Needs Analysis Survey on Critical Thinking

This post reports my responses to a Needs analysis survey conducted before the ELT Upgrade Workshop: Critical and Creative Thinking. The survey was conducted to determine teacher educators' background knowledge, experiences, and perceptions about Critical thinking.

1. What are the five keywords that describe your understanding of critical thinking (CT)? Reflect, inspire, innovate, empower, & transform
2. What is the state of inclusion of critical thinking in English language teaching in your country? According to the Peruvian National Curriculum, English teachers should develop students' specific communicative competencies by enhancing a wide range of CT activities suggested in that official document. Further information on page 359 of http://ebr.minedu.gob.pe/des/pdfs/dcbsecundaria.pdf
3. Is CT a necessity or a luxury in ELT in your country? It is a must, but a "luxury" for teachers who have not yet developed their own CT. If teachers are not trained by critical-thinking trainers, it would be challenging to develop CT in their students.
4. How is it used? (What types of approaches, strategies, and activities are used to enhance critical thinking, for example?) English teachers must use communicative activities most closely related to developing CT, such as: Infer information from media related to their personal interests; analyse oral texts from media, taking into account pitch, tone, and intonation; and utilise verbal and non-verbal language and specific expressions to start and keep a conversation.
5. Is this general state similar or different from that of the program in which you provide Teacher Training/teacher development? What is referred to in the Curriculum differs significantly from what teachers do in the classroom. The majority of them are in public schools. I insist that teachers must be trained in developing critical, creative, and problem-solving thinking throughout initial teacher programs. Stop lecturing. 
6. What critical thinking is already in place in your program, i.e., how do you/your colleagues/your teacher trainees use CT? Initial teacher programs should achieve specific objectives. I stated these particular objectives: At the end of the course of Didactics of TEFL, the trainees should be able to:

• Distinguish the different approaches and methods in TEFL.
• Apply the theoretical foundations in real teaching situations.
• Elaborate lesson plans.
• Manage teaching skills and techniques.
• Select and utilise a variety of techniques of evaluation and testing.
• Demonstrate effective practice in the use of ICT.

       7. Are there gaps in CT in your program (in CT in ELT classrooms that your colleagues are likely to experience)? The main gap is that most teacher students had not been trained in developing their CT in the previous course before pursuing the Didactics of TEFL.

I am looking forward to reading your answers, comments, etc.

Taken from: Hochstein, D.G. (2012). ELT Upgrade Workshop: Critical and Creative Thinking. RELO Andes - US Embassy.