POLYTECHNIC UNIVERSITY OF THE PHILIPPINES

NAME: Monica R. Echague

RESEARCH TITLE: Literature as a Mechanism Tool in Developing the

Critical Thinking Skills of the Students from Bachelor of Secondary
Education Major in English under the Academic Year 2018-2019 in
Polytechnic University of the Philippines- San Pedro Campus

INTRODUCTION
Background of the Study
Scriven and Paul (2003) defined “Critical thinking as an intellectually disciplined
process in which students actively and skillfully conceptualize, apply, synthesize, and evaluate
information generated by observation, experience, reflection, reasoning, and communication.”
It refers to the ability of an individual to comprehend things and to look at it on a deeper or
wider view. Also, critical thinking does not expect students to answer the questions put in the
class, but instead develops students’ sound judgment for problem-solving, decision-making,
and higher-order thinking (Case, 2002; Taylor & Patterson, 2000).
On the other hand, Pollanen (1997) defined “Literature which refers to published
writings in a particular style on a particular subject”. Meghan Moll (n.d) also states that
“analyzing a book requires you to delve deeper and ponder complex questions”. Thus,
developing the students critical thinking skills can be achieved through literature reading.

Statement of the Problem

The study aims to determine the efficacy of reading literature in developing the critical
thinking skills of the students from the Bachelor of Secondary Education Major in English
in Polytechnic University of the Philippines- San Pedro Campus.
Specifically, it seeks to answer the following:
1. How does reading literature effective in enhancing the student's critical thinking skills?
• How many students from the Bachelor of Secondary Education Major in English read
some literary works?
• How many students form the Bachelor of Secondary Education Major in English who
are not fond of reading literary works?

Significance of the Study

The study will be conducted to determine the Effectiveness of Literature as a
Mechanism Tool in the Development of the Critical Thinking Skills of the students from the
Bachelor of Secondary Education Major in English.
The result of this study is beneficial to students, parents , teachers, school administrators,
and future researchers because this can serve as their basis of improvements and foundation of
their research studies.

Scope and Delimitation of the Study

 POLYTECHNIC UNIVERSITY OF THE PHILIPPINES

This study is limited to the effectiveness of reading literature in developing the critical
thinking skills of the students from the Bachelor of Secondary Education Major in English in
the Polytechnic University of the Philippines—San Pedro Campus under the academic year
2018-2019.
The study will be conducted on the educational institution of Polytechnic University of
the Philippines- San Pedro Campus wherein the respondents will come from the students taking
up Bachelor of Secondary Education Major in English.

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE AND STUDIES

The study of Chang, S.Y, & Tung, C.A. (2009) focuses on the use of literature in
enhancing the critical thinking skills of an individual. She include few strategies that are
incorporated into the course design such as reading comprehension pop quizzes, learning log,
group presentations, guided in-class discussion with Socratic questioning skills and individual
essay-question reports. Students took the pretest and posttest (California Critical Thinking
Skills Test) and a self-assessed questionnaire and then scheduled an individual interview with
the teacher. After conducting the study, a few findings were located: 1) literature reading
helped those who scored low in the pretest improve their overall critical thinking skills,
particularly those in analysis; 2) students’ English proficiency did not relate to their
performance in both the pretest and posttest; 3)some students were assertive they tended to
show more disposition toward critical thinking than ever but this needs a follow-up
longitudinal study with a standardized measure to assess the efficacy in this respect; 4)
Students found guided in-class discussion more effective than other student-directed activities
in developing critical thinking. (Chang, S.Y., 2009)
On the latter part of her study, she quoted what Albert Einstein said, “The significant
problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created
them.” Since we are on 21st century, undergraduates can no longer resort to old thinking
patterns for solutions. To better prepare themselves for the workplace of the 21st century,
college students need to develop critical thinking by osmosis so that they can “learn to know,”
“learn to do,” “learn to live together,” “learn to be” and “learn to change” (UNESCO, 1996).
“Therefore, developing critical thinking is a vital objective in higher education and to achieve
this aim, using literature reading to encourage students to think critically is a highly feasible
approach” (Chang, S.Y., 2009).

METHODOLOGY
Research Design
This study will use a historical research design under the qualitative research.
Historical research designs is used to collect, verify, and synthesize evidence from the past to
establish facts that defend or refute a hypothesis. (USC Libraries, n.d). This study will use the
related research conducted before to serve as an evidence and basis for the current study.

Sampling Technique
 POLYTECHNIC UNIVERSITY OF THE PHILIPPINES

To determine the sampling technique, the study will use the purposive sampling
technique also known as selective, or subjective sampling. This technique relies on the
judgement of the researcher when choosing who to ask to participate. Since not every students
from the field of English Majors are fond of reading literature, the researcher will divide the
respondents from those who read literary works to those who are not fond of reading. This is
to show some comparisons.

Participants
To complete the statistical analysis of data, the respondents will be coming from the
students of Bachelor of Secondary Education Major in English under the Academic year of
2018-2019.

Data Gathering Procedure

To gather the data needed for the study, the researcher will provide a survey
questionnaires that contains quarries related to the topic of the study. The respondents coming
from the Bachelor of Secondary Education Major in English of A.Y. 2018-2019 will fill in the
answers on each question that was written.

EXPECTED RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Statement of the Problem: How does reading literature effective in enhancing the student's
critical thinking skills?

#1: How many students from the Bachelor of Secondary Education Major in English read
some literary works?

No. of respondents who read Time allotted in reading

literary works
43 students 1-4 hours

#2: How many students from the Bachelor of Secondary Education Major in English are
not fond of reading literary works?

No. of respondents who does not read Time alloted in reading

literary works
10 students 1 hour

Based on the results there is a huge difference between the students who read literature
compare to those who are not fond of reading. Therefore, those students who are engaged
 POLYTECHNIC UNIVERSITY OF THE PHILIPPINES

in literary works tend to become a critical thinkers. At the same time, those new words they
found in reading enables them to use it during discussion and recitations.

CONCLUSION
Literature contribute in the development of the critical thinking skills of the students
through allowing them to think outside of the box, widen their vocabulary, dig deeper
between the lines and widen their perspectives. Through reading literature, the students
were enabled to analyze each story lines and concept, then eventually adopt the lessons
learner from it and allows them to be guided in their decision making.
Based on the results, the more time an individual a lot in reading literary works, the
more the individual becomes better in analyzing. Thus, literature is a great contributor in
the development of critical thinking skills of the students.

REFERENCES:

Chang, S.Y. & Tung, C.A. (2009) Developing Critical Thinking through Literature Reading.
Retrieved from
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/265218298_Developing_Critical_Thinking_throug
h_Literature_Reading
Maxcer, M. (2015) Reading Literature helps Develop Critical Thinking Skills. Retrieved
from https://www.idahoednews.org/voices/students/reading-develops-critical-thinking-skills/
Shantikuma, S. (2018) Methods of Sampling from a Population. Retrieved from
https://www.healthknowledge.org.uk