Teaching Critical Thinking in Psychology: A Handbook of Best Practices

Report 4

Effectively Using Literature Circles

in the Psychology Classroom

Rebecca Wenrich Wheeler

Literature circles function as a multidisciplinary approach that effectively teaches students

to think critically about a variety of texts. Although the literature circles format is typically

used in English classrooms, I found it can easily be adapted to promote critical thinking

in psychology courses. Literature circles enhance students’ higher order thinking skills, as

students self-direct their learning and interact with other students about a particular writ-

ing, as well as foster intellectual curiosity. Lloyd (2004) emphasized that literature circles

place greater responsibility on students for their learning in comparison to read-aloud or

guided reading tasks. Students use critical reading and questioning strategies to individu-

ally prepare for literature circle discussion (Lloyd, 2004). With read-aloud and guided

reading, the teacher creates the discussion questions and controls the discussion process.

In contrast, the key to a successful literature circle experience comes when the learning is

student-centered and the teacher acts as a facilitator.

Origin of Literature Circles

The concept of literature circles gained momentum when Robert Probst’s (1994) article

“Reader-Response Theory and the English Curriculum” was published in the English

Journal. In essence, the reader-response theory places the emphasis on the reader and the

process of reading (Fischer, 2000; McManus, 1998). This concept works well in psychol-

ogy classrooms as reader-response theory emphasizes how an individual’s assumptions and

cultural norms influence readings of texts (McManus, 1998). Implementation of reader-

response theory encourages readers to expose gaps and conflicts in texts and raise questions

about their own perceptions (Fischer, 2000). Through challenging assumptions, students

must evaluate the validity of the sources through which they glean information, thus

strengthening their critical thinking skills.

Teaching Critical Thinking in Psychology: A Handbook of Best Practices Edited by D. S. Dunn, J. S. Halonen, and R. A. Smith