How Do Locally Produced EFL Textbooks Endorse Critical Thinking Skills in Indonesia? A Content Analysis

Abstract

Critical thinking skills (CTSs) are acknowledged as essential abilities students should acquire in learning and have gained considerable attention over the past few years. Thus, the CTSs should be integrated into the curriculum and introduced to students to boost their capacity for critical thought. The current study attempts to diagnose critical thinking elements endorsed in localized EFL school textbooks as reflected within questions. A qualitative content analysis was employed by adopting Ilyas’s (2016) framework of critical thinking for the analytic categories. In actuality, the questions exhibited in the EFL textbooks are only apparent in a few critical thinking criteria, such as clarification, reasons and evidence, viewpoints or perspectives, and agreement and disagreement. On the other hand, assumptions, implications, consequences and alternatives, questions, predictions, and summary and conclusion are excluded. Instructors and authors of books are recommended to consider the critical thinking features when creating lessons to help students learn effectively and develop them into well-cultivated critical thinkers.