Critical Thinking Skills in EFL Learning Courses Program: The Indonesian Practitioners' Conceptual Understanding of Private Higher Education

Abstract

The education system in Indonesia and society in general still places English courses as a foreign language even though its pedagogy has been carried out at various levels of education. Currently, English teaching is a necessary aspect and continues to receive special attention from every educator in Indonesia. However, teaching English, which only focuses on speaking, listening, reading, and writing skills, is considered not enough. The most critical aspect of the use of English is the ability to think critically. This study aims to describe in detail the conceptual understanding of EFL practitioners to promote students' critical thinking. In conducting the study, we employed a qualitative study design that focused on interviews as the data collection technique. Moreover, the study works with five participants who are EFL practitioners at an Indonesian private higher education institution. The collected data was analyzed using descriptive analysis, which included reduction, display, and conclusion. The findings show practitioners' critical thinking and conceptual understanding states in different ways, but they have the same meaning. This is categorized as “critical thinking” as realistic thinking that focuses on objective evidence, the ability to analyze, to comprehend intensely, correlate, interpret, evaluate, and make judgments about the information or to find good problem-solving. Besides, the method used by EFL practitioners to understand the critical thinking concept is dominated by reading books, journal articles, research, and forum discussions.