Challenging the Status Quo: Critical Thinking Skills Integration in the EFL Curriculum of Young Learners

Abstract

This study aimed to explore the level of critical thinking skills integrated into the tasks of the Omani English language curriculum of young learners. The study implemented a content analysis checklist that was based on the six critical thinking skills which were agreed upon by a group of international critical thinking experts and declared in the Delphi Report that was published by the American Philosophical Association (APA). The two textbooks of grade four, second semester (4B) beside the Teacher’s Book, were utilized as the sample of this analysis. Results of the study showed a low level of critical thinking skills integrated into the tasks of these textbooks as these tasks made up only (35.55%) of all the tasks in the textbooks. In addition, the self-examination subskill was highly represented compared with the other critical thinking subskills (20. 81%). Moreover, results showed that four of the critical thinking subskills (detecting arguments, analyzing arguments, presenting arguments, and self-correction) were absent from the tasks of both textbooks. Based on these findings several implications were addressed.

How Primary School Teachers Perceive and Develop Students’ Future Skills?

“…This study characterized these practices procedurally as the performance of primary school teachers throughout instruction, including teaching methods, strategies, and activities designed to build students' future skills. The four most effective teaching approaches for enhancing children's future skills are the bridging, individual, integration, and enrichment approaches [38][39][40], as outlined below.…”

“…The first is the integration approach, which Al-Nagi [38] defined as teaching skills concurrently with academic content in a planned and deliberate manner, with the skills incorporated into the existing curriculum based on the nature of the content, skill standards, and learner characteristics. Numerous studies have called for incorporating such skills into the everyday fabric of learning in the classroom [14,15,31,[41][42][43].…”

“…Second, the enrichment approach relies on teaching skills through independent activities inside or outside the classroom while under the direct supervision of the school or other institutions [38]. Activities aid in personality formation and the development of self-directed, lifelong learning.…”

“…Third, the independent approach involves teaching future skills within their own dedicated classes, using strategies and activities tailored to those skills and giving students more opportunities to apply them [38,46]. Five years before now, the Ministry of Education developed and added courses related to digital skills in primary school and special courses to teach critical thinking skills in the intermediate and secondary stages of education.…”

“…Finally, the bridging approach is similar to the independent approach in that students learn future skills through an independent course but connections are made to the rest of the curriculum so that students can apply the skills directly or indirectly to their other courses [38,47]. Critical thinking skills, for instance, can be taught as a standalone course while integrating them into the activities of other courses.…”