Enhancing EFL Teachers' Noticing of Critical Thinking Through Video Tagging.

Document Type : Research Paper

Author

Department of Literature and foreign languages, faculty of English language, Payame Noor University, Tehran, Iran

10.22034/elt.2026.71186.2845

Abstract

Despite the recognized importance of critical thinking (CT) in EFL instruction, teachers often struggle to identify and respond to CT moments in real-time classroom interactions. This gap between theory and practice underscores a need for targeted professional development. This study represents the first investigation of how a structured video tagging program, grounded in Jewell's Reasoning Taxonomy, enhances experienced EFL teachers' noticing and interpretation of learners' CT behaviors. Using a mixed-methods design, thirty experienced EFL teachers (5+ years' experience) completed a six-week program and were divided into experimental (video tagging) and control groups. Data from pre/post tagging tasks and semi-structured interviews were analyzed quantitatively and thematically. The experimental group showed a significant increase in both the quantity and interpretive quality of identified CT instances compared to the control group. Teachers developed a more nuanced understanding, shifting from superficial behavioral descriptions to detailed analyses of student reasoning processes like inference, evaluation, and problem-solving. The findings advocate for integrating such explicit noticing tasks into teacher training curricula to bridge the gap between CT theory and classroom practice, ultimately enriching pedagogical reasoning and fostering more adaptive, responsive teaching.

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References

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