This paper investigates the effect of motivation and Information and Communication Technology (ICT) on the teaching and learning process of English in Morocco. Extrinsic and intrinsic factors (Malone and Lepper, 1987) were identified to influence students' motivation for enhanced classroom engagement. Humanistic (Maslow, A. 1954, 1974), behavioral (Skinner, BF, 1938), and social (Kurt, L. 1951) approaches were used to arrive at these conclusions. We have used a quantitative method to collect data from students and teachers in Moroccan high schools by using questionnaires. The results showed that ICT not only helps to establish the student-centered model of learning, but also motivates instructors to create an atmosphere that stimulates student engagement, boosts their interest in English and develops classroom interaction.

Flipped learning technology is an effective approach that has been used widely in Morocco during the pandemic period. It is an approach that combines both face-to-face and online settings of learning and teaching. It is claimed that the utilisation of this approach matches the learners’ needs and promotes autonomous learning among students at almost all educational levels. In this regard, this study aims to examine the effectiveness of Flipped learning technology in upgrading critical thinking and communication skills. This paper employed a quasi experimental pre-test post-test study design and teacher’s observations. The sample was two groups consisting of 60 students aged 13 and 14 years old in the 8th grade at Tazi middle high school in Casablanca, Morocco. The participants were divided into an experimental group (N=30) that received the treatment study using Flipped learning technology approach and a control group (N=30) taught traditionally. They were taught using a teacher centred method. The researcher used a critical thinking and communication skills test as an instrument and a paired sample t-test for the analysis. The findings revealed a significant difference between the experimental and the control group (sig <0.05); it showed that experimental group participants achieved higher thinking and communication skills. Overall, we conclude that Flipped learning technology influenced critical thinking and communication skills.

This research aims to investigate the effectiveness of problem-based learning and reading stories on students’ critical thinking skills in Moroccan middle high schools. This paper employed a quasi-experimental pre-test post-test study design. The sample of the study was two groups consisting of 50 students aged between 14 and 15 years old at the 9th grade Tazi middle high school in Casablanca, Morocco. The participants were divided into an experimental group (N=25) that received the treatment study using a problem-based strategy and Black Beauty story by Anna Sewell level 3 mm. publications and a control group (N=25) that took normal classes. The researcher used a critical thinking test as an instrument and a T-test for the analysis. The findings, which have been quantitatively analysed, revealed a significant difference between the experimental and the control group (sig <0.05); it showed that the experimental group participants got higher thinking skills grades. Overall, we conclude that problem-based learning and reading stories influenced critical thinking skills positively.

The main aim of this study is to examine the effectiveness of critical pedagogy and high-order thinking skills in upgrading values-based education and intercultural understanding. Critical pedagogy is a transformational approach that aims to embrace educational values, intercultural identity, the commonality of beneficence and the value of individual freedom in today’s globalised world. In this regard, the teacher’s role is to help learners to aggrandize their intercultural and critical cultural responsibility for acceptance of otherness, that is, self-reflection, essentialism, and cosmopolitanism in a value based educational system. This article used EFL teaching materials that drew on critical literacy (two culturally based units and a short story analysis) stemming from the critical pedagogy lens (praxis pedagogy). The data of this study were analysed qualitatively through the three stages of disciplinary Fairclough’s approach to critical discourse analysis: description, interpretation and explanation; it is an approach that considers language as a form of political and social practice. The findings revealed that critical pedagogy and high order skills developed values-based education as well as intercultural understanding.