The Regional English Language Office at the U.S. Embassy, Islamabad is pleased to offer Critical Thinking in Language Learning and Teaching (CT), a 9 week online professional development course for English Language Teachers. This course is designed to introduce participants to and deepen their understanding of the theory and applied use of Critical Thinking principles and practices in the EFL classroom by engaging in the following types of activities.

Critical Thinking in Language Learning and Teaching (CT), delivered by University of Oregon (UO) from March 30th – June 12th 2020.

Course Learning Objectives

• Understand and explain critical thinking concepts and patterns.
• Identify relevant resources to develop and use critical thinking.
• Identify and analyze teaching techniques and materials to incorporate critical thinking in teaching and learning.
• Apply critical thinking to classroom teaching and materials development: redesign and implement instruction and assessment that require critical thinking.

Eligibility Criteria:

Candidates should be highly motivated in-service English language teachers who are both dedicated to their own professional development and willing to share their knowledge with colleagues. In addition, they should:

• Be an English language professional
• Have strong English language reading and writing skills
• Be a citizen of Pakistan
• Should reside in Pakistan for the entire duration of the course
• Have regular and reliable access to high-speed internet connection
• Be able to spend 10 to 12 hours online each week for the duration of the 9-week course

Applications accepted until January 20th 2020, 5 pm PKT

Online Application can be accessed here.

Questions? Contact us on eteacher@evolution.com.pk or call us at 0300-2008575

Course Overview 

This course is designed to introduce participants to and deepen their understanding of the theory and applied use of Critical Thinking principles and practices in the EFL classroom by engaging in the following types of activities.

• Read and discuss professional information and articles to gain a deeper understanding of critical thinking and its development in language pedagogy.
• Identify the suitability of course readings to course assignments and apply content as appropriate.
• Interact with colleagues regionally and internationally who share similar pedagogical interests.  Participants regularly evaluate each other’s contributions, question, and build on each other’s ideas.
• Work on diverse tasks and exercises, and create classroom projects that demonstrate an understanding of course topics.
• Adapt and enhance culturally and age appropriate curriculum materials to include critical thinking development and practice for a local context.
• Critically reflect on others’ and one’s own work as well as one’s own critical thinking.

 Description of Final Project

All 10-week courses require participants to complete a final project.

Following is a short description of the 3-part project for this course.

Part 1:  Redesigning a lesson plan to include more critical thinking instruction: participants work individually to redesign a lesson they have submitted early in the course. The redesign should include explicit critical thinking objectives and activities that support students’ use of various critical thinking strategies.

Part 2:  Designing assessment to measure critical thinking lesson objectives:  participants work individually to design assessment of the critical thinking students practice in the lesson plan (part 1).

Part 3:  Action plan which focuses on each participant’s goals to further apply both personal and professional critical thinking development as well as its development/dissemination within the professional sphere:  each participant draws up an action plan with 2 goals that illustrate his/her intentions related to developing his/her own CT skills and/or sharing the learning from this course with colleagues in their own educational setting and beyond.