Perceived Effectiveness of Critical Thinking Skills Training Through English Language Teaching: A Post-Intervention Study in the Department of English, Sulugh Campus

Abstract

This study is a quantitative post-intervention evaluation to investigate the perceptions of first-semester English Department students toward a 12-week critical thinking (CT) training program embedded in English Language Teaching (ELT) at Sulugh Campus, Libya. The final sample used for analysis was of 30 students, with an average age of 23.43 years (SD = 1.14; range 22–25). The intervention included deliberate practice in analysis, inference, evaluation, and explanation through debates, Socratic questioning, argument analysis, evaluation of source credibility, evidence-based writing, and problem-solving activities. Students responded to a 20-item questionnaire consisting of four five-item dimensions: perceived overall CT improvement, perceived CT subskill development, perceived improvement relative to the start of the course, and perceived educational impact and transferability. The total score showed good internal consistency (Cronbach’s α =.919). Means were 4.28-4.39 on a 5-point scale, with 90.7%-94.7% of responses being Agree or Strongly Agree. One-sample t-tests against the neutral midpoint (3.00) were statistically significant for all four dimensions (all ps <.001). The results indicate a very positive pattern of perceived benefit in the demonstration data set provided. However, because the revised design is a one-group post-intervention self-report evaluation, the results should not be interpreted as causal evidence analogous to a controlled pretest-posttest experiment.