Teaching Literature for Critical Thinking in Nigerian Secondary Schools: A Professional Development Framework

This study develops and evaluates a professional development framework for secondary school literature teachers in Nigeria, focused on building classroom competencies for teaching literature as a vehicle for critical thinking, textual analysis, and independent moral reasoning. Literature education in Nigerian secondary schools is frequently assessed through rote comprehension and plot summary tasks that do not develop the higher-order thinking skills that university education and professional life require. The study conducts a baseline assessment of current literature teaching practices through structured observation of 30 literature classes across ten secondary schools in Kwara, Osun, and Rivers States, followed by a structured professional development programme delivered to participating teachers over six weeks. Pre- and post-programme assessments of teacher practice and student critical thinking task performance measure the programme's impact. Findings from the baseline observation show that teacher-centred, fact-retrieval oriented literary instruction dominates across all three states, with minimal student-led discussion, debate, or interpretive writing. The professional development programme produces measurable improvements in the frequency and quality of discussion-based literary inquiry in participating teachers' classrooms. Student performance on critical analysis tasks improves significantly in the classes of teachers who demonstrate the highest programme engagement. Recommendations include integration of the framework into the Nigeria Certificate in Education curriculum for prospective literature teachers and rollout of the programme through state Teaching Service Commissions. Keywords: literature pedagogy, critical thinking, professional development, secondary school, Nigeria.