Creative Thinking-Oriented Junior Secondary English Reading Instruction: Current Challenges and a Pedagogical Framework
Abstract
Creative thinking has become an important educational goal in 21st-century education and has received increasing attention in China’s curriculum reform. As a key component of English education, reading instruction may provide a meaningful context for developing students’ creative thinking. However, the systematic cultivation of creative thinking in junior secondary EFL reading instruction remains underexplored. To address this gap, this paper adopts a narrative literature review approach to examine how creative thinking has been addressed in previous studies on Chinese junior secondary English education and EFL reading instruction. The findings suggest that English reading instruction has potential for creative thinking development. However, this potential has not been fully realized in current classroom practice, particularly in teaching objectives, reading materials, instructional methods, and assessment practices. Based on these findings, this paper proposes a pedagogical framework that responds to these four areas of concern. The framework may provide pedagogical guidance for integrating creative thinking cultivation into junior secondary English reading classrooms.
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