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What predicts students’ critical thinking disposition? A comparison of the roles of classroom and family environments

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• Published: 07 August 2021
• Volume 25 , pages 565–580, ( 2022 )

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• Zhi Hong Wan   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-8163-5862 1  

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In learning environments research, limited attention has been paid to the effects of the family environment on student thinking. This study constructed a five-dimension survey of the family environment, based on previous studies of the classroom learning environment, and used it to compare the effects of the family environment and the classroom learning environment associated with an interdisciplinary course (i.e., Liberal Studies) on the critical thinking disposition of 2189 secondary students in Hong Kong. Stepwise regression revealed that: the overall effects of the classroom learning environment of Liberal Studies on critical thinking disposition were greater than those of the family environment; the content-oriented dimensions of both environments were stronger predictors of critical thinking disposition than the relationship-oriented dimensions of both environments; and the effect of the dimension of challenging task on critical thinking disposition was stronger than that of other pedagogy-oriented dimensions. Also the means of all dimensions of the family environment were significantly lower than those of the corresponding dimensions of the classroom learning environment. It is suggested that more effort should be made to enhance both classroom learning environment and family environment to generate convergent forces to efficiently cultivate students’ critical thinking.

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Wan, Z.H. What predicts students’ critical thinking disposition? A comparison of the roles of classroom and family environments. Learning Environ Res 25 , 565–580 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10984-021-09381-y

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The Role of Critical Thinking in 21st-Century Education 

As education rapidly adapts to meet the ever-evolving world of 21st-century society, traditional approaches of memorization and testing no longer suffice in providing students with skills needed for successful navigation of today’s society; instead, more emphasis has been put on building essential abilities like critical thinking, problem-solving ability and adaptability that empower individuals in responding to an ever-changing global environment.     

This article delves deep into the importance of critical thinking in 21st-century education systems, detailing why and how its development may benefit educational systems. Finding reliable academic support and essay writing services cannot be overemphasized, nor can its importance in assignment completion be dismissed lightly. When seeking assistance for assignments, choose providers known for quality and integrity.     

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Education Landscape Shifting  

The 21st century has brought profound changes in numerous areas, ranging from technology and communication to the global economy, that have entirely revolutionized how life operates and defined what skills and knowledge are essential to a person’s success. Because of these revolutionary shifts, traditional education models prioritizing passive memorization over active engagement no longer serve as effective teaching methodologies for success in today’s highly technological society.     

Students need skills to analyze, evaluate, and innovate effectively in the rapidly evolving modern world. Critical thinking is an indispensable skill involving reasoning while making sound judgments and solving complex problems effectively. Furthermore, it encourages learners to question assumptions by searching for evidence or seeking other perspectives; these capabilities support academic success and are essential components for personal and professional advancement in an unpredictable society.   

Meeting the Demands of 21st Century  

With digital technology’s rapid proliferation of information available just a click or two away, accessing crucial knowledge has never been simpler or faster – yet critically evaluating sources to discern reliable from untrustworthy information is increasingly vital in today’s environment.   

Technology has evolved impressively quickly, impacting various industries and job markets profoundly. Individuals able to adapt rapidly while remaining skeptical when considering emerging technologies will have greater odds of success in life.     

Climate change, health crises, and economic disparity are complex global problems that need multifaceted solutions. Critical thinkers possess superior problem-solving techniques, allowing them to address complex global issues such as global climate change effectively.

The 21st century demands that its individuals understand varying cultural viewpoints and worldviews, creating empathy while broadening horizons to navigate an interdependent, multicultural environment. Developing critical thinking abilities promotes this perspective, allowing one to navigate this multicultural reality effectively.   

Fostering Critical Thinking in Education  

Once we understand the significance of critical thinking in 21st-century society, educators face an intriguing question: How can they develop this skill among their pupils? Here are a few approaches and strategies:   

• Questing and Inquiry-Based Learning

Encourage students to pose inquiries, explore topics of interest, and engage in inquiry-based learning activities that put their education in their own hands – this puts curiosity and critical thinking front and center! This method puts learners in control of their education journey!   

• Problem-Based Learning

Integrate real-life challenges into the curriculum so students can work cooperatively to solve them by employing critical thinking techniques to find innovative solutions.   

• Socratic Method

The Socratic method utilizes open-ended questions and dialogue to encourage critical thinking among its audience members, prompting students to examine their beliefs, assumptions, and other perspectives and consider possible alternatives.   

• Cultivate Curiosity

Create an environment in your classroom that fosters curiosity among its pupils, encouraging students to investigate topics beyond curriculum requirements, conduct independent research projects, and pursue personal interests.   

• Media Literacy

Teach students how to analyze media sources critically. In an age of misinformation and fake news, media literacy skills are an indispensable way of distinguishing fact from fiction.   

Critical Thinking Benefits in Education  

Integrating critical thinking into education provides many advantages for both students and society as a whole:   

• Strengthened Problem-Solving Capabilities

Critical thinkers excel at recognizing and solving issues across academics, careers, or daily life.   

• Effective Communication

Critical thinking allows students to express themselves clearly and persuasively when communicating ideas – an invaluable skill necessary in both personal and professional interactions.   

• Better Decision-Making

Individuals who can think critically tend to make informed, rational choices with long-term impacts in mind.   

• Innovation and Creativity

Critical thinkers tend to produce innovative ideas more readily than those without critical faculties do, leading to innovations across various fields and contributing creative solutions that spark the imagination.   

• Adaptability

Critical thinking equips individuals with the capacity to adapt quickly to changing circumstances and learn new skills, an invaluable ability in today’s rapidly developing job market.   

Challenges In Implementing Critical Thinking Education  

While incorporating critical thinking into education offers numerous advantages, its implementation presents its own set of difficulties:   

• Curriculum Limits

Due to time- and resource-limited curricula and high-stakes testing requirements, creating constraints around nurturing critical thinking abilities may restrict available time, and flexibility for improving essential thinking abilities can become limited.   

• Teacher Preparedness

Not all educators receive adequate training in methods designed to develop critical thinking, leading to different approaches toward implementing essential thinking programs in schools.   

• Resistance to Change

Resistance from traditional educational institutions and stakeholders who do not want to deviate from conventional teaching methods could present itself.   

• Assessing Difficulty

Assessing critical thinking can be tricky since its measurement typically involves qualitative evaluation and complex skills that cannot easily be quantifiable.   

• Resource Allocation

Providing educators with adequate resources and support needed to implement critical thinking strategies can be an administrative challenge in schools or institutions.  

Conclusion  

Education has increasingly transformed in the 21st century from simply imparting information to developing critical thinking abilities in students. In an ever-more-complicated and interdependent world, thinking critically is vital for personal, academic, and professional success; educators, institutions, and policymakers need to recognize its significance by offering all necessary support to cultivate such abilities in students.     

By adopting inquiry-based learning, problem-solving, and an interest in cultivating curiosity among their students, educators can teach students to think critically, adjust to change quickly and thrive in our ever-evolving society. With education becoming ever more dynamic in 21st-century America, critical thinking will remain central in equipping individuals with its challenges and opportunities in the coming decades.  

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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Modeling the role of emotion regulation and critical thinking in immunity in higher education.

• 1 School of Overseas Education (School of Foreign Languages), Sanming University, Sanming, China
• 2 Department of English Language, Faculty of Literature and Humanities, University of Gonabad, Gonabad, Iran
• 3 Department of Teaching English and Linguistics, Faculty of Literature and Humanities, Ayatollah Borujerdi University, Borujerd, Iran
• 4 Department of Literature and Foreign Languages, University of Karaj, Karaj, Iran

It is deemed that the effectiveness of teachers is highly entangled with psycho-emotional constructs, such as critical thinking (CT), emotion regulation (ER), and immunity. Despite the potential roles of CR, ER, and immunity, their possible relationships have remained unexplored in the higher education context of Iran. To fill in this lacuna, this study explored the potential role of CT and ER in university teachers' immunity in the Iranian higher education context. For this purpose, a total of 293 English university teachers were selected using a convenience sampling method. They were invited to fill out the Watson–Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal-Form, Language Teacher Emotion Regulation Inventory, and Language Teacher Immunity Instrument. The findings of path analysis indicated that the university teachers with higher CT were more productively immunized. Moreover, the results revealed that ER could predict the university teachers' immunity. The findings of the study lead to this implication that higher order thinking skills, emotion regulatory strategies, and immune enhancement should be incorporated into educational programs of higher education.

Introduction

Clarifying the concept of effective teaching in both schools and higher education and conceptualizing the clear model of the effective teacher is not an easy task and is inherently contentious ( Ericksen, 1984 ; Feldman, 1986 ; Brown and Atkin, 1988 ), since the term effective can be interpreted differently by different people and in a different context. Despite its long history, there is no agreed-upon definition for it. For instance, Hopkins et al. (1998) postulated three broad dimensions of effective teaching. The first dimension is teaching effects, a concept that reflects both teaching skills and teaching behaviors. The second relates to the acquisition of effective teaching models a teacher establishes in his/her classroom. The third dimension embraces teacher artistry, which highlights the teachers' responsibility for creating the conditions for effective learning. From Acheson and Gall's perspectives ( Acheson and Gall, 2003 ), effective teaching involves the ability to provide instruction that creates an instructional climate that causes students to develop positive attitudes toward school and self (engaged and efficacious learners), helps students to develop the knowledge, skills, and understandings intended by curriculum objectives, and responds to initiatives for curriculum change so that the new curriculum's intents are fully realized. Burroughs et al. (2019) defined teacher effectiveness in terms of teacher experience, teacher professional knowledge, and teacher behaviors (p.8). Likewise, Elliott (2010) stipulated that teacher effectiveness is a combination of personality and ability, wherein the former is being regarded as a key factor (p.14).

Considering the pivotal role of effective teaching, Elliott (2010) identifies two subtopics related to teaching effectiveness: “effective teacher characteristics may be summarized as measuring who I am or the essence of teaching, whereas teacher effectiveness may be summarized as what I do or the process/product of teaching” (p. 1). From a social cognitive perspective, effective teachers are self-regulated individuals who take appropriate actions leading to the successful accomplishment of their professional tasks ( Randi, 2004 ). In Feldman's perspective ( Feldman, 1986 ), enthusiasm, positive self-regard, energy, and positive regard for others are the significant qualities of an effective teacher. In other words, the skills needed for effective teaching involve more than just expertise in an academic field. Effective teaching occurs best when teachers are empowered with desirable behavior and personality traits. Among several qualities and personality traits that are defined as the attributes of an effective teacher, ER, critical thinking (CT), and immunity, as well as their reciprocal relationships have remained uncharted territory in educational research, particularly in higher education. In addition, various challenges of the 21st century require more reflections on the contributing role of higher order thinking skills and self-aid constructs, fostering effective teaching.

Teaching bound with emotional experiences and teachers believe that regulating their emotions at the workplace leads to effective teaching ( Sutton et al., 2009 ). Teacher ER refers to their abilities to manage and modify emotional experiences and expressions ( Burić et al., 2017 ). ER empowers teachers to change the intensity and duration of their emotional experiences at the workplace ( Chang and Taxer, 2020 ; Frenzel et al., 2021 ; Heydarnejad et al., 2021c ), which have significant implications for manifesting teachers' effectiveness. Despite its relevance, and perhaps because of its complexity, teachers' ER, particularly English teachers' ER, is still in its infancy, and awaits further research ( Burić et al., 2017 ; Alipour et al., 2021 ; Heydarnejad et al., 2021c ). More specifically, Frenzel et al. (2015) asserted that teachers' emotions are different depending on different subjects and groups of students. Hence, each context is worth exploring as it may show different findings in comparison with other contexts.

As Chen and Cheng (2021) stipulated, handling emotionality and rationality as inevitable parts of teaching contribute effective teaching. Thereby, regarding the indisputable relevance of emotions and cognition at the workplace for teachers' effectiveness, it is important that teachers are armed with effective strategies and higher order thinking skills. CT as higher order thinking skills refers to analyzing and evaluating of the information through reflection and reasoning ( Dewey, 1933 ; Paul, 1988 ). Through the lenz of CT, teachers think critically about their teaching strategies and look for evidence of effective teaching. It was evidenced that CT is associated with teachers' resilience ( Ayoobiyan and Rashidi, 2021 ), self-regulation ( Heydarnejad et al., 2021a ), teaching style in higher education ( Amirian et al., 2022 ), and professional identity ( Sheybani and Miri, 2019 ). In addition, CT not only benefits individual university teachers but also the society as a whole.

The new born notion of language teacher immunity works as a defensive mechanism against different constraints in the realm of language teaching ( Hiver and Dörnyei, 2017 ; Rahmati et al., 2019 ). Language teacher immunity can act as a shield to protect university teachers against high-intensity chaos and complexities of educational settings. What emerges from the review of the scare literature on language teacher immunity, it is positively correlated with teacher-related positive constructs (e.g., Hiver, 2017 ; Haseli Songhori et al., 2018 ; Rahimpour et al., 2020 ; Li, 2022 ). Yet, there is a dearth of literature about language teacher immunity, especially in higher education which echoes for more profound studies to investigate different aspects of language teacher immunity. To the best knowledge of the researcher, to date, no study has inspected these theoretically associated constructs within a single framework to disclose how they are linked with one another and consequently, how they affect teachers' job effectiveness. Therefore, more research is needed to fill this gap.

Literature review

Emotion regulation.

The term emotion is derived from the Latin word “emovere”, which means to stimulate ( Hargreaves, 1998 ). It means that the experienced emotions give direction to individuals' actions. To capture the concept of emotion, various definitions were posed based on different theoretical conceptualizations generated from physiology, philosophy, history, sociology, anthropology, and psychology ( Hargreaves, 1998 ; Oatley, 2000 ; Frenzel, 2014 ; Burić et al., 2020 ; Uzuntiryaki-Kondakci et al., 2022 ). These conceptualizations share a common point in sense that ER is a complex, multi-component construct with different dimensions, namely, subjective, cognitive, motivational, expressive, and physiological ( Lazarus, 2001 ; Scherer, 2009 ). Moreover, two outlooks can be defined for teachers' emotions: considering emotions as short-lived and relatively intense episodes or explaining them in a more trait-like manner or as relatively stable in time ( Rosenberg, 1998 ). From a trait-like perspective, the average frequency of experienced emotions in teachers' professional lives is considered ( Wood et al., 2008 ). In the current research, a trait-like manner is used to inspect university teachers' ER at their workplace.

Emotions are socially constructed phenomena that are uncovered in social interactions with others ( Chahkandi et al., 2016 ). In other words, emotions derive their shape and meaning from the ideas and practices in the larger socio-cultural context ( Boiger and Mesquita, 2012 ; Luque-Reca et al., 2022 ). The cultural context also plays a critical role in several aspects of individuals' emotional experiences. The ways of expressing and managing emotions are mostly consistent with the values, goals, and concerns in each cultural model. Interdependent cultures expect individuals to define themselves more in relation to others, prioritize harmony and interconnection, and try to adjust to each other's expectations ( Chahkandi et al., 2016 ). Independent cultures, on the contrary, emphasize preserving individuals' autonomy through underlying individuals' uniqueness and self-esteem ( Boiger and Mesquita, 2012 ; Ford and Mauss, 2015 ).

Additionally, cultures are not similar in the appraisals of the emotion-antecedent events ( De Leersnyder et al., 2013 ). For instance, offensive situations are considered as threats to individual's autonomy and self-worth in North American contexts and asking individuals to cultivate high self-regard, assertiveness, and aggression. By contrast, offensive situations in Japanese contexts were interpreted as threats to social relationships and required individuals' understanding of the other persons' motives to be resolved ( Chahkandi et al., 2016 ). Cultures also influence emotion display rules and individuals' motivation to exercise self-regulation ( Ford and Mauss, 2015 ). That is, collectivist cultures (e.g., Asian American and Japanese contexts) tend to use ER more frequently and exert greater levels of emotion suppression than European American people ( Gross et al., 2006 ). More specifically, cultures differ in the adaptation of ER strategies ( Ford and Mauss, 2015 ). Cultures also are not similar in dealing with status and power relationships. Thus, they may expect the expression of emotions that maintain status and power and avoid emotions that threaten this differential ( Matsumoto, 2006 ).

Teachers, in particular language teachers, experience various ups and downs at the workplace, which can trigger pleasant and unpleasant emotions. As Hargreaves (1998) put it, “emotions are at the heart of teaching” (p. 835). Teachers' emotional experiences affect their relationships with others ( Richards, 2022 ), identity ( Jones and Kessler, 2020 ), self-efficacy ( Chen, 2018 ; Burić et al., 2020 ), pedagogical adoptions ( Chen, 2020 ), work engagement ( Burić and Macuka, 2017 ), as well as self-regulation, and teaching style in higher education ( Heydarnejad et al., 2021a ). Appraisal and attribution theories ( Frenzel, 2014 ; Jacob et al., 2017 ; Frenzel et al., 2021 ) are the models used for explaining teachers' emotions. Appraisal theory is based on the indirect association between emotion and situation ( Moors et al., 2013 ) and includes the following sub-sections: goal consistency, goal conduciveness, coping potential, goal attainment/impediment responsibility, and goal significance ( Frenzel, 2014 ). Attribution is defined as a specific evaluation of the perceived causes of events ( Jacob et al., 2017 ).

ER involves physiological, behavioral, and cognitive processes that each person utilizes to monitor, evaluate, and modulate their emotional experiences ( Gross, 1998 ; Gross and John, 2003 ; Gross and Thompson, 2007 ). That is, ER acts as a campus and gives direction to individuals' emotions ( Gross, 1998 , 1999 ). The employed strategies in ER helps teachers to manage both pleasant and unpleasant emotions ( Taxer and Gross, 2018 ). The activation of a regulatory goal, the engagement of regulatory processes, and the modulation of the emotion trajectory are the three core features of many diverse types of ER ( Gross and Barrett, 2011 ). It is worth highlighting that ER activities may also happen explicitly or implicitly ( Gross, 2014 ). In previous studies, explicit and implicit processes in ER are considered separately ( Masters, 1991 ). However, it is recommended to consider ER processes as a continuum ranging from explicit, conscious, and controlled regulation to implicit, unconscious, effortless, and automatic regulation ( Gyurak et al., 2011 ).

Theoretically, ER is supported by the process-oriented model of ER ( Gross, 1998 ). The process-oriented model of ER is comprised of five temporal points (i.e., situation selection, situation modification, attention deployment, cognitive change, and response modulation). Recently, a model for the language teacher ER was proposed based on extensive review of the existing literature, the theoretical conceptualizations on ER in general, and teacher ER in particular ( Heydarnejad et al., 2021c ). This model involves six dimensions, i.e., situation selection, situation modification, attention deployment, reappraisal, suppression, and seeking social support. The three dimensions of situation selection, situation modification, and attention deployment were rooted in Gross's process-oriented model of ER ( Gross, 1998 ). Reappraisal and suppression were based on Gross and John's conceptualization ( Gross and John, 2003 ), and seeking social support as the last dimension was inspired by Jennings and Greenberg (2009) as well as Taxer and Gross (2018) .

Research on university professor ER seems to be scarce. However, the conducted previous studies on teacher ER highlighted teacher-related variables, which affect or are affected by ER. As an example, Chang (2020) examined the relationship between teachers' beliefs about emotional display rules in the class, the attitudes toward ER strategies, and feelings of burnout. Based on the data analysis, display rules influenced expressive suppression and burnout. Moreover, the effect of cognitive reappraisals on teacher burnout was significantly negative. Results of this study emphasize that teacher education should be designed to help teachers to evaluate their beliefs about display rules and to involve in cognitive reappraisal. In another study, Morris and King (2018) investigated the role of emotion regulatory strategies in manipulating frustration among university language professors. Their findings suggested that university language professors employed ER strategies that increased their levels of confidence and helped overcome the stressors. The influence of ER strategies in return for classroom misbehavior in response to classroom misbehavior was explored by Chang and Taxer (2020) . They found out that teachers who usually reappraise in the face of their learners' misbehavior are less probable to experience unpleasant emotions. Their findings show how teachers could regulate their negative emotions in the face of student misbehavior. By the same token, Fathi et al. (2021) explored the association between teacher reflection, self-efficacy, burnout, and ER among Iranian English teachers. The results of the structural model confirmed that ER would mediate the influences of teacher reflection and teacher self-efficacy on teachers' burnout among English teachers. In their conclusion, they offer some practical measures for teachers to monitor their emotional states.

Critical thinking

CT was introduced by Socrates about 2 centuries ago, who maintained that assuming, questioning, reasoning, analyzing, and evaluating the inferences of individuals' activities are vital to justify their declarations ( Fisher, 2001 ). Although CT has been applied in various territories (Philosophy, cognitive psychology, and education research), no unified definition was suggested for it ( Thomas and Smoot, 1994 ; Solon, 2003 ). According to Halonen (1995) , CT is mystified concept. Similarly, Fasko (2003) asserted that “there is no consensus on a definition of critical thinking” (p.8). From Dewey' perspective ( Dewey, 1933 ), CT is active and regular evaluation of assumptions and suppositions to reach convenient inferences. Based on Paul (1988) , CT is a higher order thinking skill, which involves analysis, syntheses, and evaluation. Furthermore, Halpern (2003) defined CT as the application of mental processes and cognitive skills, which foster the probability of desired behaviors.

From another viewpoint, Ennis (1996) defined CT as the intellectually disciplined process of actively and skillfully conceptualizing, synthesizing, and evaluating information generated by observation and reflection. Based on Thomas and Lok (2015) , CT is formulated by knowledge, skills, and disposition. Moreover, Choy and Cheah (2009) defined teacher cognition through the lens of CT and concluded that these two constructs are integrated. More specifically, no concrete learning benchmarks are illustrated for CT progress ( Stapleton, 2011 ). In spite of various proposed definitions and postulations, it is widely accepted that CT is a vital part of any successful education ( Zhang et al., 2020 ; Heydarnejad et al., 2021a ; Azizi et al., 2022 ).

Dewey (1933) was the first one who discussed about the importance of higher order thinking skills in education. He highlighted that reflective and CT skills must substitute the traditional ways of teaching, which concentrate on memorization and surface learning. As Davidson and Dunham (1997) argued, CT skills are teachable; thus, teachers a play significant role in teaching CT and developing critical minds ( Bourdillon and Storey, 2002 ; Mason, 2008 ). In so doing, the teachers should learn how to think critically. About the crucial role of CT and its enhancement, Zhang et al. (2020) have conducted a study among English university teachers to gauge their attitudes toward CT and its applications in their teaching. As their findings revealed, English university teachers confirmed that CT should be an integral part of classroom teaching. In addition, it was also concluded in another recent study that CT and self-regulation give directions to teachers' preferred teaching styles ( Heydarnejad et al., 2021b ; Parveen et al., 2022 ).

Furthermore, it was approved that CT influenced teachers' professional identity ( Sheybani and Miri, 2019 ). In this regard, Jenkins (1998) asserted that CT skills broaden teacher competencies and help them to build greater autonomy at work. The contributions of teachers' metacognitive skills, academic self-efficacy, and their CT skills is supported by Kozikoglu and Babacan's findings ( Kozikoglu and Babacan, 2019 ). They highlighted the need for more research to understand how higher order thinking skills can be practiced among teachers. Taken a similar path, Sadeghi et al. (2020) sought to inspect qualitatively the constructs of CT from viewpoints of the English teachers and learners. Based on data analysis, they suggested some strategies for reinforcing CT ability such as: Discussion, group working, Interpretation, Open-mindedness, self-awareness, to name a few. In this study, pedagogical implications for English teachers were suggested to practice CT skills among their learners. They also invited curriculum developers and syllabus designers to consider CT activities in teaching materials and support in-service classes for teachers. Although the role of teachers' CT in their progress at work and implementing CT in their students is approved by different empirical studies, some teachers still used rote learning. It is of great importance to engage learners at schools as well as universities to ponder on challenging questions and make inferences ( Sadeghi et al., 2020 ; Heydarnejad et al., 2021b ; Rezai et al., 2022 ). The nature of CT, teachers' lack of knowledge and experience, as well as their inabilities in fostering CT skills may be among the possible reasons for not applying CT in the major parts of teaching ( Buskist and Irons, 2008 ).

Teacher immunity

Stemmed from the Latin word “immunis”, teachers' immunity is a recently introduced concept to language teaching discipline ( Hiver and Dörnyei, 2017 ). Biologically, immunity is defined as a protective system that activates naturally occurring antibodies and plays down infection through biochemical reactions ( Janeway et al., 2005 ). It works as a defensive system that fights against pernicious, undesirable, or detrimental effects of the external environment ( Hiver, 2015 ). Similarly, teacher immunity refers to a defensive and adaptive mechanism, which works against various conflicts and challenges at the workplace ( Hiver, 2015 , 2017 ). As Hiver and Dörnyei (2017) stipulated, teacher immunity is an amalgamation of motivation to teach, psychological wellbeing, and openness to change on one end and teaching pressures, burnout, and attrition on the other end of the spectrum.

The formation of teacher immunity is based on self-organization theory that is adapted from complexity theory ( Larsen-Freeman, 2012 ; Sampson, 2022 ). Self-organization refers to a process through which the complete function of a dynamic system alters through the interaction of different parts of that system ( Larsen-Freeman, 2012 ; Gooran et al., 2022 ) and includes four developmental stages: triggering, coupling, realignment, and stabilization ( Rahmati et al., 2019 ). Similar to its origin in biology, teacher immunity is of two kinds: productive immunity and maladaptive immunity ( Hiver and Dörnyei, 2017 ; Sutarto et al., 2022 ). As a protective armor, the former protects teachers against stress, failure, burnout, and the like. In contrast, the latter negatively affects the teaching processes to make them fossilized ( Hiver and Dörnyei, 2017 ). Different factors may trigger maladaptive immunity, such as avoidance-oriented behaviors ( Hiver and Dörnyei, 2017 ) or resistance to change or innovation ( Bullough and Hall-Kenyon, 2012 ; Xu et al., 2022 ). Productive immunity influences teachers' thinking style, acting in social contexts, as well as professional identity ( Hiver, 2017 ; Hiver and Dörnyei, 2017 ). More precisely, language teacher immunity can be classified as productive immunity, maladaptive immunity, the state of immunocompromised, and partial immunity. Productive immunity refers to a vigorous form of teacher immunity, while maladaptive immunity is the counterproductive form of teacher immunity. Immunocompromised means having not developed any coherent form of teacher immunity, and partially immunized refers to halfway features of teacher immunity.

What emerges from the review of the sparse literature on teacher immunity, this road is untrodden and calls for further studies to shed light on its associations with other teacher-related constructs. After the introduction of language teacher immunity by Hiver (2015 , 2017) and ( Haseli Songhori et al., 2018 ), the dominant type of employed immunity strategy was investigated among Iranian English teachers by Haseli Songhori et al. (2018) . They found out maladaptive immunity was the predominant type of immunity among Iranian English teachers. Furthermore, they concluded that Iranian English teachers followed triggering, coupling, realignment, and stabilization, in forming their immunity. In the same vein, Rahimpour et al. (2020) applied a path-analysis approach and postulated a model on the factors predicting language teacher immunity. Based on their findings, language teacher immunity is indirectly influenced by agreeableness, extroversion, and emotionality through job insecurity and reflective teaching. They also concluded that the influence of job insecurity on reflective teaching and language teacher immunity was significantly negative.

Along the same path, the relationship between autonomy, emotions, engagement, and immunity of experienced in-service teachers was investigated by Azari Noughabi et al. (2020) . As the results of multiple regression suggested, language teacher immunity could be significantly predicted by teachers' autonomy, emotions, and engagement. Among the three variables under study, teacher autonomy was found to be the strongest predictor of experienced EFL teachers' immunity. The implications of this study ask for providing EFL teachers with opportunities to exercise autonomy and regulate emotions through teacher education courses, which in turn foster productive immunity. Moreover, the contributions of L2 grit and work engagement to EFL teachers' immunity examined ( Azari Noughabi et al., 2022 ). Their findings reflected those higher levels of work engagement and L2 grit immune EFL teachers in the face of different challenges during their professional lives. In a recent study in China, Li (2022) concluded that the relationship between EFL teachers' immunity, mindfulness, and work engagement was significantly positive. This study also necessitates the use of training courses for language teachers to enhance EFL teachers' immunity development, mindfulness, and engagement.

Objectives of the present study

In spite of its relevance, and perhaps because of its complexity, teachers' ER and immunity, in particular English university teachers' ER and immunity has remained an uncharted territory that awaits further research ( Burić et al., 2017 ; Hiver and Dörnyei, 2017 ; Rahimpour et al., 2020 ; Alipour et al., 2021 ; Heydarnejad et al., 2021c ). More importantly, Frenzel et al. (2015) asserted that teachers' emotions are different depending on different subjects and groups of students. Hence, each context is worth exploring as it may show different findings in comparison with other contexts. Most of the existing studies on teachers' ER has been conducted within a theoretical framework of stress and coping ( Lewis and Haviland, 1993 ) or in the context of emotional labor (e.g., Hargreaves, 1998 , Isenbarger and Zembylas, 2006 ; Azari Noughabi et al., 2020 , 2022 ). Regarding teacher immunity, few empirical studies ( Hiver, 2015 , 2017 ; Haseli Songhori et al., 2018 ; Rahimpour et al., 2020 ) and only one theoretical study ( Hiver and Dörnyei, 2017 ) have been conducted among language teachers. Thereby, the realm of higher education still remained untouched and calls for more identical studies that put forward a clear picture of university professor immunity.

Furthermore, it is generally accepted that CT has numerous benefits for teachers, but little is known about how it interacts with two other essential constructs, i.e., language teacher ER and immunity, especially in higher education. Leafing through the existing literature reflects that the possible relationship between ER, CT, and immunity has not been brought to the foreground of research foci ( Gross and Thompson, 2007 ; Burić et al., 2017 ; Rahimpour et al., 2020 ; Sadeghi et al., 2020 ; Li, 2022 ), particularly in higher education ( Fathi and Derakhshan, 2019 ; Chang, 2020 ; Chang and Taxer, 2020 ; Heydarnejad et al., 2021a ; Amirian et al., 2022 ). To this end, the present study sought to propose a model to display the contribution of CT as well as ER to immunity in higher education (see Figure 1 ). Considering the abovementioned objectives, the current investigation put forward to answer the following research questions:

RQ1: To what extend does English university teachers' critical thinking predict their immunity?

RQ2: To what extend does English university teachers' emotion regulation predict their immunity?

Figure 1 . Theoretical structural equation model.

In line with the above research questions, the following null hypotheses were formulated:

H01. English university teachers' CT does not predict their immunity.

H02. English university' teachers' emotion regulation does not predict their immunity.

Theoretical model

The present study is built on the assumption that university teachers' immunity is affected by CT and ER. That is, it is hypothesized that university teachers' immunity is shaped with their CT and ER.

Method of the study

Research design.

The researchers employed a correlational design for the present study. As noted by Riazi (2016) , a correlational design is used to explore the correlations between some variables without controlling or manipulating any of them. Overall, the researchers used a correlational design to uncover the role of CT and ER in university teachers' immunity in the Iranian higher education context.

Setting and participants

The present study was run at state-run universities in Iran. They are under the direct supervision of Ministry of Science, Research and Technology. The primary mission is to guarantee free education and physical training for everyone at all levels, and the facilitation and expansion of higher education. Using a convenience sampling method, a total of 293 English university teachers were selected from 25 run-state universities. According to Riazi (2016) , the convenience sampling method is a non-probability sampling method adopted by researchers to gather data from a conveniently available pool of participants. They included both men ( n = 171) and women ( n = 122) aged from 31 to 52. They had different majors, including English Teaching ( n = 110), English Literature ( n = 74), English Translation ( n = 61), and Linguistics ( n = 48). Due to logistical limitations, the participants' years of teaching and teaching location were not controlled. Of particular note is that the participants declared their consent to participate in the study orally. The researchers ensured that their responses would be kept confidential and they would be kept informed about the final results.

Instruments

Watson–glaser critical thinking appraisal-form.

The Watson – Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal Form (1980) was the applied instrument to explore CT among the participants. This instrument was generated from Watson and Glaser (1980) and includes the following sections: inference, recognizing of assumptions, making deduction, interpretation, and evaluation. In a study conducted by Watson and Glaser (2002) , the scale presented acceptable validity and reliability. In the present study, Cronbach Alpha was 0.944, which indicated acceptable reliability.

The language teacher emotion regulation inventory

The Language Teacher Emotion Regulation Inventory (LTERI), designed and validated by Heydarnejad et al. (2021c) , was employed to gauge university teachers' ER strategies. They were required to consider similar situations from their teaching experiences at the workplace and rate the statements in the light of their preferred ER strategies. The LTERI consists of 27 items on a five-point Likert scale anchored by 1 (“never”) and 5 (“always”) with six components, i.e., situation selection (5 items), situation modification (5 items), attention deployment (4 items), reappraisal (5 items), suppression (4 items), and seeking social support (4 items). The reliability for all sub-scales of the LTERI was acceptable (ranging from 0.718 to 0.814) in a study by Heydarnejad et al. (2021c) . In the current study, the reliability of the LTERI estimated through Cronbach's alpha was acceptable (ranging from 0.735 to 0.932).

The language teacher immunity instrument

To measure the participants' immunity, the Language Teacher Immunity Instrument (LTII), designed and validated by Hiver (2017) , was utilized. This instrument is composed of 39 items in 7 sub-scales, each with a 6-point response scale (1 = strongly disagree; 6 = strongly agree). The sub-scales of this instrument are as follows: Teaching self-efficacy (7 items), Burnout (5 items), Resilience ( 5 items), Attitudes toward teaching (5 items), Openness to change (6 items), Classroom affectivity (6 items), and Coping (5 items). In the current investigation, the reliability of the LTII estimated through Cronbach Alpha was acceptable (ranging from 0.831 to 0.948).

Data collection procedures

The participants were selected based on convenience or opportunity sampling procedures, and they were assured that their responses were entirely anonymous. A web-based platform was employed to conduct this investigation, which was started in January and ended in June 2022. That is, the participants received an electronic survey form including Watson–Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal-Form A, the Language Teacher Emotion Regulation Inventory (LTERI), and The Language Teacher Immunity Instrument (LTII) through Google Forms. Since all teachers were qualified enough in English, the language of all four scales was English and, in this way, a construct irrelevant factor was avoided. Conducting the electronic survey enables researchers to collect data from different regions with varying age groups and teaching experiences. Altogether 293 forms were received with an 87.2% return rate. Moreover, no data were missed due to the design of the electronic survey.

Data analysis procedures

As the first step, the reliability of the instruments was checked by Cronbach Alpha formula. Then, the normality distributions of the data were checked through the Kolmogorov-Smirnov Test. Further, descriptive statistics were used to describe the data. Finally, as the data were normally distributed, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structural equation modeling (SEM) using LISREL 8.80 were employed to analyze the data. That is, all latent variables were validated using CFA before testing a structural model ( Hair et al., 1998 ). SEM as a robust multivariate procedure was used to take a confirmatory hypothesis-testing approach for the proposed structural theory ( Schreiber et al., 2006 ).

The results of statistical analysis to probe into the relationship between CT, ER, and immunity were presented here. Table 1 reported the descriptive statistics of English university teachers' CT, ER, and immunity.

Table 1 . The results of descriptive statistics of the english university teachers' critical thinking, emotion regulation, and immunity.

As Table 1 presented, among the CT subscales inference (M = 3.874, SD = 0.854) and evaluation (M = 3.735, SD = 0.678) got the highest mean scores. Regarding the Language Teacher Emotion Regulation subscales, attention deployment (M = 3.928, SD = 0.653) and seeking social support (M = 3.921, SD = 0.818) show the highest mean scores. Moreover, among the Language Teacher Immunity subscales, coping (M = 4.807, SD = 1.091) and teaching self-efficacy (M = 4.632, SD = 0.493) displayed the highest mean scores.

As the following step, the data distributions were examined to make a logical decision about applying appropriate statistical methods. To do so, the Kolmogorov–Smirnov test was used to check the normality distributions of the variables.

Based on Table 2 , the sig value for all the scales and their subscales was higher than 0.05, which the data were normally distributed. Thus, parametric methods could be employed for testing the related research hypotheses. The LISREL 8.80 statistical package was applied to explore the structural relations among the variables in the present research.

Table 2 . The results of kolmogorov–smirnov test.

The chi-square magnitude, the root-mean-square error of Approximation (RMSEA), the comparative fit index (CFI), and the normed fit index (NFI) were utilized to evaluate the model fit. As Jöreskog (1990) stated the chi-square should be non-significant and the chi-square/df ratio should be lower than 3. Furthermore, the root-mean-square error of approximation (RMSEA) is suggested to be lower than 0.1 ( Jöreskog, 1990 ). The NFI with the cut value greater than 0.90, GFI with the cut value greater than 0.90, and CFI with the cut value greater than 0.90 indicates a good fit ( Jöreskog, 1990 ). As Table 3 reported, the chi-square/df ratio (2.593) and the RMSEA (0.074) were also acceptable. The other three fit indices, GFI (0.938), NFI (0.944), and CFI (0.925) reached the acceptable fit thresholds.

Table 3 . The results of fit indices (model 1).

As Figures 2 , 3 (model 1) illustrated, the impacts of CT and LTER on LTI were positive. That means, CT significantly and positively contributed to the English university teachers' immunity (β = 0.76, t = 15.92). The significant role of university professor ER on teacher immunity (β = 0.82, t = 17.50) was also reported.

Figure 2 . Schematic representation of path coefficient values for the relationships between critical thinking, emotion regulation, and immunity (model 1).

Figure 3 . The T values for path coefficient significance (model 1).

Table 4 presented the chi-square/df ratio (2.773), the RMSEA (0.078), GFI (0.932), NFI (0.941), and CFI (0.955) related to the second model. Based on the Table 4 , all of the fit indices got the acceptable fit thresholds. The following figures ( Figures 3 , 4 ) depicted the detailed relationships among the variables.

Table 4 . The results of fit indices (model 2).

Figure 4 . Schematic representation of path coefficient values for the influential role of critical thinking and self-efficacy on teaching style' subscales (model 2).

Figures 4 , 5 portray the contributions of CT and LTER to LTI sub-components. As it was depicted, CT significantly and positively contributed to the LTI sub-components: Teaching self-efficacy (β = 0.85, t = 22.03), Resilience (β = 0.61, t = 12.90), Attitudes toward teaching (β = 0.81, t = 19.77), Openness to change (β = 0.54, t = 10.11), Classroom Affectivity (β = 0.70, t = 14.43), and Coping (β = 0.76, t = 18.77). By contrast, the contribution of CT on Burnout (β = −0.64, t = −13.46) was significantly negative.

Figure 5 . The T values for path coefficient significance (model 2).

Considering the contribution of LTER to LTI subcomponents, the results was as follows: Teaching self-efficacy (β = 0.87, t = 23.40), Resilience (β = 0.71, t = 14.27), Attitudes toward teaching (β = 0.83, t = 21.14), Openness to change (β = 0.53, t = 10.05), Classroom Affectivity (β = 0.90, t = 32.18), and Coping (β = 0.79, t = 15.28). In contrast, the contribution of LTER to Burnout (β = −0.57, t = −11.11) was significantly negative.

Table 5 displayed that CT correlated positively with LTII subcomponents as following: Teaching self-efficacy (r = 0.874, p < 0.0.01), Resilience (r = 0.717, p < 0.01), Attitudes toward teaching (r = 0.852, p < 0.01), Openness to change (r = 0.562, p < 0.01), Classroom Affectivity (r = 0.723, p < 0.01), and Coping (r = 0.814, p < 0.01). In contrast, the association between CT and Burnout was negative (r = −0.679, p < 0.01). Moreover, about the relationships between LTER and LTII subcomponents, the results were as follows: significantly positive with Teaching self-efficacy (r = 0.895, p < 0.01), Resilience (r = 0.773, p < 0.01), Attitudes toward teaching (r = 0.895, p < 0.01), Openness to change (r = 0.598, p < 0.01), Classroom Affectivity (r = 0.945, p < 0.01), and Coping (r = 0.845, p < 0.01); significantly negative with Burnout (r = −0.589, p < 0.01).

Table 5 . The results of the correlation coefficients among the english university teachers' critical thinking, emotion regulation, and immunity.

This study explored the possible role of CT and ER in English university teachers' immunity in higher education. The results evidenced that CT is a strong predictor of the English university teachers' immunity. Based on the findings, it may be argued that CT empowers the English university teachers to zoom on their teaching processes leading to higher immunity. In other words, aligned with the findings of the study, it may be argued that the participants who were critical in their profession, they might have gained a comprehensive understanding the planning, implementing, and evaluating of the teaching processes. This, in turn, might have empowered them to overcome the tensions and unpleasant situations in their job. Accordingly, the first null hypothesis stating that the English university teachers' CT does not predict their immunity was rejected. The contribution of higher order thinking skills to English teachers' immunity has been confirmed in the previous studies (e.g., Rahmati et al., 2019 ; Rahimpour et al., 2020 ; Atefi Boroujeni et al., 2021 ; Li, 2022 ). For instance, Rahimpour et al. (2020) found that reflective teaching and language teachers' immunity were closely related. The gained findings also corroborated with those of Rahmati et al. (2019) , emphasizing the cultivation of reflection in developing language teachers' immunity. Furthermore, the obtained results offered a deeper picture of how the English university teachers' CT may predict the different subskills of immunity. As the findings depicted, the participants' CT had significant positive correlation with their self-efficacy, resilience, attitude toward teaching, coping, openness to change, and classroom affectivity. In line with the findings, it may be argued that critical analysis of teaching experiences might have affected the English teachers' self-efficacy beliefs and led to positive attitudes toward their job. The results are consistent with those of Amirian et al. (2022) highlighting the strong correlation between higher order thinking skills and self-efficacy. The relationship between the English teachers' resilience and metacognitive skills was also confirmed by Mehrabian et al. (2022) . The association between self-efficacy, resilience, and burnout was also supported by the findings of Fathi and Saeedian (2020) . In the same line of inquiry, the link between CT and openness to change as one of the sub-components of personality trait was concluded by Acevedo and Chelsie (2022) , as well as Frenzel et al. (2021) . One possible reason for the gained findings is that the English teachers who were highly reflective in their job, they might have applied coping strategies result in the promotion of perseverance and productive immunization. Another justification for the findings may is that being equipped with CT might have enabled the English university teachers to show remarkable resilience in the face of tensions and difficulties.

Moreover, another line of discussion for the gained findings may be ascribed to view that the university teachers who were more critical thinkers might have managed reappraisal tends and coped with the challenges and difficulties of their jobs ( Pe et al., 2013 ; Sheppes et al., 2014 ). In other words, along with the gained results, it may be argued that CT might be a way to immunize the English university teachers productively in the face of tensions and complexities of the working conditions. In support of this argument, Wang et al. (2022) found the interrelationships of teacher higher order thinking skills, positive emotions, and resilience. Additionally, the findings receive support from the past literature disclosing the noticeable contributions of CT to the efficiency of English teachers (e.g., Sheybani and Miri, 2019 ; Sadeghi et al., 2020 ; Heydarnejad et al., 2021a ; Amirian et al., 2022 ). Furthermore, a part of the findings documented that the relationships between the reflective teaching and burnout were significantly negative. That is, it may be argued that that the more the English teachers might evaluate their teaching processes, the less chronic stress, emotional exhaustion, feeling of ineffectiveness, and lack of accomplishment they might experience. These findings are consistent with those of the previous studies (e.g., Khodabakhshzadeh et al., 2017 ; Li et al., 2021 ), indicating a negative relationship between CT and teacher burnout.

Additionally, the results documented that ER was highly correlated with the English university teachers' immunity. Thus, the second null hypothesis stating that the English university teachers' ER does not predict immunity was rejected. In other words, the findings documented that ER had positive and significant contributions to self-efficacy, resilience, attitude toward teaching, coping, openness to change, and classroom affectivity (the sub-scales of teacher immunity). Additionally, the results demonstrated that the regulation of the English university teachers' emotions at the workplace decreased the likeliness of burnout. Along with Wang et al. (2022) , it can be argued that psychological wellbeing might lead to a productive configuration of immunity among the English university teachers. In a same vein, Hiver (2017) argued that the emotional wellbeing of English teachers would guarantee the development of productive immunity. The findings of the study are in line with those of Burić et al. (2020) , reporting that teachers' emotions performed as a filter governing the way efficacy information is interpreted. Additionally, the results are congruent with the findings of Donker et al. (2020) . They found that strong ER strategies played a significant role in decreasing teachers' emotional exhaustion and burn out. Furthermore, the gained findings lend support to those of Shen (2022) , disclosing the mediator role of teacher ER in managing teachers' burnout, stress, and anxiety among English teachers.

One possible explanation for the findings may be ascribed to the view that the emotion-regulatory strategies might endow a balance in the professional lives of the English university teachers, leading to more enthusiasm and engagement in teaching procedures. Additionally, the findings may be justified from this perspective that ER might contribute to the latency, rise time, magnitude, duration, and offset of emotional responses and immunize university teachers productively. The findings of the current study can be strongly supported by the underpinning theories of CT, ER, as well as immunity. CT stipulated that higher order thinking skills offer stages of conceptualization, analysis, synthesize, reflection, and evaluation ( Dewey, 1933 ; Paul, 1988 ). Productive immunity stemmed in self-organization theory is a defensive mechanism act against different experienced problems during the professional life ( Larsen-Freeman, 2012 ; Hiver, 2015 , 2017 ). This rational can be put forward that the strategies involved in higher order thinking skill support self-awareness and self-organization lead to productive immunity. Moreover, the model of teacher ER suggests skillful teachers adapt efficient strategies in managing their emotions ( Heydarnejad et al., 2021c ). Emotional balance, which is the results of self-evaluation and self-organization fosters productive immunity. In other words, cultivating emotional regulation keeps university teachers' immune system productive. Reciprocally, optimizing immune competence among university teachers fosters efficient instruction ( Hiver and Dörnyei, 2017 ).

In addition, it can be argued that CT skills and ER might help the English university teachers to achieve a balance in their personal and professional lives. That is, this rationale can be put forward that thinking and evaluation allow university teachers to delve into their behaviors and activities, giving them a strong sense of self-awareness, self-regulation, self-monitoring, and self-assessment in the face of emotional experiences in their personal and professional demands. Furthermore, it can be implied that the more teachers practice reflective teaching, the better they can manage and modify their emotional demands. This finding is congruent with prior studies though limited and quite rare in the EFL context, which focus on the relationship between reflective teaching and teacher emotions ( Zembylas, 2014 ; Bleakley et al., 2020 ; Gkonou et al., 2020 ; Song, 2021 ).

As noted above, the present study explored the role of the English teachers' CT and ER in immunity. The findings revealed that the English teachers' CT and ER contributed significantly to immunity. That is, the English university teachers armed with CT skills and ER strategies might manipulate their practices and align them with the emotional display rules of their profession. This implied that the English university teachers were immunized with CT and ER to handle job obligations.

The implications drawn from the results of the current study may be beneficial for teacher-educators to develop more productive pre-service and in-service programs by incorporating CT and ER in their syllabi. Additionally, teacher preparation programs should consider more practical strategies to enhance CT skills, ER strategies, and higher order thinking skills for pre-service teachers. Considering the centrality of university teachers' affective status in how they deal with reform initiatives, it is hoped that the outcomes of this research help university teachers take practical measures to monitor and manage their emotional states in English education in Iran and in the broader international context. Besides, policymakers are invited to consider these results in order to have a comprehensive picture of factors that contribute to the success and failure of teachers and programs. Since language teacher immunity is relatively a new construct, educators, teachers, and policymakers need to become aware of its central role in the field. Therefore, studies like the present investigation provide useful insights for those involved in the language teaching profession.

Some limitations imposed on the present study that can be considered as avenues for further research. First, as the participants were chosen through a convenience sampling method, more studies should be conducted in other higher education contexts in the country to increase the generalizability of the obtained findings. Second, as a quantitative method was applied in this study, future studies can use mixed-methods designs to inspect the association between CT, ER, and immunity to present a comprehensive picture of the topic. Third, because the present study was cross-sectional, future longitudinal studies are needed to inspect the long-term contributions of CT and ER to university teachers' immunity. Fourth, because in the present study, demographic variables such as teachers' cultural and socioeconomic background, major, mastery experience, pedagogical training, and other possible explaining variables were not explored. Thus, researchers are recommended to consider university teachers' demographic variables in similar research studies in the future. Fifth, studies conducted within the realm of educational psychology indicated that the performance of the participants with different L1 backgrounds might differ considerably from culture to culture and that the methodological approaches to measure this issue in specific contexts might not be comparable. Therefore, the relationships between ER, CT, and immunity can be the target of future research in other contexts and cultures. Sixth, it is recommended to undertake further research to explore the possible contributions of university teachers' CT tendencies, ER, and immunity to their learners' academic achievement. As further suggestion, examining the relationships between ER, CT, and immunity with other teacher attributed constructs, such as autonomy, reflective teaching, self-regulation, L2 grit, and work engagement, are recommended. Last but not least, as the present study focused on the role of CT and ER in university teachers' immunity, interested researchers can explore the correlation between teachers' immunity and their job motivation, job satisfaction, and job performance.

Data availability statement

The original contributions presented in the study are included in the article/supplementary material, further inquiries can be directed to the corresponding author/s.

Author contributions

All authors listed have made a substantial, direct, and intellectual contribution to the work and approved it for publication.

This paper was supported by the Construction of Critical Reading, a provincial first-class offline undergraduate course, by Fujian Provincial Department of Education in 2021 (Code No. 323).

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

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Keywords: higher education, EFL University professors, critical thinking, emotion regulation, language teacher immunity, path analysis

Citation: Li M, Heydarnejad T, Azizi Z and Rezaei Gashti Z (2022) Modeling the role of emotion regulation and critical thinking in immunity in higher education. Front. Psychol. 13:1005071. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.1005071

Received: 27 July 2022; Accepted: 02 September 2022; Published: 29 September 2022.

Reviewed by:

Copyright © 2022 Li, Heydarnejad, Azizi and Rezaei Gashti. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) . The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

*Correspondence: Zeynab Rezaei Gashti, zeynabrg2010@gmail.com

† ORCID: Zeinab Azizi orcid.org/0000-0002-7492-1932

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The Role of Critical Thinking in STEAM

As an educator, you must empower your students to think critically and strategically to fuel their interest in STEA M. By nurturing these skills in our students, we can ensure they possess the necessary problem-solving traits for success across all disciplines — from science and math to engineering to arts and technology. Understanding the importance of critical thinking also gives us an appreciation for how it can help further scientific discoveries by exploring beyond Earth’s atmosphere into outer space.

Let’s take a closer look at how developing these important skills can aid those engaging with STEAM education initiatives or looking toward future perspectives on intergalactic discovery.

What is critical thinking, and why is it important in STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics)?

Critical thinking is a process of analyzing, evaluating, and interpreting information in a logical and systematic way. This skill allows individuals to make informed decisions based on evidence and identify flaws or biases in their thinking. 

In the STEAM fields, the ability to think critically is crucial. It not only helps individuals to analyze data and findings but also inspires creativity and innovation. Teaching critical thinking skills from an early age encourages problem-solving and independent thinking. By fostering these skills in the classroom, students will gain a deep understanding of the concepts in STEAM fields and be better equipped to tackle real-world problems.  Read More: What is STEAM Education and Why is it Important?

Critical Thinking Fosters Innovation in Space and Space-Adjacent Industries

As the modern world continues to evolve at an unprecedented pace, so must our approach to innovation. Nowhere is this more evident than in the space and space-adjacent industries, where new technologies and bold ideas are constantly emerging. Whether designing new spacecraft or developing cutting-edge satellite technology, the ability to think critically is the key to staying ahead of the competition in the ever-expanding frontier of space exploration.

Educators play a crucial role in encouraging students to think critically about complex concepts, and challenging them to approach problems from multiple perspectives can foster innovation in space science and technology. By teaching critical thinking skills, educators can equip their students with the tools they need to be successful members of the next generation of the STEAM workforce. 

Five Strategies Educators Can Use to Encourage Students’ Critical Thinking Skills in the Classroom

Teaching critical thinking skills is an essential aspect of providing a well-rounded education.

To encourage critical thinking among young students, educators can utilize various strategies, including:

• Encouraging questions
• Promoting independent learning
• Utilizing real-life scenarios
• Incorporating collaborative learning activities
• Providing opportunities for creative problem-solving. 

Each of these strategies involves engaging students in meaningful conversations, allowing them to explore ideas independently, and exposing them to practical situations that require critical thinking. By employing these strategies, educators can help young learners develop essential skills that will prepare them for academic and personal success in the future.

Examples of a Few Ways Professionals Use Their Skills in Space Exploration

Space exploration is an exciting and complex field that requires professionals to think critically daily. 

This is essential to success in this industry, from designing and launching spacecraft to analyzing data collected from faraway planets and moons. Whether deciding on the most efficient route for a spacecraft, troubleshooting a technical glitch, or interpreting data from a remote rover, space exploration requires professionals to use their sharp analytical abilities to make evidence-based decisions. 

This is why teaching critical thinking skills is so important in this field. By exploring real-world examples of how professionals use their critical thinking skills in space exploration, students can better understand the important role these skills play in unraveling the mysteries of the universe.

What are the benefits of helping students develop critical thinking skills?

Teaching critical thinking skills sets students up for lifelong success. By developing critical thinking skills, students can learn to analyze information objectively, identify assumptions, and improve problem-solving abilities, improving their overall academic performance. They also gain the ability to question, evaluate, and make informed decisions that can help students excel in all facets of life beyond the classroom, such as in their personal and professional lives. Additionally, critical thinking skills can help them navigate complex situations and make better decisions, leading to improved communication and the ability to consider multiple perspectives. 

By dedicating time and effort to teaching critical thinking skills, educators can help students become proactive learners who are more confident when making decisions and contributing to discussions on various topics. Read More: Five Benefits of Teaching STEAM

Get Resources to Help Students from Space Foundation’s Center for Innovation and Education

Careers in the space and space-adjacent industries are more available than ever before. At Space Foundation’s Center for Innovation and Education , we are dedicated to providing the next generation of space professionals with the tools they need to be successful in the industry. If you’re an educator looking for resources to expand your student’s interests in STEAM and teach critical thinking skills, then we encourage you to take a look at our available programs. Center for Innovation and Education offers STEAM lesson plans , e-learning tools , professional development opportunities , field trips , scholarships , education awards , and more. 

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The Role of Critical Thinking in Science Education

This review aims to respond various questions regarding the role of Critical Thinking in Science Education from aspects concerning the importance or relevance of critical thinking in science education, the situation in the classroom and curriculum, and the conception of critical thinking and fostering in science education. This review is specially addressed to educational contexts (teachers) where Critical thinking has had a very few presence in Science Education, particularly in the classroom. The findings and discussion of this review explain the relevance and strong relationship between Critical thinking and science education. Nevertheless, problems were found when implementing critical thinking in the science classroom. One of these problems related to the lack of clarity for applying Critical thinking classroom techniques in science subjects. Though, its nominal (not practical) presence and recognition in science curricula, as well as in curricula in general, is not a problem. There are practical Critical thinking-related strategies that can be applied in science classrooms to improve science education results and critical thinking dispositions on students, one of these is ‘questioning’, regarded among the most powerful tools.

Keywords : Critical Thinking, Questioning, Critical questioning, Science, Science Education.

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Modeling the role of emotion regulation and critical thinking in immunity in higher education

1 School of Overseas Education (School of Foreign Languages), Sanming University, Sanming, China

Tahereh Heydarnejad

2 Department of English Language, Faculty of Literature and Humanities, University of Gonabad, Gonabad, Iran

Zeinab Azizi

3 Department of Teaching English and Linguistics, Faculty of Literature and Humanities, Ayatollah Borujerdi University, Borujerd, Iran

Zeynab Rezaei Gashti

4 Department of Literature and Foreign Languages, University of Karaj, Karaj, Iran

Associated Data

The original contributions presented in the study are included in the article/supplementary material, further inquiries can be directed to the corresponding author/s.

It is deemed that the effectiveness of teachers is highly entangled with psycho-emotional constructs, such as critical thinking (CT), emotion regulation (ER), and immunity. Despite the potential roles of CR, ER, and immunity, their possible relationships have remained unexplored in the higher education context of Iran. To fill in this lacuna, this study explored the potential role of CT and ER in university teachers' immunity in the Iranian higher education context. For this purpose, a total of 293 English university teachers were selected using a convenience sampling method. They were invited to fill out the Watson–Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal-Form, Language Teacher Emotion Regulation Inventory, and Language Teacher Immunity Instrument. The findings of path analysis indicated that the university teachers with higher CT were more productively immunized. Moreover, the results revealed that ER could predict the university teachers' immunity. The findings of the study lead to this implication that higher order thinking skills, emotion regulatory strategies, and immune enhancement should be incorporated into educational programs of higher education.

Introduction

Clarifying the concept of effective teaching in both schools and higher education and conceptualizing the clear model of the effective teacher is not an easy task and is inherently contentious (Ericksen, 1984 ; Feldman, 1986 ; Brown and Atkin, 1988 ), since the term effective can be interpreted differently by different people and in a different context. Despite its long history, there is no agreed-upon definition for it. For instance, Hopkins et al. ( 1998 ) postulated three broad dimensions of effective teaching. The first dimension is teaching effects, a concept that reflects both teaching skills and teaching behaviors. The second relates to the acquisition of effective teaching models a teacher establishes in his/her classroom. The third dimension embraces teacher artistry, which highlights the teachers' responsibility for creating the conditions for effective learning. From Acheson and Gall's perspectives (Acheson and Gall, 2003 ), effective teaching involves the ability to provide instruction that creates an instructional climate that causes students to develop positive attitudes toward school and self (engaged and efficacious learners), helps students to develop the knowledge, skills, and understandings intended by curriculum objectives, and responds to initiatives for curriculum change so that the new curriculum's intents are fully realized. Burroughs et al. ( 2019 ) defined teacher effectiveness in terms of teacher experience, teacher professional knowledge, and teacher behaviors (p.8). Likewise, Elliott ( 2010 ) stipulated that teacher effectiveness is a combination of personality and ability, wherein the former is being regarded as a key factor (p.14).

Considering the pivotal role of effective teaching, Elliott ( 2010 ) identifies two subtopics related to teaching effectiveness: “effective teacher characteristics may be summarized as measuring who I am or the essence of teaching, whereas teacher effectiveness may be summarized as what I do or the process/product of teaching” (p. 1). From a social cognitive perspective, effective teachers are self-regulated individuals who take appropriate actions leading to the successful accomplishment of their professional tasks (Randi, 2004 ). In Feldman's perspective (Feldman, 1986 ), enthusiasm, positive self-regard, energy, and positive regard for others are the significant qualities of an effective teacher. In other words, the skills needed for effective teaching involve more than just expertise in an academic field. Effective teaching occurs best when teachers are empowered with desirable behavior and personality traits. Among several qualities and personality traits that are defined as the attributes of an effective teacher, ER, critical thinking (CT), and immunity, as well as their reciprocal relationships have remained uncharted territory in educational research, particularly in higher education. In addition, various challenges of the 21st century require more reflections on the contributing role of higher order thinking skills and self-aid constructs, fostering effective teaching.

Teaching bound with emotional experiences and teachers believe that regulating their emotions at the workplace leads to effective teaching (Sutton et al., 2009 ). Teacher ER refers to their abilities to manage and modify emotional experiences and expressions (Burić et al., 2017 ). ER empowers teachers to change the intensity and duration of their emotional experiences at the workplace (Chang and Taxer, 2020 ; Frenzel et al., 2021 ; Heydarnejad et al., 2021c ), which have significant implications for manifesting teachers' effectiveness. Despite its relevance, and perhaps because of its complexity, teachers' ER, particularly English teachers' ER, is still in its infancy, and awaits further research (Burić et al., 2017 ; Alipour et al., 2021 ; Heydarnejad et al., 2021c ). More specifically, Frenzel et al. ( 2015 ) asserted that teachers' emotions are different depending on different subjects and groups of students. Hence, each context is worth exploring as it may show different findings in comparison with other contexts.

As Chen and Cheng ( 2021 ) stipulated, handling emotionality and rationality as inevitable parts of teaching contribute effective teaching. Thereby, regarding the indisputable relevance of emotions and cognition at the workplace for teachers' effectiveness, it is important that teachers are armed with effective strategies and higher order thinking skills. CT as higher order thinking skills refers to analyzing and evaluating of the information through reflection and reasoning (Dewey, 1933 ; Paul, 1988 ). Through the lenz of CT, teachers think critically about their teaching strategies and look for evidence of effective teaching. It was evidenced that CT is associated with teachers' resilience (Ayoobiyan and Rashidi, 2021 ), self-regulation (Heydarnejad et al., 2021a ), teaching style in higher education (Amirian et al., 2022 ), and professional identity (Sheybani and Miri, 2019 ). In addition, CT not only benefits individual university teachers but also the society as a whole.

The new born notion of language teacher immunity works as a defensive mechanism against different constraints in the realm of language teaching (Hiver and Dörnyei, 2017 ; Rahmati et al., 2019 ). Language teacher immunity can act as a shield to protect university teachers against high-intensity chaos and complexities of educational settings. What emerges from the review of the scare literature on language teacher immunity, it is positively correlated with teacher-related positive constructs (e.g., Hiver, 2017 ; Haseli Songhori et al., 2018 ; Rahimpour et al., 2020 ; Li, 2022 ). Yet, there is a dearth of literature about language teacher immunity, especially in higher education which echoes for more profound studies to investigate different aspects of language teacher immunity. To the best knowledge of the researcher, to date, no study has inspected these theoretically associated constructs within a single framework to disclose how they are linked with one another and consequently, how they affect teachers' job effectiveness. Therefore, more research is needed to fill this gap.

Literature review

Emotion regulation.

The term emotion is derived from the Latin word “emovere”, which means to stimulate (Hargreaves, 1998 ). It means that the experienced emotions give direction to individuals' actions. To capture the concept of emotion, various definitions were posed based on different theoretical conceptualizations generated from physiology, philosophy, history, sociology, anthropology, and psychology (Hargreaves, 1998 ; Oatley, 2000 ; Frenzel, 2014 ; Burić et al., 2020 ; Uzuntiryaki-Kondakci et al., 2022 ). These conceptualizations share a common point in sense that ER is a complex, multi-component construct with different dimensions, namely, subjective, cognitive, motivational, expressive, and physiological (Lazarus, 2001 ; Scherer, 2009 ). Moreover, two outlooks can be defined for teachers' emotions: considering emotions as short-lived and relatively intense episodes or explaining them in a more trait-like manner or as relatively stable in time (Rosenberg, 1998 ). From a trait-like perspective, the average frequency of experienced emotions in teachers' professional lives is considered (Wood et al., 2008 ). In the current research, a trait-like manner is used to inspect university teachers' ER at their workplace.

Emotions are socially constructed phenomena that are uncovered in social interactions with others (Chahkandi et al., 2016 ). In other words, emotions derive their shape and meaning from the ideas and practices in the larger socio-cultural context (Boiger and Mesquita, 2012 ; Luque-Reca et al., 2022 ). The cultural context also plays a critical role in several aspects of individuals' emotional experiences. The ways of expressing and managing emotions are mostly consistent with the values, goals, and concerns in each cultural model. Interdependent cultures expect individuals to define themselves more in relation to others, prioritize harmony and interconnection, and try to adjust to each other's expectations (Chahkandi et al., 2016 ). Independent cultures, on the contrary, emphasize preserving individuals' autonomy through underlying individuals' uniqueness and self-esteem (Boiger and Mesquita, 2012 ; Ford and Mauss, 2015 ).

Additionally, cultures are not similar in the appraisals of the emotion-antecedent events (De Leersnyder et al., 2013 ). For instance, offensive situations are considered as threats to individual's autonomy and self-worth in North American contexts and asking individuals to cultivate high self-regard, assertiveness, and aggression. By contrast, offensive situations in Japanese contexts were interpreted as threats to social relationships and required individuals' understanding of the other persons' motives to be resolved (Chahkandi et al., 2016 ). Cultures also influence emotion display rules and individuals' motivation to exercise self-regulation (Ford and Mauss, 2015 ). That is, collectivist cultures (e.g., Asian American and Japanese contexts) tend to use ER more frequently and exert greater levels of emotion suppression than European American people (Gross et al., 2006 ). More specifically, cultures differ in the adaptation of ER strategies (Ford and Mauss, 2015 ). Cultures also are not similar in dealing with status and power relationships. Thus, they may expect the expression of emotions that maintain status and power and avoid emotions that threaten this differential (Matsumoto, 2006 ).

Teachers, in particular language teachers, experience various ups and downs at the workplace, which can trigger pleasant and unpleasant emotions. As Hargreaves ( 1998 ) put it, “emotions are at the heart of teaching” (p. 835). Teachers' emotional experiences affect their relationships with others (Richards, 2022 ), identity (Jones and Kessler, 2020 ), self-efficacy (Chen, 2018 ; Burić et al., 2020 ), pedagogical adoptions (Chen, 2020 ), work engagement (Burić and Macuka, 2017 ), as well as self-regulation, and teaching style in higher education (Heydarnejad et al., 2021a ). Appraisal and attribution theories (Frenzel, 2014 ; Jacob et al., 2017 ; Frenzel et al., 2021 ) are the models used for explaining teachers' emotions. Appraisal theory is based on the indirect association between emotion and situation (Moors et al., 2013 ) and includes the following sub-sections: goal consistency, goal conduciveness, coping potential, goal attainment/impediment responsibility, and goal significance (Frenzel, 2014 ). Attribution is defined as a specific evaluation of the perceived causes of events (Jacob et al., 2017 ).

ER involves physiological, behavioral, and cognitive processes that each person utilizes to monitor, evaluate, and modulate their emotional experiences (Gross, 1998 ; Gross and John, 2003 ; Gross and Thompson, 2007 ). That is, ER acts as a campus and gives direction to individuals' emotions (Gross, 1998 , 1999 ). The employed strategies in ER helps teachers to manage both pleasant and unpleasant emotions (Taxer and Gross, 2018 ). The activation of a regulatory goal, the engagement of regulatory processes, and the modulation of the emotion trajectory are the three core features of many diverse types of ER (Gross and Barrett, 2011 ). It is worth highlighting that ER activities may also happen explicitly or implicitly (Gross, 2014 ). In previous studies, explicit and implicit processes in ER are considered separately (Masters, 1991 ). However, it is recommended to consider ER processes as a continuum ranging from explicit, conscious, and controlled regulation to implicit, unconscious, effortless, and automatic regulation (Gyurak et al., 2011 ).

Theoretically, ER is supported by the process-oriented model of ER (Gross, 1998 ). The process-oriented model of ER is comprised of five temporal points (i.e., situation selection, situation modification, attention deployment, cognitive change, and response modulation). Recently, a model for the language teacher ER was proposed based on extensive review of the existing literature, the theoretical conceptualizations on ER in general, and teacher ER in particular (Heydarnejad et al., 2021c ). This model involves six dimensions, i.e., situation selection, situation modification, attention deployment, reappraisal, suppression, and seeking social support. The three dimensions of situation selection, situation modification, and attention deployment were rooted in Gross's process-oriented model of ER (Gross, 1998 ). Reappraisal and suppression were based on Gross and John's conceptualization (Gross and John, 2003 ), and seeking social support as the last dimension was inspired by Jennings and Greenberg ( 2009 ) as well as Taxer and Gross ( 2018 ).

Research on university professor ER seems to be scarce. However, the conducted previous studies on teacher ER highlighted teacher-related variables, which affect or are affected by ER. As an example, Chang ( 2020 ) examined the relationship between teachers' beliefs about emotional display rules in the class, the attitudes toward ER strategies, and feelings of burnout. Based on the data analysis, display rules influenced expressive suppression and burnout. Moreover, the effect of cognitive reappraisals on teacher burnout was significantly negative. Results of this study emphasize that teacher education should be designed to help teachers to evaluate their beliefs about display rules and to involve in cognitive reappraisal. In another study, Morris and King ( 2018 ) investigated the role of emotion regulatory strategies in manipulating frustration among university language professors. Their findings suggested that university language professors employed ER strategies that increased their levels of confidence and helped overcome the stressors. The influence of ER strategies in return for classroom misbehavior in response to classroom misbehavior was explored by Chang and Taxer ( 2020 ). They found out that teachers who usually reappraise in the face of their learners' misbehavior are less probable to experience unpleasant emotions. Their findings show how teachers could regulate their negative emotions in the face of student misbehavior. By the same token, Fathi et al. ( 2021 ) explored the association between teacher reflection, self-efficacy, burnout, and ER among Iranian English teachers. The results of the structural model confirmed that ER would mediate the influences of teacher reflection and teacher self-efficacy on teachers' burnout among English teachers. In their conclusion, they offer some practical measures for teachers to monitor their emotional states.

Critical thinking

CT was introduced by Socrates about 2 centuries ago, who maintained that assuming, questioning, reasoning, analyzing, and evaluating the inferences of individuals' activities are vital to justify their declarations (Fisher, 2001 ). Although CT has been applied in various territories (Philosophy, cognitive psychology, and education research), no unified definition was suggested for it (Thomas and Smoot, 1994 ; Solon, 2003 ). According to Halonen ( 1995 ), CT is mystified concept. Similarly, Fasko ( 2003 ) asserted that “there is no consensus on a definition of critical thinking” (p.8). From Dewey' perspective (Dewey, 1933 ), CT is active and regular evaluation of assumptions and suppositions to reach convenient inferences. Based on Paul ( 1988 ), CT is a higher order thinking skill, which involves analysis, syntheses, and evaluation. Furthermore, Halpern ( 2003 ) defined CT as the application of mental processes and cognitive skills, which foster the probability of desired behaviors.

From another viewpoint, Ennis ( 1996 ) defined CT as the intellectually disciplined process of actively and skillfully conceptualizing, synthesizing, and evaluating information generated by observation and reflection. Based on Thomas and Lok ( 2015 ), CT is formulated by knowledge, skills, and disposition. Moreover, Choy and Cheah ( 2009 ) defined teacher cognition through the lens of CT and concluded that these two constructs are integrated. More specifically, no concrete learning benchmarks are illustrated for CT progress (Stapleton, 2011 ). In spite of various proposed definitions and postulations, it is widely accepted that CT is a vital part of any successful education (Zhang et al., 2020 ; Heydarnejad et al., 2021a ; Azizi et al., 2022 ).

Dewey ( 1933 ) was the first one who discussed about the importance of higher order thinking skills in education. He highlighted that reflective and CT skills must substitute the traditional ways of teaching, which concentrate on memorization and surface learning. As Davidson and Dunham ( 1997 ) argued, CT skills are teachable; thus, teachers a play significant role in teaching CT and developing critical minds (Bourdillon and Storey, 2002 ; Mason, 2008 ). In so doing, the teachers should learn how to think critically. About the crucial role of CT and its enhancement, Zhang et al. ( 2020 ) have conducted a study among English university teachers to gauge their attitudes toward CT and its applications in their teaching. As their findings revealed, English university teachers confirmed that CT should be an integral part of classroom teaching. In addition, it was also concluded in another recent study that CT and self-regulation give directions to teachers' preferred teaching styles (Heydarnejad et al., 2021b ; Parveen et al., 2022 ).

Furthermore, it was approved that CT influenced teachers' professional identity (Sheybani and Miri, 2019 ). In this regard, Jenkins ( 1998 ) asserted that CT skills broaden teacher competencies and help them to build greater autonomy at work. The contributions of teachers' metacognitive skills, academic self-efficacy, and their CT skills is supported by Kozikoglu and Babacan's findings (Kozikoglu and Babacan, 2019 ). They highlighted the need for more research to understand how higher order thinking skills can be practiced among teachers. Taken a similar path, Sadeghi et al. ( 2020 ) sought to inspect qualitatively the constructs of CT from viewpoints of the English teachers and learners. Based on data analysis, they suggested some strategies for reinforcing CT ability such as: Discussion, group working, Interpretation, Open-mindedness, self-awareness, to name a few. In this study, pedagogical implications for English teachers were suggested to practice CT skills among their learners. They also invited curriculum developers and syllabus designers to consider CT activities in teaching materials and support in-service classes for teachers. Although the role of teachers' CT in their progress at work and implementing CT in their students is approved by different empirical studies, some teachers still used rote learning. It is of great importance to engage learners at schools as well as universities to ponder on challenging questions and make inferences (Sadeghi et al., 2020 ; Heydarnejad et al., 2021b ; Rezai et al., 2022 ). The nature of CT, teachers' lack of knowledge and experience, as well as their inabilities in fostering CT skills may be among the possible reasons for not applying CT in the major parts of teaching (Buskist and Irons, 2008 ).

Teacher immunity

Stemmed from the Latin word “immunis”, teachers' immunity is a recently introduced concept to language teaching discipline (Hiver and Dörnyei, 2017 ). Biologically, immunity is defined as a protective system that activates naturally occurring antibodies and plays down infection through biochemical reactions (Janeway et al., 2005 ). It works as a defensive system that fights against pernicious, undesirable, or detrimental effects of the external environment (Hiver, 2015 ). Similarly, teacher immunity refers to a defensive and adaptive mechanism, which works against various conflicts and challenges at the workplace (Hiver, 2015 , 2017 ). As Hiver and Dörnyei ( 2017 ) stipulated, teacher immunity is an amalgamation of motivation to teach, psychological wellbeing, and openness to change on one end and teaching pressures, burnout, and attrition on the other end of the spectrum.

The formation of teacher immunity is based on self-organization theory that is adapted from complexity theory (Larsen-Freeman, 2012 ; Sampson, 2022 ). Self-organization refers to a process through which the complete function of a dynamic system alters through the interaction of different parts of that system (Larsen-Freeman, 2012 ; Gooran et al., 2022 ) and includes four developmental stages: triggering, coupling, realignment, and stabilization (Rahmati et al., 2019 ). Similar to its origin in biology, teacher immunity is of two kinds: productive immunity and maladaptive immunity (Hiver and Dörnyei, 2017 ; Sutarto et al., 2022 ). As a protective armor, the former protects teachers against stress, failure, burnout, and the like. In contrast, the latter negatively affects the teaching processes to make them fossilized (Hiver and Dörnyei, 2017 ). Different factors may trigger maladaptive immunity, such as avoidance-oriented behaviors (Hiver and Dörnyei, 2017 ) or resistance to change or innovation (Bullough and Hall-Kenyon, 2012 ; Xu et al., 2022 ). Productive immunity influences teachers' thinking style, acting in social contexts, as well as professional identity (Hiver, 2017 ; Hiver and Dörnyei, 2017 ). More precisely, language teacher immunity can be classified as productive immunity, maladaptive immunity, the state of immunocompromised, and partial immunity. Productive immunity refers to a vigorous form of teacher immunity, while maladaptive immunity is the counterproductive form of teacher immunity. Immunocompromised means having not developed any coherent form of teacher immunity, and partially immunized refers to halfway features of teacher immunity.

What emerges from the review of the sparse literature on teacher immunity, this road is untrodden and calls for further studies to shed light on its associations with other teacher-related constructs. After the introduction of language teacher immunity by Hiver ( 2015 , 2017 ) and (Haseli Songhori et al., 2018 ), the dominant type of employed immunity strategy was investigated among Iranian English teachers by Haseli Songhori et al. ( 2018 ). They found out maladaptive immunity was the predominant type of immunity among Iranian English teachers. Furthermore, they concluded that Iranian English teachers followed triggering, coupling, realignment, and stabilization, in forming their immunity. In the same vein, Rahimpour et al. ( 2020 ) applied a path-analysis approach and postulated a model on the factors predicting language teacher immunity. Based on their findings, language teacher immunity is indirectly influenced by agreeableness, extroversion, and emotionality through job insecurity and reflective teaching. They also concluded that the influence of job insecurity on reflective teaching and language teacher immunity was significantly negative.

Along the same path, the relationship between autonomy, emotions, engagement, and immunity of experienced in-service teachers was investigated by Azari Noughabi et al. ( 2020 ). As the results of multiple regression suggested, language teacher immunity could be significantly predicted by teachers' autonomy, emotions, and engagement. Among the three variables under study, teacher autonomy was found to be the strongest predictor of experienced EFL teachers' immunity. The implications of this study ask for providing EFL teachers with opportunities to exercise autonomy and regulate emotions through teacher education courses, which in turn foster productive immunity. Moreover, the contributions of L2 grit and work engagement to EFL teachers' immunity examined (Azari Noughabi et al., 2022 ). Their findings reflected those higher levels of work engagement and L2 grit immune EFL teachers in the face of different challenges during their professional lives. In a recent study in China, Li ( 2022 ) concluded that the relationship between EFL teachers' immunity, mindfulness, and work engagement was significantly positive. This study also necessitates the use of training courses for language teachers to enhance EFL teachers' immunity development, mindfulness, and engagement.

Objectives of the present study

In spite of its relevance, and perhaps because of its complexity, teachers' ER and immunity, in particular English university teachers' ER and immunity has remained an uncharted territory that awaits further research (Burić et al., 2017 ; Hiver and Dörnyei, 2017 ; Rahimpour et al., 2020 ; Alipour et al., 2021 ; Heydarnejad et al., 2021c ). More importantly, Frenzel et al. ( 2015 ) asserted that teachers' emotions are different depending on different subjects and groups of students. Hence, each context is worth exploring as it may show different findings in comparison with other contexts. Most of the existing studies on teachers' ER has been conducted within a theoretical framework of stress and coping (Lewis and Haviland, 1993 ) or in the context of emotional labor (e.g., Hargreaves, 1998 , Isenbarger and Zembylas, 2006 ; Azari Noughabi et al., 2020 , 2022 ). Regarding teacher immunity, few empirical studies (Hiver, 2015 , 2017 ; Haseli Songhori et al., 2018 ; Rahimpour et al., 2020 ) and only one theoretical study (Hiver and Dörnyei, 2017 ) have been conducted among language teachers. Thereby, the realm of higher education still remained untouched and calls for more identical studies that put forward a clear picture of university professor immunity.

Furthermore, it is generally accepted that CT has numerous benefits for teachers, but little is known about how it interacts with two other essential constructs, i.e., language teacher ER and immunity, especially in higher education. Leafing through the existing literature reflects that the possible relationship between ER, CT, and immunity has not been brought to the foreground of research foci (Gross and Thompson, 2007 ; Burić et al., 2017 ; Rahimpour et al., 2020 ; Sadeghi et al., 2020 ; Li, 2022 ), particularly in higher education (Fathi and Derakhshan, 2019 ; Chang, 2020 ; Chang and Taxer, 2020 ; Heydarnejad et al., 2021a ; Amirian et al., 2022 ). To this end, the present study sought to propose a model to display the contribution of CT as well as ER to immunity in higher education (see Figure 1 ). Considering the abovementioned objectives, the current investigation put forward to answer the following research questions:

Theoretical structural equation model.

• RQ1: To what extend does English university teachers' critical thinking predict their immunity?
• RQ2: To what extend does English university teachers' emotion regulation predict their immunity?

In line with the above research questions, the following null hypotheses were formulated:

• H01. English university teachers' CT does not predict their immunity.
• H02. English university' teachers' emotion regulation does not predict their immunity.

Theoretical model

The present study is built on the assumption that university teachers' immunity is affected by CT and ER. That is, it is hypothesized that university teachers' immunity is shaped with their CT and ER.

Method of the study

Research design.

The researchers employed a correlational design for the present study. As noted by Riazi ( 2016 ), a correlational design is used to explore the correlations between some variables without controlling or manipulating any of them. Overall, the researchers used a correlational design to uncover the role of CT and ER in university teachers' immunity in the Iranian higher education context.

Setting and participants

The present study was run at state-run universities in Iran. They are under the direct supervision of Ministry of Science, Research and Technology. The primary mission is to guarantee free education and physical training for everyone at all levels, and the facilitation and expansion of higher education. Using a convenience sampling method, a total of 293 English university teachers were selected from 25 run-state universities. According to Riazi ( 2016 ), the convenience sampling method is a non-probability sampling method adopted by researchers to gather data from a conveniently available pool of participants. They included both men ( n = 171) and women ( n = 122) aged from 31 to 52. They had different majors, including English Teaching ( n = 110), English Literature ( n = 74), English Translation ( n = 61), and Linguistics ( n = 48). Due to logistical limitations, the participants' years of teaching and teaching location were not controlled. Of particular note is that the participants declared their consent to participate in the study orally. The researchers ensured that their responses would be kept confidential and they would be kept informed about the final results.

Instruments

Watson–glaser critical thinking appraisal-form.

The Watson – Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal Form (1980) was the applied instrument to explore CT among the participants. This instrument was generated from Watson and Glaser ( 1980 ) and includes the following sections: inference, recognizing of assumptions, making deduction, interpretation, and evaluation. In a study conducted by Watson and Glaser ( 2002 ), the scale presented acceptable validity and reliability. In the present study, Cronbach Alpha was 0.944, which indicated acceptable reliability.

The language teacher emotion regulation inventory

The Language Teacher Emotion Regulation Inventory (LTERI), designed and validated by Heydarnejad et al. ( 2021c ), was employed to gauge university teachers' ER strategies. They were required to consider similar situations from their teaching experiences at the workplace and rate the statements in the light of their preferred ER strategies. The LTERI consists of 27 items on a five-point Likert scale anchored by 1 (“never”) and 5 (“always”) with six components, i.e., situation selection (5 items), situation modification (5 items), attention deployment (4 items), reappraisal (5 items), suppression (4 items), and seeking social support (4 items). The reliability for all sub-scales of the LTERI was acceptable (ranging from 0.718 to 0.814) in a study by Heydarnejad et al. ( 2021c ). In the current study, the reliability of the LTERI estimated through Cronbach's alpha was acceptable (ranging from 0.735 to 0.932).

The language teacher immunity instrument

To measure the participants' immunity, the Language Teacher Immunity Instrument (LTII), designed and validated by Hiver ( 2017 ), was utilized. This instrument is composed of 39 items in 7 sub-scales, each with a 6-point response scale (1 = strongly disagree; 6 = strongly agree). The sub-scales of this instrument are as follows: Teaching self-efficacy (7 items), Burnout (5 items), Resilience ( 5 items), Attitudes toward teaching (5 items), Openness to change (6 items), Classroom affectivity (6 items), and Coping (5 items). In the current investigation, the reliability of the LTII estimated through Cronbach Alpha was acceptable (ranging from 0.831 to 0.948).

Data collection procedures

The participants were selected based on convenience or opportunity sampling procedures, and they were assured that their responses were entirely anonymous. A web-based platform was employed to conduct this investigation, which was started in January and ended in June 2022. That is, the participants received an electronic survey form including Watson–Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal-Form A, the Language Teacher Emotion Regulation Inventory (LTERI), and The Language Teacher Immunity Instrument (LTII) through Google Forms. Since all teachers were qualified enough in English, the language of all four scales was English and, in this way, a construct irrelevant factor was avoided. Conducting the electronic survey enables researchers to collect data from different regions with varying age groups and teaching experiences. Altogether 293 forms were received with an 87.2% return rate. Moreover, no data were missed due to the design of the electronic survey.

Data analysis procedures

As the first step, the reliability of the instruments was checked by Cronbach Alpha formula. Then, the normality distributions of the data were checked through the Kolmogorov-Smirnov Test. Further, descriptive statistics were used to describe the data. Finally, as the data were normally distributed, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structural equation modeling (SEM) using LISREL 8.80 were employed to analyze the data. That is, all latent variables were validated using CFA before testing a structural model (Hair et al., 1998 ). SEM as a robust multivariate procedure was used to take a confirmatory hypothesis-testing approach for the proposed structural theory (Schreiber et al., 2006 ).

The results of statistical analysis to probe into the relationship between CT, ER, and immunity were presented here. Table 1 reported the descriptive statistics of English university teachers' CT, ER, and immunity.

The results of descriptive statistics of the english university teachers' critical thinking, emotion regulation, and immunity.

As Table 1 presented, among the CT subscales inference (M = 3.874, SD = 0.854) and evaluation (M = 3.735, SD = 0.678) got the highest mean scores. Regarding the Language Teacher Emotion Regulation subscales, attention deployment (M = 3.928, SD = 0.653) and seeking social support (M = 3.921, SD = 0.818) show the highest mean scores. Moreover, among the Language Teacher Immunity subscales, coping (M = 4.807, SD = 1.091) and teaching self-efficacy (M = 4.632, SD = 0.493) displayed the highest mean scores.

As the following step, the data distributions were examined to make a logical decision about applying appropriate statistical methods. To do so, the Kolmogorov–Smirnov test was used to check the normality distributions of the variables.

Based on Table 2 , the sig value for all the scales and their subscales was higher than 0.05, which the data were normally distributed. Thus, parametric methods could be employed for testing the related research hypotheses. The LISREL 8.80 statistical package was applied to explore the structural relations among the variables in the present research.

The results of kolmogorov–smirnov test.

The chi-square magnitude, the root-mean-square error of Approximation (RMSEA), the comparative fit index (CFI), and the normed fit index (NFI) were utilized to evaluate the model fit. As Jöreskog ( 1990 ) stated the chi-square should be non-significant and the chi-square/df ratio should be lower than 3. Furthermore, the root-mean-square error of approximation (RMSEA) is suggested to be lower than 0.1 (Jöreskog, 1990 ). The NFI with the cut value greater than 0.90, GFI with the cut value greater than 0.90, and CFI with the cut value greater than 0.90 indicates a good fit (Jöreskog, 1990 ). As Table 3 reported, the chi-square/df ratio (2.593) and the RMSEA (0.074) were also acceptable. The other three fit indices, GFI (0.938), NFI (0.944), and CFI (0.925) reached the acceptable fit thresholds.

The results of fit indices (model 1).

As Figures 2 , ​ ,3 3 (model 1) illustrated, the impacts of CT and LTER on LTI were positive. That means, CT significantly and positively contributed to the English university teachers' immunity (β = 0.76, t = 15.92). The significant role of university professor ER on teacher immunity (β = 0.82, t = 17.50) was also reported.

Schematic representation of path coefficient values for the relationships between critical thinking, emotion regulation, and immunity (model 1).

The T values for path coefficient significance (model 1).

Table 4 presented the chi-square/df ratio (2.773), the RMSEA (0.078), GFI (0.932), NFI (0.941), and CFI (0.955) related to the second model. Based on the Table 4 , all of the fit indices got the acceptable fit thresholds. The following figures ( Figures 3 , ​ ,4) 4 ) depicted the detailed relationships among the variables.

The results of fit indices (model 2).

Schematic representation of path coefficient values for the influential role of critical thinking and self-efficacy on teaching style' subscales (model 2).

Figures 4 , ​ ,5 5 portray the contributions of CT and LTER to LTI sub-components. As it was depicted, CT significantly and positively contributed to the LTI sub-components: Teaching self-efficacy (β = 0.85, t = 22.03), Resilience (β = 0.61, t = 12.90), Attitudes toward teaching (β = 0.81, t = 19.77), Openness to change (β = 0.54, t = 10.11), Classroom Affectivity (β = 0.70, t = 14.43), and Coping (β = 0.76, t = 18.77). By contrast, the contribution of CT on Burnout (β = −0.64, t = −13.46) was significantly negative.

The T values for path coefficient significance (model 2).

Considering the contribution of LTER to LTI subcomponents, the results was as follows: Teaching self-efficacy (β = 0.87, t = 23.40), Resilience (β = 0.71, t = 14.27), Attitudes toward teaching (β = 0.83, t = 21.14), Openness to change (β = 0.53, t = 10.05), Classroom Affectivity (β = 0.90, t = 32.18), and Coping (β = 0.79, t = 15.28). In contrast, the contribution of LTER to Burnout (β = −0.57, t = −11.11) was significantly negative.

Table 5 displayed that CT correlated positively with LTII subcomponents as following: Teaching self-efficacy (r = 0.874, p < 0.0.01), Resilience (r = 0.717, p < 0.01), Attitudes toward teaching (r = 0.852, p < 0.01), Openness to change (r = 0.562, p < 0.01), Classroom Affectivity (r = 0.723, p < 0.01), and Coping (r = 0.814, p < 0.01). In contrast, the association between CT and Burnout was negative (r = −0.679, p < 0.01). Moreover, about the relationships between LTER and LTII subcomponents, the results were as follows: significantly positive with Teaching self-efficacy (r = 0.895, p < 0.01), Resilience (r = 0.773, p < 0.01), Attitudes toward teaching (r = 0.895, p < 0.01), Openness to change (r = 0.598, p < 0.01), Classroom Affectivity (r = 0.945, p < 0.01), and Coping (r = 0.845, p < 0.01); significantly negative with Burnout (r = −0.589, p < 0.01).

The results of the correlation coefficients among the english university teachers' critical thinking, emotion regulation, and immunity.

This study explored the possible role of CT and ER in English university teachers' immunity in higher education. The results evidenced that CT is a strong predictor of the English university teachers' immunity. Based on the findings, it may be argued that CT empowers the English university teachers to zoom on their teaching processes leading to higher immunity. In other words, aligned with the findings of the study, it may be argued that the participants who were critical in their profession, they might have gained a comprehensive understanding the planning, implementing, and evaluating of the teaching processes. This, in turn, might have empowered them to overcome the tensions and unpleasant situations in their job. Accordingly, the first null hypothesis stating that the English university teachers' CT does not predict their immunity was rejected. The contribution of higher order thinking skills to English teachers' immunity has been confirmed in the previous studies (e.g., Rahmati et al., 2019 ; Rahimpour et al., 2020 ; Atefi Boroujeni et al., 2021 ; Li, 2022 ). For instance, Rahimpour et al. ( 2020 ) found that reflective teaching and language teachers' immunity were closely related. The gained findings also corroborated with those of Rahmati et al. ( 2019 ), emphasizing the cultivation of reflection in developing language teachers' immunity. Furthermore, the obtained results offered a deeper picture of how the English university teachers' CT may predict the different subskills of immunity. As the findings depicted, the participants' CT had significant positive correlation with their self-efficacy, resilience, attitude toward teaching, coping, openness to change, and classroom affectivity. In line with the findings, it may be argued that critical analysis of teaching experiences might have affected the English teachers' self-efficacy beliefs and led to positive attitudes toward their job. The results are consistent with those of Amirian et al. ( 2022 ) highlighting the strong correlation between higher order thinking skills and self-efficacy. The relationship between the English teachers' resilience and metacognitive skills was also confirmed by Mehrabian et al. ( 2022 ). The association between self-efficacy, resilience, and burnout was also supported by the findings of Fathi and Saeedian ( 2020 ). In the same line of inquiry, the link between CT and openness to change as one of the sub-components of personality trait was concluded by Acevedo and Chelsie ( 2022 ), as well as Frenzel et al. ( 2021 ). One possible reason for the gained findings is that the English teachers who were highly reflective in their job, they might have applied coping strategies result in the promotion of perseverance and productive immunization. Another justification for the findings may is that being equipped with CT might have enabled the English university teachers to show remarkable resilience in the face of tensions and difficulties.

Moreover, another line of discussion for the gained findings may be ascribed to view that the university teachers who were more critical thinkers might have managed reappraisal tends and coped with the challenges and difficulties of their jobs (Pe et al., 2013 ; Sheppes et al., 2014 ). In other words, along with the gained results, it may be argued that CT might be a way to immunize the English university teachers productively in the face of tensions and complexities of the working conditions. In support of this argument, Wang et al. ( 2022 ) found the interrelationships of teacher higher order thinking skills, positive emotions, and resilience. Additionally, the findings receive support from the past literature disclosing the noticeable contributions of CT to the efficiency of English teachers (e.g., Sheybani and Miri, 2019 ; Sadeghi et al., 2020 ; Heydarnejad et al., 2021a ; Amirian et al., 2022 ). Furthermore, a part of the findings documented that the relationships between the reflective teaching and burnout were significantly negative. That is, it may be argued that that the more the English teachers might evaluate their teaching processes, the less chronic stress, emotional exhaustion, feeling of ineffectiveness, and lack of accomplishment they might experience. These findings are consistent with those of the previous studies (e.g., Khodabakhshzadeh et al., 2017 ; Li et al., 2021 ), indicating a negative relationship between CT and teacher burnout.

Additionally, the results documented that ER was highly correlated with the English university teachers' immunity. Thus, the second null hypothesis stating that the English university teachers' ER does not predict immunity was rejected. In other words, the findings documented that ER had positive and significant contributions to self-efficacy, resilience, attitude toward teaching, coping, openness to change, and classroom affectivity (the sub-scales of teacher immunity). Additionally, the results demonstrated that the regulation of the English university teachers' emotions at the workplace decreased the likeliness of burnout. Along with Wang et al. ( 2022 ), it can be argued that psychological wellbeing might lead to a productive configuration of immunity among the English university teachers. In a same vein, Hiver ( 2017 ) argued that the emotional wellbeing of English teachers would guarantee the development of productive immunity. The findings of the study are in line with those of Burić et al. ( 2020 ), reporting that teachers' emotions performed as a filter governing the way efficacy information is interpreted. Additionally, the results are congruent with the findings of Donker et al. ( 2020 ). They found that strong ER strategies played a significant role in decreasing teachers' emotional exhaustion and burn out. Furthermore, the gained findings lend support to those of Shen ( 2022 ), disclosing the mediator role of teacher ER in managing teachers' burnout, stress, and anxiety among English teachers.

One possible explanation for the findings may be ascribed to the view that the emotion-regulatory strategies might endow a balance in the professional lives of the English university teachers, leading to more enthusiasm and engagement in teaching procedures. Additionally, the findings may be justified from this perspective that ER might contribute to the latency, rise time, magnitude, duration, and offset of emotional responses and immunize university teachers productively. The findings of the current study can be strongly supported by the underpinning theories of CT, ER, as well as immunity. CT stipulated that higher order thinking skills offer stages of conceptualization, analysis, synthesize, reflection, and evaluation (Dewey, 1933 ; Paul, 1988 ). Productive immunity stemmed in self-organization theory is a defensive mechanism act against different experienced problems during the professional life (Larsen-Freeman, 2012 ; Hiver, 2015 , 2017 ). This rational can be put forward that the strategies involved in higher order thinking skill support self-awareness and self-organization lead to productive immunity. Moreover, the model of teacher ER suggests skillful teachers adapt efficient strategies in managing their emotions (Heydarnejad et al., 2021c ). Emotional balance, which is the results of self-evaluation and self-organization fosters productive immunity. In other words, cultivating emotional regulation keeps university teachers' immune system productive. Reciprocally, optimizing immune competence among university teachers fosters efficient instruction (Hiver and Dörnyei, 2017 ).

In addition, it can be argued that CT skills and ER might help the English university teachers to achieve a balance in their personal and professional lives. That is, this rationale can be put forward that thinking and evaluation allow university teachers to delve into their behaviors and activities, giving them a strong sense of self-awareness, self-regulation, self-monitoring, and self-assessment in the face of emotional experiences in their personal and professional demands. Furthermore, it can be implied that the more teachers practice reflective teaching, the better they can manage and modify their emotional demands. This finding is congruent with prior studies though limited and quite rare in the EFL context, which focus on the relationship between reflective teaching and teacher emotions (Zembylas, 2014 ; Bleakley et al., 2020 ; Gkonou et al., 2020 ; Song, 2021 ).

As noted above, the present study explored the role of the English teachers' CT and ER in immunity. The findings revealed that the English teachers' CT and ER contributed significantly to immunity. That is, the English university teachers armed with CT skills and ER strategies might manipulate their practices and align them with the emotional display rules of their profession. This implied that the English university teachers were immunized with CT and ER to handle job obligations.

The implications drawn from the results of the current study may be beneficial for teacher-educators to develop more productive pre-service and in-service programs by incorporating CT and ER in their syllabi. Additionally, teacher preparation programs should consider more practical strategies to enhance CT skills, ER strategies, and higher order thinking skills for pre-service teachers. Considering the centrality of university teachers' affective status in how they deal with reform initiatives, it is hoped that the outcomes of this research help university teachers take practical measures to monitor and manage their emotional states in English education in Iran and in the broader international context. Besides, policymakers are invited to consider these results in order to have a comprehensive picture of factors that contribute to the success and failure of teachers and programs. Since language teacher immunity is relatively a new construct, educators, teachers, and policymakers need to become aware of its central role in the field. Therefore, studies like the present investigation provide useful insights for those involved in the language teaching profession.

Some limitations imposed on the present study that can be considered as avenues for further research. First, as the participants were chosen through a convenience sampling method, more studies should be conducted in other higher education contexts in the country to increase the generalizability of the obtained findings. Second, as a quantitative method was applied in this study, future studies can use mixed-methods designs to inspect the association between CT, ER, and immunity to present a comprehensive picture of the topic. Third, because the present study was cross-sectional, future longitudinal studies are needed to inspect the long-term contributions of CT and ER to university teachers' immunity. Fourth, because in the present study, demographic variables such as teachers' cultural and socioeconomic background, major, mastery experience, pedagogical training, and other possible explaining variables were not explored. Thus, researchers are recommended to consider university teachers' demographic variables in similar research studies in the future. Fifth, studies conducted within the realm of educational psychology indicated that the performance of the participants with different L1 backgrounds might differ considerably from culture to culture and that the methodological approaches to measure this issue in specific contexts might not be comparable. Therefore, the relationships between ER, CT, and immunity can be the target of future research in other contexts and cultures. Sixth, it is recommended to undertake further research to explore the possible contributions of university teachers' CT tendencies, ER, and immunity to their learners' academic achievement. As further suggestion, examining the relationships between ER, CT, and immunity with other teacher attributed constructs, such as autonomy, reflective teaching, self-regulation, L2 grit, and work engagement, are recommended. Last but not least, as the present study focused on the role of CT and ER in university teachers' immunity, interested researchers can explore the correlation between teachers' immunity and their job motivation, job satisfaction, and job performance.

Data availability statement

Author contributions.

All authors listed have made a substantial, direct, and intellectual contribution to the work and approved it for publication.

This paper was supported by the Construction of Critical Reading, a provincial first-class offline undergraduate course, by Fujian Provincial Department of Education in 2021 (Code No. 323).

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Publisher's note

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A Crash Course in Critical Thinking

What you need to know—and read—about one of the essential skills needed today..

Posted April 8, 2024 | Reviewed by Michelle Quirk

• In research for "A More Beautiful Question," I did a deep dive into the current crisis in critical thinking.
• Many people may think of themselves as critical thinkers, but they actually are not.
• Here is a series of questions you can ask yourself to try to ensure that you are thinking critically.

Conspiracy theories. Inability to distinguish facts from falsehoods. Widespread confusion about who and what to believe.

These are some of the hallmarks of the current crisis in critical thinking—which just might be the issue of our times. Because if people aren’t willing or able to think critically as they choose potential leaders, they’re apt to choose bad ones. And if they can’t judge whether the information they’re receiving is sound, they may follow faulty advice while ignoring recommendations that are science-based and solid (and perhaps life-saving).

Moreover, as a society, if we can’t think critically about the many serious challenges we face, it becomes more difficult to agree on what those challenges are—much less solve them.

On a personal level, critical thinking can enable you to make better everyday decisions. It can help you make sense of an increasingly complex and confusing world.

In the new expanded edition of my book A More Beautiful Question ( AMBQ ), I took a deep dive into critical thinking. Here are a few key things I learned.

First off, before you can get better at critical thinking, you should understand what it is. It’s not just about being a skeptic. When thinking critically, we are thoughtfully reasoning, evaluating, and making decisions based on evidence and logic. And—perhaps most important—while doing this, a critical thinker always strives to be open-minded and fair-minded . That’s not easy: It demands that you constantly question your assumptions and biases and that you always remain open to considering opposing views.

In today’s polarized environment, many people think of themselves as critical thinkers simply because they ask skeptical questions—often directed at, say, certain government policies or ideas espoused by those on the “other side” of the political divide. The problem is, they may not be asking these questions with an open mind or a willingness to fairly consider opposing views.

When people do this, they’re engaging in “weak-sense critical thinking”—a term popularized by the late Richard Paul, a co-founder of The Foundation for Critical Thinking . “Weak-sense critical thinking” means applying the tools and practices of critical thinking—questioning, investigating, evaluating—but with the sole purpose of confirming one’s own bias or serving an agenda.

In AMBQ , I lay out a series of questions you can ask yourself to try to ensure that you’re thinking critically. Here are some of the questions to consider:

• Why do I believe what I believe?
• Are my views based on evidence?
• Have I fairly and thoughtfully considered differing viewpoints?
• Am I truly open to changing my mind?

Of course, becoming a better critical thinker is not as simple as just asking yourself a few questions. Critical thinking is a habit of mind that must be developed and strengthened over time. In effect, you must train yourself to think in a manner that is more effortful, aware, grounded, and balanced.

For those interested in giving themselves a crash course in critical thinking—something I did myself, as I was working on my book—I thought it might be helpful to share a list of some of the books that have shaped my own thinking on this subject. As a self-interested author, I naturally would suggest that you start with the new 10th-anniversary edition of A More Beautiful Question , but beyond that, here are the top eight critical-thinking books I’d recommend.

The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark , by Carl Sagan

This book simply must top the list, because the late scientist and author Carl Sagan continues to be such a bright shining light in the critical thinking universe. Chapter 12 includes the details on Sagan’s famous “baloney detection kit,” a collection of lessons and tips on how to deal with bogus arguments and logical fallacies.

Clear Thinking: Turning Ordinary Moments Into Extraordinary Results , by Shane Parrish

The creator of the Farnham Street website and host of the “Knowledge Project” podcast explains how to contend with biases and unconscious reactions so you can make better everyday decisions. It contains insights from many of the brilliant thinkers Shane has studied.

Good Thinking: Why Flawed Logic Puts Us All at Risk and How Critical Thinking Can Save the World , by David Robert Grimes

A brilliant, comprehensive 2021 book on critical thinking that, to my mind, hasn’t received nearly enough attention . The scientist Grimes dissects bad thinking, shows why it persists, and offers the tools to defeat it.

Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know , by Adam Grant

Intellectual humility—being willing to admit that you might be wrong—is what this book is primarily about. But Adam, the renowned Wharton psychology professor and bestselling author, takes the reader on a mind-opening journey with colorful stories and characters.

Think Like a Detective: A Kid's Guide to Critical Thinking , by David Pakman

The popular YouTuber and podcast host Pakman—normally known for talking politics —has written a terrific primer on critical thinking for children. The illustrated book presents critical thinking as a “superpower” that enables kids to unlock mysteries and dig for truth. (I also recommend Pakman’s second kids’ book called Think Like a Scientist .)

Rationality: What It Is, Why It Seems Scarce, Why It Matters , by Steven Pinker

The Harvard psychology professor Pinker tackles conspiracy theories head-on but also explores concepts involving risk/reward, probability and randomness, and correlation/causation. And if that strikes you as daunting, be assured that Pinker makes it lively and accessible.

How Minds Change: The Surprising Science of Belief, Opinion and Persuasion , by David McRaney

David is a science writer who hosts the popular podcast “You Are Not So Smart” (and his ideas are featured in A More Beautiful Question ). His well-written book looks at ways you can actually get through to people who see the world very differently than you (hint: bludgeoning them with facts definitely won’t work).

A Healthy Democracy's Best Hope: Building the Critical Thinking Habit , by M Neil Browne and Chelsea Kulhanek

Neil Browne, author of the seminal Asking the Right Questions: A Guide to Critical Thinking, has been a pioneer in presenting critical thinking as a question-based approach to making sense of the world around us. His newest book, co-authored with Chelsea Kulhanek, breaks down critical thinking into “11 explosive questions”—including the “priors question” (which challenges us to question assumptions), the “evidence question” (focusing on how to evaluate and weigh evidence), and the “humility question” (which reminds us that a critical thinker must be humble enough to consider the possibility of being wrong).

Warren Berger is a longtime journalist and author of A More Beautiful Question .

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Turning Back the Tide: The Critical Role of States In Reducing Chronic Absenteeism

Chronic absenteeism has risen drastically in our country — increasing from 16% of students before the COVID-19 pandemic to nearly 30% by the 2021-22 school year . During the 2021-22 school year, 14.7 million students missed so much school they were at academic risk. When schools experience such high levels of chronic absence, the education experience of all students — not just those frequently missing school — is adversely affected.  

A close look at 2021-22 school year data reveals that every state in the country experienced a substantial increase in the number of schools and districts with high and extreme levels of chronic absenteeism.   

States play a critical role in advancing effective approaches to improve attendance in schools because current levels of chronic absence can easily overwhelm a district’s capacity to respond.   

To assist states, our team used available 2021-22 school year data to produce charts for every state showing levels of high and extreme chronic absence. A short data highlight report is available for each state. You can also view the data on this interactive map . If possible, states may benefit most from conducting their own analysis with 2022-23 school year data since it is not yet available at the federal level.  

States can consider adopting a tiered approach . They can offer basic resources to help all schools and districts, particularly those with limited experience addressing chronic absence, and offer more intensive support to the districts facing the most significant attendance challenges. In a tiered approach, state actions may include:   

Publishing comparable, timely and accurate data. Publicly available data helps everyone — educators, families, policymakers and potential community partners — understand where action is needed. States can ensure comparable data among districts by providing a common definition for a day of attendance and ensuring all absences (i.e., excused, unexcused and suspensions) are included in their chronic absence data calculations. Connecticut , Massachusetts and Rhode Island publish chronic absence data frequently so action can be taken throughout the year.  

Creating and promoting messaging about the importance of attendance every day for student success and well-being. Long periods of virtual learning may have led some to think in-person attendance no longer matters. However, state leaders (e.g., governors, state chief school officers, public health agency directors, policymakers and agency leaders) can collaborate on messaging that can be tailored locally to reinforce the importance of attendance. Excellent examples of state campaigns include New Mexico , Massachusetts and Rhode Island .   

Building capacity to address chronic absence. For example, Ohio offers an Attendance Guide that explains state law and offers early intervention practices. At the same time, with support from Attendance Works, the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce is strengthening the capacity of its staff and regional intermediaries to offer high quality technical assistance.   

Rather than creating a separate set of supports, Ohio is building on statewide investments in positive behavior intervention and supports so attendance improvement efforts augment existing resources.  

Integrating attention to chronic absence into existing initiatives. Existing programs and initiatives such as family engagement, expanded learning, intensive tutoring, community schools and science of reading efforts can incorporate efforts designed to increase engagement and attendance. Connecticut , for example, integrated attendance into family engagement strategies . Virginia ’s campaign, ALL In VA , combines a dual focus on attendance and intensive tutoring.  

Creating a tailored action plan based on current data and existing resources. To determine where additional capacity is most needed, states can take stock of existing resources and combine that analysis with data examining how much particular schools, districts and student groups are affected by chronic absence.   

Re-establishing regular student attendance will require thoughtful and sustained planning and action. While national data for 2022-23 has not been released, available state data shows chronic absence is starting to decline from its peak in 2021-22 but remains high.    

When all is said and done, we know that efforts to support student’s academic recovery — and improve learning and well-being outcomes for all students — are unlikely to have the desired results unless students are present in school to benefit. If you are interested in learning more, listen in to this recent webinar on Comprehensive State Strategies to Reduce Chronic Absence.   

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At Education Commission of the States, we believe in the power of learning from experience. Every day, we provide education leaders with unbiased information and opportunities for collaboration. We do this because we know that informed policymakers create better education policy.

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Lab week 2024: celebrating medical laboratory professionals.

April 14 - 20, 2024, is Medical Laboratory Professionals Week, an annual celebration to highlight and show appreciation for laboratory professionals, including those at the State Hygienic Laboratory (SHL) at the University of Iowa.

Lab Week is sponsored by the American Society for Clinical Laboratory Science and coordinated by 17 national clinical laboratory organizations.

“At the State Hygienic Laboratory, our teams have demonstrated again and again that we are prepared to skillfully respond to evolving emerging public health threats, adapting to meet the changing needs of laboratory medicine and the evolution of diagnostic testing,” said Michael Pentella, SHL director.

Established in 1904, the SHL works closely with local, state, and federal partners to fulfill its mission in the Iowa Code to investigate and evaluate any issues that are in the interest of environmental quality and public health in the state. The lab serves all of Iowa’s 99 counties through disease detection, environmental monitoring, and newborn and maternal screening. Today, the SHL also quickly responds to infectious disease threats, including mpox, SARS-CoV-2, whooping cough, and much more.

“Our teams are continually forward-thinking in terms of taking continuing education classes to prepare us for the future challenges of laboratory medicine,” said Pentella. “We are proud of our role to help ensure that Iowa communities are healthy places to live, work, and play.”

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Critical Minerals in Africa: Strengthening Security, Supporting Development, and Reducing Conflict amid Geopolitical Competition

USIP Senior Study Group Final Report

Tuesday, April 9, 2024 / By: USIP Senior Study Group on Critical Minerals in Africa

Publication Type: Report

Executive Summary

The United States Institute of Peace convened a senior study group to explore the role Africa plays in the United States’ efforts to diversify US critical mineral supply chains and how new investment in partnerships with African countries could help drive economic development and strengthen peace and security on the African continent. Based on meetings and interviews with relevant technical, operational, and policy experts, the study group developed multiple recommendations for the United States to support mutually beneficial public and private partnerships with African nations. These partnerships could help diversify critical mineral supply chains; strengthen the rule of law, transparency, and environmental and labor standards around African critical minerals; and foster peace and stability through greater US commercial engagement.

Principal Findings

US economic and national security depends on a reliable supply of critical minerals that underlie an array of products and services important to ever-changing modern economies. Yet for many critical minerals (e.g., cobalt, graphite, and manganese), the United States is heavily dependent on imports. Especially concerning is that the United States is at or near 100 percent reliant on “foreign entities of concern”—mainly the People’s Republic of China—for key critical minerals.

Global demand for many critical minerals is growing rapidly. Accelerated demand forecasts are largely based on assumptions regarding a global transition to nonfuel-based energy sources, including high-end batteries for electric vehicles and power storage. However, critical minerals are also essential to powering all manner of consumer electronics, medical supplies, and high-performance metals and engines, including those used for defense and military applications. Consequently, regardless of how market and policy factors may change the trajectory of an energy transition, demand for key critical minerals is very likely to grow as economies worldwide increasingly electrify and modernize. To avoid being shorthanded and vulnerable to export controls and potential market manipulation by geopolitical competitors, it is imperative for the United States to diversify its critical minerals supply chains.

Africa can play an important role in strengthening US critical minerals supply chain security. The United States and allied countries already depend on many critical minerals that are sourced from African countries. But increasing supply is not a simple matter. The development of natural resources on the continent has had a checkered past, and critical minerals are no exception. Ventures of the Russian-led paramilitary Wagner Group in Mali, Sudan, and elsewhere are cases in a long history of predatory mining activities in Africa. Thus, it should not be assumed that the global rush for critical minerals will be beneficial to African development and security. Here, the United States, its allies, and the private sector can play a positive role—including by offering a better alternative to an approach to extracting Africa’s critical minerals common to Chinese companies, which too often has offered little local value and has resulted in corruption and human rights abuses, including child labor exploitation. US mining and related companies could be much more engaged, however, as they remain largely absent from the continent. 

While the Biden administration and Congress have stepped up efforts to support US companies in African markets—by de-risking and otherwise supporting investments—progress is relative, and there is no indication that China and other competitors are retreating. In fact, the list of economic competitors in Africa is growing, with Gulf States and others intensifying their interest in African critical minerals. If the United States wants to remain competitive on the global stage, it must step up its efforts to diversify US critical minerals supply chains, including in Africa.  

Priority Recommendations

The study group reviewed US policy initiatives and explored key challenges, issues, and opportunities associated with meeting US critical minerals objectives, primarily with a focus on further engaging Africa and challenging China’s dominance. The group’s overarching conclusion is that the US government should act with increased speed, focus, and decisiveness to support Africans in equitably and responsibly developing critical minerals. In doing so, it should engage African countries in mutually beneficial partnerships aimed at bringing peace, prosperity, and community stability to African citizens. Forging such partnerships will not be easy, but doing so could establish the United States and its allies as Africa’s preferred partners in supporting the continent’s critical minerals development. 

Following is a list of 13 broad policy recommendations and actions developed by the study group to further US-Africa partnerships on critical minerals development and supply chain diversification:

• Sharpen US-Africa policy with a focus on critical minerals. Given their importance to US economic and national security and African economic development, critical minerals merit being a top priority for US policy toward Africa. To execute this priority, the United States should design a comprehensive critical minerals strategy that aims to build mutually beneficial partnerships with Africans.
• Empower African civil society and the media. The United States could bolster the involvement of African civil society in its efforts to build transparency and accountability in the critical minerals sector, including by providing more support for US Agency for International Development (USAID) activities and other US government programs.
• Prioritize and leverage existing USAID programs to assist Africans with rule-of-law   and fiscal transparency efforts. The United States should enhance ongoing USAID efforts such as those supported through the Fiscal Transparency Innovation Fund. It could help African governments and civil society strengthen the rule of law, improve the business climate for responsible investors, and foster greater peace and community stability through better financial management of activities associated with critical minerals development.
• Tactically address Chinese mining in Africa. Although the United States is competing with China, using tactical nuance in investment decision-making could further US policy goals. Of course, all potential relationships with companies must be thoroughly vetted to ensure compliance with human rights, child labor, environmental, and other high standards and laws, but a tangential Chinese connection alone—particularly involving basic services or infrastructure—should not necessarily disqualify a US firm from receiving US government support.
• Prioritize prompt and full development of the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the United States, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), and Zambia. The US-DRC-Zambia MOU should be prioritized to fully realize its potential benefits. Transforming the memorandum into a productive partnership will require a significant US effort and dedicated resources. To be most successful, the MOU will also need the full engagement and guidance of the US private sector across the battery supply chain. Commercial diplomacy can play an important role in this effort.
• Strengthen the impact of the US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC). To make the most of its tools in the African critical minerals sector, the US government should sharpen the DFC’s impact by, for example, emphasizing strategic investments that will also meet developmental priorities and increase the corporation’s presence in Africa.
• Mobilize the private sector to strengthen African infrastructure. Although budget constraints and other factors limit the United States’ ability to improve African infrastructure, tools exist to mobilize private US resources. For example, the United States could better utilize the Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment, DFC, Export-Import Bank, and US Trade and Development Agency to boost countries’ abilities to attract private infrastructure investment.
• Invest in commercial diplomacy. The US government should practice more vigorous commercial diplomacy with a keen eye toward building critical minerals partnerships in Africa. Increasing the physical presence of diplomatic and commercial officers in mining centers is of utmost importance. For example, the United States should reopen a consulate in the city of Lubumbashi in the DRC and better resource the US Commercial Service.
• Expand membership of the Minerals Security Partnership (MSP) to include African partners. The United States is involved in several multinational partnerships involving critical minerals, including the MSP. The MSP was established in 2022 to generate public and private investment in critical minerals production, processing, and recycling, with the ultimate goal of diversifying and securing critical minerals supply chains. Currently, no African countries are included in the MSP.
• Expand support for the Young African Leadership Initiative (YALI). The US Department of State and USAID should aggressively pursue increased private and public support for YALI—a highly competitive executive program for young Africans interested in leadership and entrepreneurial training. The program could enhance US-Africa critical minerals policy goals by better engaging US mining and engineering universities in exchange programs and the US diplomatic corps.
• Assist Africans in building technical capacity in the mining sector. The United States should partner with Africans to support local critical minerals processing. This could be done in part by helping to establish technical assistance and training centers and regional processing centers—all while being alert to counterproductive critical minerals export policies.
• Prioritize US national security interests in the context of US trade and investment policy. Policymakers should explore the extent to which US mining engagement efforts in Africa may be undercut by the Inflation Reduction Act, disincentivizing critical minerals investment and exports to the United States—exports US processing and manufacturing facilities will rely on for the foreseeable future.
• Support efforts to address artisanal mining challenges. The United States should support efforts to increase benefits for artisanal workers and limit harm from artisanal mining. Yet it should do so while recognizing that formalization and punitive measures can be counterproductive—inadvertently harming artisanal miners and their communities if not carefully managed. 

Global critical minerals markets are rapidly evolving, driven by new policies and technologies.

Africans often express a sense of urgency when discussing their major opportunity to tap natural resources and fuel positive development—as the critical minerals of today may not be critical tomorrow. Given this sense of urgency and the United States’ strong interest in furthering its engagement on the continent, the potential for critical minerals partnerships that work for both Americans and Africans is high. For these partnerships to be successful, though, much more work is needed.

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