The current study adopts a mixed-method research design to foster English Language instructors’ attitude toward professional development, self-efficacy beliefs, and reflective thinking. Vygotsky's sociocultural theory constituted the base and the professional development program was designed accordingly. The participants of the study were nine English Language instructors working at three different universities. Throughout the 16-week program, it was aimed to equip the participants with action research skills to conduct their own study in their own context according to their needs and/or interests. All the participants completed the Plan, Act, Observe, and Reflect stages of the Action Research Cycle.

Critical thinking has been considered as one of the main goals of education at any level. The question of 'in what ways does critical thinking develop best?' still needs further exploration. Cognitive science may provide assistance in comprehending the elusive nature of critical thinking, which may lend itself to explanations by receiving theoretical background and studying skills from a wide array of perspectives. Regarding the teaching of critical thinking skills to pre-service language teachers in an EFL context, it is apparent that it requires meticulous attention from the onset of the design of the language course. Aiming to develop a critical reading and writing course which was newly added to the English Language Teaching curriculum by the Higher Education Council and putting the teaching of critical thinking skills into the core, the current study aims to explore the critical thinking and reading levels of the students at the beginning of the course and display whether any difference took place during the course of time in the academic semester specified. The inclusion of the new course entitled 'Critical Reading and Writing', required the development of the course content and a selection of materials were made according to the general framework provided by the Higher Education Council. The current study utilized descriptive and inferential means. It aimed to determine and compare the students' critical thinking and critical reading levels before and after the study. Findings indicate that students' critical thinking levels developed at the end of the study. However, it is found that female students' critical thinking scores contributed more than male students' scores. When gender is not considered as a factor, the whole group of participants improved their critical thinking skills during the study; however they did not perform the same improvement on their reading scores.

Promoting learners' higher-order thinking, which is also called critical thinking. requires using instructional strategies beyond merely recalling information but analyzing, evaluating, and creating information, as suggested in Bloom's Revised Taxonomy of Educational Objectives (2001). As an indispensable vehicle for instructional practice and assessment, questioning is both an end to be achieved and a valuable means to attaining higher-order thinking levels. Bearing in mind that a teacher who can incorporate the so-called skills may transfer those to future language practitioners, teacher educators are on the lookout for designing courses that foster critical thinking. In this study, one of the core courses entitled 'Literature in ELT' was chosen to explore the questioning levels of pre-service ELT learners (henceforth PTEs) at a university to uncover their knowledge of higher-order thinking levels using Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy as a framework. Randomly selected short stories which were classified according to Common European Framework of References (CEFR) levels were distributed to the learners. Afterwards, they were asked to generate questions imagining that they would assign these stories to their future learners to check their reading comprehension. The questions were gathered to determine what levels of Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy the questions correspond to and examine the frequency and distribution of the questions at each level. The findings revealed that questions created by PTEs, addressing lower-level thinking skills in the taxonomy, outweighed the higher-order thinking skills for each level of stories.

The aim of the present study was to evaluate the effect of the eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) Couple Protocol on the relationship-satisfaction, depression, and anxiety levels of couples. This protocol differs from standard EMDR procedures in that the partners are together in the treatment session, and engage in bidirectional stimulation simultaneously. The treatment targets are disturbing events that the couples have experienced together. Couples have the opportunity to accept, recognize, and witness each other's recovery process during the session. The EMDR Couple Protocol consists of eight phases, and it was developed for couples wanting to improve their relationship. The study sample consisted of 18 couples suitable for the application of the EMDR Couple Protocol. Treatment was provided by an EMDR Europe Level 2 EMDR psychotherapist to the couples. The mean number of sessions was 14.27 ± 4.04. The couples showed significant improvement between pre-EMDR, post-EMDR, and at three months follow-up with large effect sizes for relationship satisfaction (η2= 0.944), depression (η2= 0.385), and anxiety (η2= 0.258). The present study evaluating the effectiveness of the EMDR Couple Protocol showed a positive effect on the relationship-satisfaction, depression and anxiety symptoms of the couples. The EMDR Couple Protocol appeared to be safe and effective.

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