Effective pedagogical methods for developing school learners' critical thinking and textual analysis skills through literary essay writing

Abstract

Developing critical thinking and textual analysis skills is one of the central goals of general secondary education. In current school practice, however, learners’ written work in Kazakh language and literature lessons too often remains at the level of plot retelling. This article examines the role of literary essay writing in forming critical thinking and textual analysis skills in Grades 10-11 learners. The aim of the work is to substantiate the effectiveness of organizing literary essay writing not as a one-off task, but as a systematic instructional cycle covering problem-based reading, analysis, thesis formulation, formative feedback, and revision. The article presents the theoretical foundations of the literary essay, contemporary normative requirements, a five-criterion assessment rubric, and the structure of an eight-week instructional cycle. The methods used include theoretical analysis, pedagogical experiment, criteria-based assessment, and qualitative analysis. The results show that organizing the literary essay as a complete instructional cycle develops learners' ability to formulate a thesis, analyze evidence, and express an independent position significantly more than the traditional lesson format. The proposed methodological tools enable Kazakh language and literature teachers to implement Kazakhstan's updated educational standards focused on developing learners' functional literacy.