“As we know, nowadays technological equipment is used widely all over world. High standard of computer can not only stimulate most type of creatures, but also can calculate political changes in different countries. For this reason, a lot of people have trusted a sensational coverage that human’s thinking will deteriorate.”

The above excerpt from a student’s essay explains the iBT teachers and perhaps the GRE, GMAT, and IELTS teachers’ worst nightmare: amorphous listing and disconnected chunks. Many would say that writing is the epitome of their eternal suffering. One reason is that many students who have problems with the test are also the ones who have issues with critical thinking skills and find it very difficult to evaluate test arguments or to justify their opinions. Consequently their submissions end up mostly as amorphous listings of general observations and memorized disconnected chunks of literature which in many cases are considered as some form of plagiarism.

Hence these tests include a writing section to prepare and introduce the students to the nature of academic writing in North American universities, and to assess prospective students’ ability in relating to academic contexts and in using this understanding to structure an appropriate written form of argumentation.

Mostly the teachers’ frustration does not result merely from reading and grading poorly written essays, but is incited by the students’ strong resistance to any form of independent thinking and to advice regarding a constructive and higher form of judgment. Because many individuals never learn critical thinking in regular curricula and it requires great motivation and strong willpower, test preparation teachers are advised to deal with the resistance before addressing any other test preparation strategies (Schafersman, 1991).

CRITICAL REASONING SKILLS REQUIRED FOR THE iBT WRITING

The iBT reflects aspects of Frager and Thompson’s (1985) model for conducting critical thinking practice in relation to both the integrated writing task and the independent essays and provides samples of popular issues that promote it. The iBT pool of essays available in the official guide includes argumentative and debatable topics that require the following skills:

• Differentiate between relevant and irrelevant data
• Decide when additional information is required
• Apply deductive and inductive analysis
• Construct analogical arguments and explanations
• Evaluate generalizations and reasoning

OVERCOMING RESISTANCE

Many students argue that there is little need to address the above-mentioned skills. They are only interested in compiling 300 words with minimal thinking considerations and in less than 30 minutes. Their sole concern is accuracy, disregarding logic, exemplification, and decision-making. Hence, teachers sense right away the first surge of strong resistance and unwillingness to give critical thinking a fair chance. According to Keeley et al. (1995), a good instructor, like a good therapist, needs to help the students realize that their resistance is a problem. It is necessary to help students understand that their resistance to critical thinking will definitely impede their progress in the course and will have a negative impact on their results in the writing section of the test.

STAGES OF RESISTANCE

Identifying the stages of resistance to critical thinking allows test-preparation instructors and students to understand the symptoms, identify solutions, and create opportunities and activities that can gradually facilitate students becoming adept critical thinkers and writing essays that are well developed, thought out, and researched. William G. Perry, Jr. (1981) suggested that there are different stages of resistance: pre, during, and post.

Preresistance: Dualism

Perry (1981) explained that many students, because of their educational backgrounds, are accustomed to view life in a dualistic fashion: good vs. bad, right vs. wrong, we vs. they. There is one ultimate truth and it has been already decided by some form of authority (Traditions - Parent - State).

Such students seek to get the right answer from the teacher and think that during the test-preparation courses, they will be given opportunities to learn these model templates in a fast and an easy way. Or they may spend many hours trying to memorize published samples, instead of practicing the required skills.

At this stage, teachers need to get students outside of the box and challenge their beliefs by asking them to find reasons to defend their opinions or to participate in debates and open discussions. See Figure 1, The Thinking Box, for a sample activity I designed to help students think about the origin of their beliefs and whether these beliefs are justified.

During Resistance

Multiplicity

In time students can overcome dualism and emerge into a new stage that Perry (1981) called multiplicity wherein they learn that there is no single known truth, and no opinion is wrong. Multiplicity is also considered another uncomfortable higher stage because students will attempt to

• Temporize: Postpone making a decision when outlining an essay
• Escape: Create a wishy-washy argument
• Retreat: Suffer from a form of writer’s block

Generally, teachers have a sample pool of topics in the Official Guide published by ETS that can help them deal with this stage. Students are always relieved to know, read, and research controversial topics before the test regardless of the fact that teachers hardly ever have enough time to go through all the topics during class time. The pool allows the students to understand the nature of the exam topics, which empowers them and limits temporizing and escaping but does not fully eliminate them. Only writing after discussion can allow the students to gradually move beyond multiplicity.

Relativism

Now that the students are open to multiple views, they understand that it is essential to contemplate all aspects of an argument and learn how to integrate and support their views. In many cases, there is a regression to the dualism stage and a longing for a time when writing was a simple mechanical narration of standard ideas.

At this stage teachers are encouraged to support the students and allow more time to investigate the topics and allow peer or group writing activities. Timing the task at this stage is irrelevant because many students automatically regress under time pressure.

Figure 2 shows the Two Heads Better Than One thinking board that I designed to help students compare their beliefs. I have turned some of the topics from the pool of questions into a deck of cards and take every opportunity to play this game with students before they outline their essays to help in the Relativism stage.

Postresistance: Commitment

Once students get beyond Relativism, they are able to commit to their own views. They also become comfortable with the ideas that there is variation in how information can be packaged, knowledge is eternally transforming, and values change.

At this stage teachers can start addressing test grading criteria, test writing requirements, and time management issues. I designed a poster (see Figure 3) to remind students that critical thinking is still the most important step in the writing section of the test.

CONCLUSION

Test-preparation teachers need to encourage the development of critical reasoning skills even though this approach will lead to disturbance in the progress of a lesson -- and even if they are bombarded by students’ demands to comply with their wishes. The students’ resistance is understandable because they are used to a passive learning style and when they are required to contribute in any mental exercise, they tend to resist any intellectual effort. Sizer (1984) called this attitude the “conspiracy for the least,” an agreement by the teachers and students to do just enough to get by. But would we really be getting anywhere?

REFERENCES

Educational Testing Service. (2008). TOEFL iBT tips: How to prepare for the TOEFL iBT. Princeton, NJ: Author. Retrieved from

Frager, A., & Thompson, L. (1985). Conflict: The key to critical reading instruction. Journal of Reading, 28(8), 676-683.

Keeley, S. M., Shemberg, K. M., Cowell, B.S., & Zinnbauer, B. J. (1995). Coping with student resistance to critical thinking: What the psychotherapy literature can tell us. College Teaching, 43(4), 140-145.

Perry, W. G (1981). Cognitive and ethical growth: The making of meaning. In A. W. Chickering (Ed.), The modern American college: Responding to the new realities of diverse students and a changing society (pp. 76-116). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, Inc.

Schafersman, S. D. (1991, January). An introduction to critical thinking. Retrieved from smartcollegeplanning.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/Critical-Thinking.pdf

Sizer, T. R. (1984). The dilemma of the American high school. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin.

Walter, D. (1985). Recent research on classroom management: Implications for teacher preparation. Journal of Teacher Education.

Kareen Sharawy has an MA in teaching English as a foreign language from London Metropolitan University, United Kingdom. Ms. Sharawy has worked as a trainer and a teacher coordinator with YUELI, AMIDEAST, and other organizations in many USAID-funded teacher-training programs. Ms. Sharawy is currently an instructor at YUELI (York University English Language Institute, Canada). She has also been delivering training in a variety of test-preparation courses—including GMAT, GRE, TOEIC, TOEFL, FCE, SAT, IELTS, and TSE—for the past 10 years. Her research interests include innovation in classroom teaching, test-preparation courses, and using technology.