Integrating Critical Thinking Skills Into Academic Writing Courses: Perceptions, Strategies, and Challenges

Abstract

Academic writing in higher education indicates students’ cognitive and analytical skills and communication competence. Nevertheless, learners often struggle to produce analytically rich and critically informed written work, largely because Critical Thinking (CT) skills are not systematically embedded within Academic Writing (AW) instruction. In EFL settings, for example, grammar and structure are often taught more than higher-order thinking, resulting in academic writing that lacks coherence, argument strength, and originality. This study followed a mixed methods design to examine (a) Saudi EFL instructors' knowledge of the relationship between critical thinking skills and academic writing; (b) challenges instructors’ face in promoting CT skills through AW tasks and ;(c) teaching strategies that can be recommended to strengthen the teaching of CT skills in AW classes. Qualitative and quantitative data were collected, using an in-depth semi-structured questionnaire and interviews as a means of obtaining a full perspective. The findings are anticipated to identify conceptual and instructional shortcomings for successful CT integration. The implications of the study suggest the necessity of targeted professional development and curriculum reform to better connect CT and AW pedagogy. There is a need for further research on classroom-based interventions in which instructors improve teaching strategies, to develop analytic and argumentative academic writing skills in students.