Using authentic assessment to develop student’s critical thinking in argumentative writing

Abstract

Authentic assessment is the mode of assessment that encourages student to practice in a specific knowledge as a professional. Creating critical thinkers in teaching English for business is applied through writing argumentation. The purpose of the study is to use authentic assessment in investigating students' critical thinking in argumentative writing. A mixed-method research design is used by analyzing the interrelationship between argumentative writing and critical thinking, and providing an open-ended questionnaire is to know the students’ perception. The finding indicates a strong positive correlation that argumentative writing contributes significantly to critical thinking development. The result indicates that students reach a high level of critical thinking in terms of knowledge construction and evaluating reasoning. In this study, it is found out that logical thinking and writing skill have been practiced through the use of argumentative writing in authentic assessment. It is a recommendation to use portfolio for writing project in argumentative essay, and presentation as the project. These activities are set in authentic assessment to enhance critical thinking skills in argumentative business writing.

Keywords: Argumentative Writing; Critical Thinking; Authentic Assessment.