http://jct.sciedupress.com Journal of Curriculum and Teaching Vol. 11, No. 8; 2022 Published by Sciedu Press 79 ISSN 1927-2677 E-ISSN 1927-2685 Challenging the Status Quo: Critical Thinking Skills Integration in the EFL Curriculum of Young Learners Aneesa Mohammed Al-Rahbi 1 , Abdo Mohammed Al-Mekhlafi 1,* , Thuwayba Al-Barwani 1 & Ehab Omara 1 1 Sultan Qaboos University, Muscat, Sultanate of Oman *Correspondence: Sultan Qaboos University, Muscat, Sultanate of Oman. E-mail: raymoh123321@gmail.com Received: June 21, 2022 Accepted: August 3, 2022 Online Published: October 24, 2022 doi:10.5430/jct.v11n8p79 URL: https://doi.org/10.5430/jct.v11n8p79 Abstract This study aimed to explore the level of critical thinking skills integrated into the tasks of the Omani English language curriculum of young learners. The study implemented a content analysis checklist that was based on the six critical thinking skills which were agreed upon by a group of international critical thinking experts and declared in the Delphi Report that was published by the American Philosophical Association (APA). The two textbooks of grade four, second semester (4B) beside the Teacher’s Book, were utilized as the sample of this analysis. Results of the study showed a low level of critical thinking skills integrated into the tasks of these textbooks as these tasks made up only (35.55%) of all the tasks in the textbooks. In addition, the self-examination subskill was highly represented compared with the other critical thinking subskills (20. 81%). Moreover, results showed that four of the critical thinking subskills (detecting arguments, analyzing arguments, presenting arguments, and self-correction) were absent from the tasks of both textbooks. Based on these findings several implications were addressed. Keywords: critical thinking, critical thinking skills, critical thinking integration, Oman, content analysis, textbooks 1. Introduction According to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, children have the right to be provided with “an education that enables [them] to fulfil their potential” (Save the Children, n.d.). Due to the worldwide accelerating growth on different levels—the technical, industrial, scientific, economic, etc.—, securing this right has obligated educational systems to rethink their agendas and reform their educational approaches so they can meet the demands of this era and provide the individuals with the required life skills for both their academic and their vocational success. One of the skills that cannot be dismissed or ignored in the 21st century is critical thinking, which has gained a great deal of attention at all levels. As individuals nowadays get access to massive amounts of information worldwide, the need for developing critical thinkers who can assess information, analyze data, evaluate resources, and make informed decisions has become a necessity. There is a strong consensus across all disciplines that critical thinking is a crucial element in any current educational system. In fact, fostering students’ critical thinking skills should be the primary educational goal and should be central “to the design and implementation of the curriculum and educational policy” (Bailin & Siegel, 2002, p. 88). Nurturing one's critical thinking skills is a long-term process that can be achieved through practice and continuous involvement in contexts that require complex thinking. To many critical thinking authors and researchers, critical thinking development should take place in the early years of the individual's educational process. Although some researchers, who were influenced by Piagetian work on children's cognitive development, hold the belief that teaching critical thinking to young children is inapplicable and that children in the early stages of development are unable to perform formal operations which are necessary for critical thinking (Kennedy et al., 1991), critical thinking literature provides evidence that “there is a place for critical thinking” in the early stages and children just like adults, can engage in complex levels of thinking (Lai, 2011, p. 23). However, developing lifelong critical thinkers requires initiating them in environments conducive to critical thinking practices from the early years of education (Aizikovitsh-Udi, 2015) since one cannot automatically become a critical thinker only because he enters adulthood (Daniel & Auriac, 2011). Hence, because young learners are not born with critical thinking skills, they need to be trained and prepared to think critically throughout their educational journey (Halpern, 2002 & Kenney, 2013).