Sudarat Srirak
Sudarat Srirak is an academic teaching English at the Prince of Songkla University, Thailand. She is currently undertaking a PhD research program at the School of Education, RMIT University. Her research focuses on Thailand's higher education curriculum development.
Session
The English language curriculum in Thailand has been recently developed by incorporating critical thinking as a strategy to drive outcomes. Critical thinking is considered a goal-oriented thinking skill that optimises language learning processes and enhances learning outcomes. This research aimed to examine the incorporation of critical thinking into English language classrooms. It specifically focused on classroom teaching strategies and activities employed by English language teachers to apply critical thinking in their teaching practices. A mixed methods research design integrating quantitative and qualitative strategies was adopted. An online survey was first administered to explore teacher perceptions of classroom application of critical thinking. Fifty English language teachers teaching across six English programs in one higher education institution in Thailand were involved in the survey phase. A qualitative case study of 11 teachers was subsequently conducted. The qualitative participants were individually interviewed to gain more insights into their classroom practices. Data analyses revealed that participants mainly incorporated critical thinking by teaching the skills of making arguments supported with reasons or evidence, giving reasons logically, applying creative thinking, and making a fair judgement. The strategies and activities that were mostly applied in the participants' classrooms were questioning, discussions, presentations, debates, essay writing, and project works. The findings seem to suggest that English teachers' teaching practices were aligned with the curriculum development. However, the data indicated participants' varying levels of confidence and degree of uncertainty to implement critical thinking in a certain class, particularly with low-proficient learners of English. Discussion of the findings and the implications for English language teachers and the English teaching sector were presented.
Recording link: https://acspri-org-au.zoom.us/rec/share/kl7zX6HT6bPlwSMdjyCiajLHw64xPnP09-fMoKjKQO1L8aMGwJyJs4Fws2C-5g8.8Ec3XepltHW7qMWn?startTime=1669183287000