A COMPARATIVE STUDY ON ENGLISH TEACHERS' PERCEPTIONS OF CRITICAL THINKING AND ITS INTEGRATION INTO LANGUAGE EDUCATION

Nowadays, everybody has the power and freedom to write something down on the internet without referring to accurate and reliable resources. Although it may seem like we are living in a century of freedom in terms of information, the side effects such as increased violence, ignorance of the environment and passive consumerism are inevitable in the absence of cyber and media literacy. This unprecedented improvement in the spread of information has stimulated a growing body of research focusing on educating individuals to develop some higher order thinking skills including critical thinking. According to a report, "the partnership for the 21st century skills has identified critical thinking as one of several learning and innovation skills necessary to prepare students for post-secondary education and the workforce" (Lai, 2011, p.4). Related with this, critical thinking has been attracting the attention of various parties in the education area. Especially language curriculum designers and material developers give place to the teaching of it as an important life skill. Considering the close connection between language learning and higher order thinking skills, enhancement of critical thinking in language classrooms has been emphasized besides the teaching of basic language elements such as grammar, and vocabulary. Cultivation of critical thinking first necessitates well-planned utilization of methods, techniques and materials because it is a learned skill requiring instruction and practice rather than an inborn gift (Halpern, 2003; Synder and Synder, 2008; Puchta and Williams, 2011). However, it is not only the methods, techniques and the materials which will enrich the learning environment but also the teachers. Classrooms are the places, where students learn a lot about the certain conventions and expectations (Perkins, 2003); thus it is the responsibility of teachers to build that environment into a strong culture of thinking (Kabilan, 2000; Lipman, 2003; Seferoglu and Akbiyik, 2006; Shirkhani and Fahim, 2011). This reveals the importance of consciousness on the part of the teachers. However, to what degree do language teachers and teacher candidates have a precise understanding of critical thinking and its role in language teaching? Based on this premise, the current mixed method research which covers the use of both quantitative and qualitative data aims to highlight the similarities and the differences in the perceptions between two generations; namely a group of pre-service and in-service English teachers about critical thinking and its role in language teaching. In conclusion, future curriculum renovation possibilities for more effective integration of critical thinking into language teaching and teacher education are discussed in the light of the results.