The Use of the Toulmin Model in a Writing Module to Hone the Critical Thinking Skills of Omani General Foundation Program Students

Abstract

This study proposed to enquire into the efficacy of a developed writing module in honing the critical thinking skills of Omani General Foundation Program students. The study utilized a pre-test and post-test quasi-experimental design. The study participants included 70 Omani students and 2 English language teachers. Convenience sampling technique was employed to sample the participants who were divided into experimental and control groups. The experimental group embraced 35 students who studied English at the General Foundation Program of higher education institution “A”. The control group encompassed 35 students who studied English at The General Foundation Program of higher education institution “B”. The control group studied the writing syllabus of institution “B”, while the experimental group studied the study module. The critical thinking pre-test was given before module delivery and the post-test was done after the intervention. ANCOVA test was employed to draw a statistical analogy between the mean scores of pre-test and post-test. The findings affirmed that there was a statistically significant mean variance between the control and experimental group’s scores in the critical thinking post-test. The module notably honed the experimental group’s critical thinking skills.