Cognitive Rigor: Augmenting Writing Skills in the EFL Classroom

Abstract

Recently, educators have called for raising the expectation of students’ learning through teaching more rigorous knowledge and skills. For defining and describing rigor, a cognitive rigor (CR) matrix was used in the present study to augment 12 tertiary, female, Saudi students’ non-fiction writing skills in terms of organization, development, cohesion/coherence, structure, vocabulary and mechanics. The quasi-experimental design was employed using one experimental group (EG) and one control group (CG). Both groups were pre-tested and post-tested in writing a non-fiction essay. The Mann-Whitney U test demonstrated that there were statistically significant differences between the mean ranks of the EG and those of the CG on the post-test favoring the former.

Keywords: Bloom’s Taxonomy, Depth of Knowledge, cognitive rigor matrix, non-fiction, writing skills

DOI: 10.7176/JEP/10-9-10

Publication date:March 31^st 2019