Perception and Challenges in Fostering Critical Thinking through the Reading Activities in CEFR Alligned Textbooks

HRMARS - Critical thinking has become a vital skill that every person needs to equip themselves with from school to working life. It is a metacognitive process where one does not settle with what is being learned, but instead explores it by asking questions and making judgments. Teachers often face multiple challenges in fostering critical thinking among the students as this skill has to be developed through various activities. One of the focus activities for this research would be reading activities in the CEFR-aligned textbooks in Malaysian secondary school classrooms. The CEFR-aligned curriculum and textbooks have been incorporated into the Malaysian education system since 2013 which provides teachers with guided lesson plans, a scheme of work, and a curriculum framework. Thus, this research aims to explore the teachers' familiarity and the challenges they face in using reading activities in CEFR-aligned textbooks to foster critical thinking. It is quantitative research with questionnaires that will be distributed to secondary school teachers using purposive sampling methods.