How effective is critical reading in the understanding of scientific texts?

Reading which is among basic linguistic skills has a significant position in individuals' intellectual life. This is due to the fact that perception, meaning construction, information retrieval and the reuse of the acquired information in communicative processes in written communication is heavily dependent upon reading activities. Though the question of whether physical components or cognitive processes are more effective in the reading process has been answered differently by various researchers, the consensus upon the nature of this activity is the fact that it is a rather complicated process. In order to explain this complicated process as much as possible, the concept of critical reading has recently been put forward as a model in education. Critical reading can be regarded as an attempt of "re-reading" which requires handling many concepts affecting our life directly or indirectly with a wider perspective. The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of a science and technology lesson arranged within the context of critical reading on students' academic achievement, critical thinking and critical reading skills. The sample of the group of the study which was conducted in 2011-2012 academic year spring term in Zonguldak is composed of 8th grade elementary school students. The study is quasi-experimental and has pre-test, post-test control group design. The quantitative data used to test the research hypotheses is collected by means of an academic achievement test, critical thinking scale and critical reading scale and the data was analysed applying independent and dependent sample t-tests via SPSS Statistical Analysis Software. As a result of the study, it was found out that the experimental group performed better than the control group in terms of academic achievement, critical thinking and critical reading skills and the difference in achievement was statistically significant. (C) 2015 Published by Elsevier Ltd.