The Impact of Dialogic Teaching on Critical Thinking Development in TEFL Classrooms

Abstract

The benefits of Dialogic teaching practice on Saudi Arabian TEFL students’ critical thinking skills are the focus of this study. A pre-posttest quasi-experimental design was adopted which observed 100 participants in the experimental group and the control group. In the present study, the experimental group was engaged in dialogic instruction for eight weeks, while the control group was taught through a traditional teacher centered approach. The quantitative data was obtained through WGCTA pre and post test result and a set of questionnaire for the students. The research findings pointed an increased critical thinking performance of the experimental group with the scores difference of 17.33 as against the control group’s slight improvement of 2.51. Quantitative data analysis using t-tests and ANCOVA validated the findings from the observational study, with a very small p-value (p < 0.001). Students’ feedback also supported how this method increases student’s engagement, collaboration and cognitive processes. This has implication that dialogic teaching has potential to increase critical thinking skills and support Saudi Arabia Vision 2030 in educational practice.