EFL TEACHERS’ CONCEPTUALISATION OF CRITICAL THINKING IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN KAZAKHSTAN
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Date
2018
Authors
Tursunbayeva, Xeniya
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Graduate School of Education
Abstract
The introduction of critical thinking into the national curriculum has recently become one of the aims of educational reforms worldwide. The international agencies present critical thinking as a 21st-century skill contributing to countries’ human capital, and policymakers agree on that, although school educators may have a different opinion. In Kazakhstan, although the current secondary education reform emphasises the importance of developing students’ critical thinking skills and dispositions, there is a discrepancy between policymakers’ expectations and teachers’ practices. The implementation of critical thinking as language pedagogy in the field of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) has been an object of both interest and debate. Despite some researchers’ claims that critical thinking is a cultural concept that could be problematic to teach in the countries with long history of teacher- centred pedagogy, other scholars evidenced its efficiency and success.While the international literature on the instructional use of critical thinking in the EFL classroom is abundant, few studies have been conducted to explore how teachers understand the concept of critical thinking and how they feel about teaching for it in the post-Soviet countries.
A parallel mixed methods design was adopted with questionnaires, semi-structured interviews and focus groups as key data collection instruments. The data collected from 217 EFL teachers of secondary schools in North Kazakhstan region, indicated that the participants’ beliefs and awareness of critical thinking pedagogy exerted considerable influence on teaching for critical thinking. The educators concurred on the benefits of teaching for critical thinking but regard it as incongruent with the requirements of tests or top- down prescribed curriculum. Besides, other factors affected the teachers’ engagement in critical thinking, such as motivation, professional identity, support from administration, lack of autonomy, quality of teaching materials, and school facilities.
The findings suggest that this pedagogy was more challenging for the teachers from mainstream and rural schools or those who had not been specially trained for critical thinking instruction. The study is expected to be useful for teachers, researchers and policymakers in Kazakhstan and other post-Soviet countries who are interested in fostering critical thinking in the context of language teaching and learning.
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Keywords
Type of access: Restricted, critical thinking, EFL teaching, secondary education, teachers’ beliefs
Citation
Tursunbayeva, X. (2018). EFL teachers’ conceptualisation of critical thinking in secondary schools in Kazakhstan. Graduate School of Education