Gepco de Jong is a external PhD candidate at the Leiden University Centre for the Arts in Society.

More information about Gepco de Jong

I have been working in education since 1989, the last ten years as a Dutch teacher at Sint-Odulphuslyceum. I also work within Tilburg University on the design and presentation of an academic skills curriculum for secondary education. From 2021, I will be conducting PhD research at Leiden University and Tilburg University on the application of conscious critical thinking in literature education.

Research

The PhD research focuses on the integration of critical thinking skills in the literature teaching of the subject Dutch, with the aim of contributing to three interrelated teaching goals: strengthening literary competence, promoting citizenship education and providing insight into the individual thinking process of students. A subject didactic and evidence-based model that focuses on conscious critical thinking is considered an appropriate tool to achieve these goals.

The research design consists of three sub-studies that can collectively lay a well-founded foundation for the use of critical thinking skills in literature teaching. The three-part research cycle explores two main hypotheses: (1) gaining an understanding of how critical thinking skills work can be an effective starting point in the treatment of literature, and (2) discussing the social context of a literary text in advance increases both students' motivation and text comprehension.

The research process involves a structured approach in which students first formulate their primary, intuitive response to a text, followed by an introduction to how critical thinking skills work. Attention is then paid to the relationship between the literary text and its social context, as well as analysis of narrative structure and narrative technique. Through this approach, the aim is for pupils to develop from a spontaneous reaction to a reasoned judgment. In doing so, pupils systematically reflect on the different thinking steps from the subject didactic model and the effects that occur in the process.

The research is based on three design principles: (1) a model that reinforces pupils‘ literary competence, (2) a model that contributes to the development of citizenship skills and (3) a model that provides insight into pupils’ individual thinking processes. These design principles form the basis for a grounded and systematic integration of critical thinking in literature education.