SHAPING THE TURKISH LEARNING ENVIRONMENT TO BOOST CRITICAL THINKING BY EFL TEACHERS

Özet

The classroom learning environment is one of the most significant points of access to education for learners as it also provides time, interaction, and socialization for students to cultivate their critical thinking. The current study highlights the EFL teachers’ perceptions and experiences of configuring a supportive learning environment to spur critical thinking. It also investigates the emerging factors classroom learning environment that affect EFL teachers’ integration of teaching critical thinking. This study is framed by an exploratory qualitative research design in which a grounded theory approach is utilized through extensive semi-structured interviews as a research instrument. The data was collected from twelve EFL-experienced teachers who have voluntarily participated. To interpret the findings, a constant comparative technique was employed as the primary data analysis technique. The results show that the classroom learning environment’s psychological, pedagogical, and social factors influence the integration of CT, introducing a parachute model to boost learners’ critical thinking skills.