activities in most coursebooks (Houghton, 2004; cited in
Forehand, 2005). As the studies conducted by Hoeppel
(1980), analyzing the question in the reading skills, Amin
(2004), examined the learning domains of General Persian
textbook, exams, and college teachers views. (cited from
www.ijern.com).

Both analyses were using Bloom Taxonomy, the

findings showed that according to Hoeppel (1980), the
questions found in reading skills development books were
analyzed on the basis of Bloom's original Taxonomy. The
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results of the study indicated that about ninety nine
percent of the questions were categorized within the two
lowest levels of thinking (knowledge and
comprehension), whereas very little stimulation of higher
levels of thinking was provided through reading
comprehension questions.

In another study, Amin (2004) applied Bloom's

Taxonomy to scrutinize the learning domains of General
Persian and General English language courses by
examining the textbooks, exams, and college teachers
views. The findings of this study demonstrated that in
general the Persian coursebooks focused more on higher
levels of cognitive complexity in contrast to the general
English ones which focused on lower levels of cognitive
domain.

Therefore, analyzing the 12nd grade English

coursebook 1st edition in Timor Leste is very significant
for the future success and sustainability of the program as
well. There will be no wasting time and financial
difficulties if it has been evaluated for its effectiveness.
This 12th grade English coursebook The Students
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Manual English for Twelfth Year of Schooling, that was
published in 2014 by the Ministry of Education of the IV
Constitutional government of Timor Leste with its
counterparts (Cames-Instituto da Co-operao e da
Lingua, Fundao Calouste Gulbenkian, e Universidade
de Aveiro) has hardly been evaluated because it has just
been published recently. So, urgent needs in analyzing it
will be worthy in order to identify particular strengths and
weaknesses of the coursebook which can provide learning
sources (activities) according to the learning objectives.
In this study the researcher will use Blooms Revised
Taxonomy described by Anderson et al. (2001) to analyze
the 12nd grades English coursebook content of reading and
listening instruction activities provided to achieve
creative thinking skills.
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Research Problem

In accordance with the background above, this

study aims to analyze the thinking skills in the 12th grade
English coursebook that was prepared by the Ministry of
Education of Timor Leste with the following questions:
Do the cognitive levels of the activities of
reading and listening in the 12th grade
English coursebook represent all the six
levels of remembering, understanding,
applying, analyzing, evaluating, and
creating of the New Bloom Taxonomy of
thinking skills?

The Objectives of the Study

Based on the problems mentioned above, the aims of

this study is to analyze the questions in reading and
listening activities of the 12th grade English coursebook
in order to identify whether the coursebook represents all
the six levels of cognitive domain such as remembering,
understanding, applying, analyzing, evaluating, and
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COURSEBOOK 21
creating in accordance with Blooms Revised Taxonomy,
Anderson et al. (2001).
The analysis will focus on the activities consist of
questions such as: A Wh-questions, True/false question,
yes/no question, multiple choice question, complete the
sentence phrase, a chart, matching questions, statement
question, and a key word request question.

Theoretical Framework

The theoretical framework in this study will be

coursebook/textbook evaluation of the 12th grade English
coursebook using Blooms Taxonomy.

Weir and Roberts (1994: 11) argue that there are

two main reasons for evaluating teaching materials. First,
textbook evaluation provides evidence which can inform
theoretical disputes about directions to be followed in
language teaching or in teacher education. Second, it is
a tool to indicate the suitability of particular approaches
or techniques under given conditions and whether they
meet the claims made for them.
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In the late 1940s, Bloom and other educators
worked on a way to classify educational goals and
objectives, which resulted in three learning categories or
domains and the taxonomy of categories of thinking.
Each of the three categories requires learners to use
different sets of mental processing to achieve stated
outcomes within a learning situation. Thus, instructional
goals and objectives should be designed to support the
different ways learners process information in these
domains.
Cognitive domain (knowledge) verbal or visual
intellectual capabilities
Affective domain (attitudes) feelings, values,
beliefs
Psychomotor domain (skills) physical skill
capabilities
The original Blooms taxonomy, Figure 1, is still
widely used as an educational planning tool by all levels
of educators today. In 2001 a former student of Bloom and
others published a new version the taxonomy to better fit
educational practices of the 21st century. At that time, the
THINKING SKILLS IN THE ENGLISH
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six categories were changed from nouns to verbs because
verbs describe actions and thinking is an active process.
Figure 2 represents the revised Blooms taxonomy. Both
models are portrayed as hierarchical frameworks where
each level is subsumed by the higher, more complex level
students who function at one level have also mastered
the level or levels below it. Using the revised taxonomy,
Figure 2, for example, a student who has reached the
highest level Creating has also learned the material at
each of the five lower levels. Thus, a student has achieved
a high level of thinking skills.

Figure 1 Blooms Taxonomy 1956 & Figure 2 Blooms

Revised Taxonomy 2001
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Why Use Blooms Taxonomy?
Blooms Taxonomy can be useful for course
design because the different levels can help you move
students through the process of learningfrom the most
fundamental remembering and understanding to the more
complex evaluating and creating (Forehand, 2010).
The taxonomy can be helpful as you develop assessments
by matching course learning objectives at any given level
of mastery. When teaching lower division, introductory
courses, you might measure mastery of objectives at the
lower levels and when teaching more advanced, upper
division courses you would most likely be assessing
students abilities at the higher levels of the taxonomy.
Instructional objectives are more effective if they
include specific verbs which can tell students what they
are expected to do. The verbs listed in Appendix B are
linked with each level of thinking, which in turn are tied
to activities, products and/or outcomes specific to the
objective.
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Significance of the Study

It is expected that the results of this study can give

contribution to the teachers, students, and the coursebook
writers.

For teachers, none or very few studies were

conducted to analyze this 12th grade English
coursebook in Timor Leste, this analysis will be
worthy to assist the teachers to discover which
cognitive levels of thinking skills are represented
therefore, teachers can be aware to develop their
own learning material by substituting the
weakness in the sections of this coursebook.
For students, it is hoped to fulfill the learners
needs by providing the learners with thinking
levels within the content of the coursebook that
can represent all the six levels of cognitive
domain.
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For the coursebook writers, The 12th grade English
coursebook is the one currently recommended and
in-used for the learning process, the researcher
believes that this study would assist the authors
identify which type or level of the activities are
represented in this coursebook that develop the
learners thinking order.

Scope and Limitation

This study is to analyze the reading and listening

questions of the 12th grades English coursebook that were
analyzed using the Blooms Revised Taxonomy Anderson
et al. (2001). The questions consist of A Wh-question,
True/false question, yes/no question, multiple choice
question, complete the sentence phrase, a chart, matching
questions, statement question, and a key word request
question that were categorized in accordance with the six
levels of cognitive domain which are remembering,
understanding, applying, and analyzing, evaluating, and
creating. This English coursebook (Manual do Aluno
INGLS 12.o ano de escolaridade/Students Manual
THINKING SKILLS IN THE ENGLISH
COURSEBOOK 27
English for 12th year of schooling) is recently new and
being utilized by students. The selection of this analysis
will focus only on the reading and listening questions.
And the findings of this study cannot be generalized to
other coursebook used in private schools as they are
allowed to choose or develop their own teaching
materials.

Definitions of Key Terms

The following are the terms that have been used in this
study and defined such as:

Material Evaluation: refers to judgment of a material

in order to discover its strength and weaknesses so that
optimum use can be made of their strong points and
weaker areas can be strengthened through adaptation.
Blooms Taxonomy: the organization of how people
think and learn in the school in order to reach some
certain levels.
Thinking Skills: the mental processes that people
usually seek to sharpen it through activities that
people do in their life experience.
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Chapter V

Conclusions and Recommendations

Conclusion

The results of this study show that the authors of

this coursebook emphasize questions on the lower level of
cognitive process which is understanding more than the
higher ones. This finding is consistent with the previous
findings of Ibtihal Assaly, Abdul K. I., (2014) who
conducted a Content Analysis of the Reading and
Listening Activities in the EFL Textbook of Master Class
in Israel. The findings also support the specific English
program goals which are the competence of using English
language activities such as understanding and
interpretation in listening/reading with the variety of
sources to sharpen their knowledge. Learners are taught
to uunderstand and interpret with critical and reflective
way, information conveyed by different media, and
produce diversified texts in English as stated in the
curriculum objectives.
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COURSEBOOK 88
Conversely, this coursebook distinguishes a bit
more density in the higher level of cognitive process
compared with the previous findings which are more
advanced. The three levels of activities in the higher
thinking order appeared almost in all the activities in the
nine units of reading and listening sections to challenge
and provide creative thinking out of the box in this case
especially the cognitive level of analyzing.

This 12th grade English coursebook that was

prepared by the Timor Lestes Government and its
counterparts for the 12 graders of secondary school
contains a wealth of beneficial activities in the nine units
of reading and listening. The authors have solved the
puzzle by providing the activities for both levels, lower
and higher order thinking skills, not only to grasp the
meanings but also to strive beyond the knowledge. To
conclude, this 12th grade English coursebook is
appropriate for the learners to compete in the examination
and matriculation in the higher education. Special credit
should be given to the authors Gillian Moreira, Paula
THINKING SKILLS IN THE ENGLISH
COURSEBOOK 89
Fonseca, Susana Pinto, and Tim Oswald who provide this
outstanding English Coursebook.

Recommendations

As this study is limited to only two sections of

reading and listening activities of the 12th grade English
coursebook based on the thinking skills, the following
recommendations are given. The questions of reading and
listening sections investigated in this study should be
given more attention on both levels-lower order and
higher order thinking skills. This research finds that the
learning objectives of cognitive levels of lower order
thinking were represented in these two sections. However,
the higher order of thinking skills are not emphasized in
the reading and listening activities.

Therefore, the writers should pay more attention to

emphasize the cognitive levels of higher thinking skills.
Then, for the teacher can be aware to develop their own
learning material by substituting the weaknesses in the
sections of this coursebook. The last, the future researcher
is recommended to investigate the following part:
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1. External and internal (cover of the book,

introduction, and the language components and
the skills) of this coursebook.
2. The remaining sections of the coursebook, the 12th
grade English coursebook
3. The teachers guide and the workbook.
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References
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social studies textbooks for grades III-VI.
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Ali Roohani, F. T. (2014). Evaluating Four Corners

Textbooks in Terms of Cognitive Processes Using
Blooms Revised Taxonomy. Cambridge
University Press.

Amin, A. (2004). Learning objectives in university

Persian and English general language course in
terms of Bloom's taxonomy. (Unpublished
master's thesis), Shiraz.

Anderson, L. D. (2001). A Taxonomy for Learning,

Teaching and Assessing: A Revision of Bloom's
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