EFL Teachers’ Practices and Challenges Towards Implementing Critical Thinking Skills Online During Covid-19 Pandemic

Abstract

This study examined the extent to which EFL teachers at the University of Jeddah are aware of the importance of implementing critical thinking skills. It also investigated their practices of such skills while teaching remotely and discussed the current impediments that distract the effective application and acquisition of such skills by the Saudi learners. Data came from a teacher’s questionnaire and semi-structured interviews carried out online. The results found were congruent with other topic-related researches in some aspects and incongruent in some other aspects. As a matter of fact, the EFL teachers in this work believed in the importance of teaching critical thinking to their learners, however, their teaching practices do not reflect this belief. One of the important variables that distract the effective development of critical thinking is the learners’ disengagement. More and more researches need to be conducted to investigate the relationship between the aforementioned variables.