الملخص الإنجليزي
As critical thinking becomes a crucial element in determining the success or failure
of any educational system, investigating its status and level of integration in the teaching and
learning process becomes, in tandem, urgent. Thus, this study investigated the extent to which
critical thinking skills are integrated into English language education in cycle one of the basic
education system in Oman. The analysis targeted the case of Grade 4, second semester
textbooks. The study also examined the level of cycle one EFL teachers' knowledge about
critical thinking and their perceptions about the level of their incorporation of critical thinking
skills into their practices.
Two instruments were implemented for this study: (1) a content analysis checklist
that adopted Facione's (1990) model of critical thinking skills to answer the first research
question, and (2) a questionnaire that collected data to address the second, third, fourth, fifth,
and sixth research questions. An electronic version of the questionnaire was developed and
distributed to cycle one EFL teachers in Addakhiliya Governorate in the 2020/2021 academic
year. Because only female teachers teach cycle one, the sample of the study consisted of 203
EFL female teachers.
The results indicated that the level of critical thinking skills integration in Grade 4B
textbooks is 35.55 %. Similarly, the study revealed that cycle one EFL teachers have an
average knowledge level about critical thinking. In terms of teachers' practices from their
point of views, the findings revealed that the questions and activities that teachers present to
their students integrate critical thinking at an average level; however, the teachers
demonstrate a high level of behaviors and responses that incorporate critical thinking. The
results also showed that teachers considered class size, workload, textbook tasks, and training
and professional development challenges to critical thinking implementation. Based on these
findings, the researcher outlined several recommendations and suggestions for further
research.
