JALT Critical Thinking SIG Forum at PanSIG 2025
Date: May 18th, 2025
Time: 12:30-13:30
Room: Building 3, 3rd Floor, Room 202
The JALT Critical Thinking SIG would like to invite everyone to join us for the JALT Critical Thinking SIG Forum being held at PanSIG 2025, which is taking place at Kanda University of International Studies in Chiba, Japan from May 16th to May 18th, 2025. Five speakers will present on diverse approaches to critical thinking in language education. The featured speakers are:
James D. Dunn / Meiji University
Critical Thinking and Legal Ethics through Media Content
This presentation will report on an in-class series of classes which focused on giving legal students the opportunity to think critically about life, work, and legal issues. This course also focused on providing both legal and general vocabulary for future career purposes for the students in a private university legal department. For this course, a popular legal drama was used in conjunction with original class materials made by the presenter to help second to fourth year students who went on a one-month legal study abroad program. Both the rationalization for this methodology and the student reactions to the course will be shared as part of this presentation. Attendees will come away with ideas on how to integrate dramatic media into classes to encourage critical thinking as well as ways to provide students with opportunities to discuss ethical considerations in life.
Stephen Jennings and David Gann / Tokyo University of Science
Ensuring Student Authorship via ChatGPT Produced Quizzes
The presentation will relay the process of critical thinking undertaken by two teachers who, by working in parallel, utilize ChatGPT to make tailored tests for individual student essays. The presentation lays out the trial-and-error process of creating prompts that the AI would fully comprehend and use to produce suitable tests. With the aim to ensure students have indeed produced their own content for their essay, each test is created in order to evaluate the degree to which students can recall the content, have used level-appropriate vocabulary, and can answer questions generated to induce a discursive written answer. With reference to the Plan, Do, Check, Action cycle of continuous improvement of lesson activities , the presentation refers to a range of critical thinking concepts such as observation, reflection and generating promising solutions based on observable data.
Wayne Devitte / Tokai University
Critical Thinking Skills in Understanding Youjoukouza- An Ethnographic Analysis
With the number of international university students in Japan increasing, the need for them to understand lectures in a foreign language such as Japanese or English is essential. However, understanding lectures in a foreign language presents several challenges not the least of which are the affective factors that impact the listener as they attempt to follow the flow of the information, and glean the gist, and comprehend the specific points being made by a lecturer. Even when a listener understands the language being used, the listener may find that their ability to comprehend the information on a presented topic is limited by their observation, analysis, interpretation, reflection, evaluation, and inference skills. This presentation will present an ethnographic analysis of the observer-participant’s experience during a 33-day educational cruise where they attended 18 Japanese language lectures on various academic and non-academic topics. The lectures, intended for a Japanese speaking audience, were to varying degrees well above the Japanese language skill of the observer-participant. It will present details by which the observer-participant attempted to comprehend and engage with the lecture. It will also summarize factors, specifically critical thinking skills, that contributed to the observer-participant’s success in understanding being presented.
Wang Xiaodan / Yakumo Academy
Enhancing ESL Learning Through Debating: Challenges, Strategies, and Reflections
This presentation focuses on integrating debating into ESL classrooms for students with intermediate to advanced English proficiency. The typical class size is 8 students, occasionally expanding to 13 when exchange students join for three weeks. Initially, students faced challenges such as hesitancy to speak, difficulties in structuring arguments, and varying confidence levels. Some class activities aimed at addressing the issues, like structured debates and guided discussions, will be shared during the presentation. Student feedback at the semester’s end highlighted improvements in speaking, confidence, and critical thinking. Many found debating made learning more engaging and dynamic. The presentation will conclude by reflecting on the benefits of including debating in the ESL curriculum, its impact on students’ language development, and suggestions for refining this approach in future classes.