EXPLORING TEACHERS’ EXPERIENCES IN TEACHING THINKING SKILLS IN MIDDLE SCHOOL SETTINGS: A CASE STUDY

Abstract

There is a demand for students with various types of thinking skills to be prepared for the 21st century. In line with this trend, the Ministry of Education in Oman started integrating new pedagogical methods to teach thinking skills in middle school settings in Oman. This study utilizes a qualitative approach to explore teachers' attitudes toward teaching thinking skills, identify the strategies teachers use to teach thinking skills, and investigate the challenges teachers confront while implementing thinking skills activities. Twenty-five teachers were responded to an open-ended question form from different areas in Oman. The thematic analysis approach was used for data analysis. The findings of this study revealed that teachers have positive attitudes towards teaching thinking skills in their classes. Teachers' attitudes toward teaching thinking skills were motivated by different factors, including individual school support and TPACK. Therefore, decision-makers have a strong role in designing professional development programs to motivate teachers to teach thinking skills. This research contributes to the existing literature on teaching thinking skills in middle school settings in the new context because Oman and decision-makers can use the findings to design intervention programs to accelerate teaching thinking skills in Omani schools. The limitations of this study were related to the sample size. Future research should be conducted by extending the sample of this research and using a new methodology. The researchers suggest investigating the influence of teaching thinking skills on students' outcomes.