Examining the Role of Critical Thinking Education in Developing Students’ Cognitive Identity, Intellectual Autonomy, and Academic Responsibility
Keywords:
Critical thinking, Cognitive identity, Intellectual autonomy, Academic responsibility, Students, Thematic analysis.Abstract
This study aimed to explain the role of critical thinking education in developing cognitive identity, intellectual autonomy, and academic responsibility among secondary school students in Tehran. This study employed a qualitative design using thematic analysis. The participants were 24 upper-secondary school students from Tehran, selected through purposive sampling. Inclusion criteria included prior experience with classroom activities emphasizing questioning, argumentative dialogue, evidence evaluation, problem solving, and consideration of multiple perspectives. Data were collected exclusively through semi-structured interviews. Interviews continued until theoretical saturation was achieved; initial saturation occurred at the twenty-first interview, and three additional interviews were conducted to confirm the stability of the emerging themes. All interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim, reviewed several times, and analyzed using NVivo software. The analytic process involved open coding, code comparison, theme development, theme refinement, and interpretive integration. Data analysis led to the identification of four main categories: “transition from receptive learning to a questioning cognitive identity,” “strengthening intellectual autonomy and reducing dependence on external authority,” “transforming academic responsibility from task compliance to learner agency,” and “the role of dialogic classroom climate in cognitive assertiveness.” Participants described critical thinking education as an experience that helped them reconsider academic beliefs, evaluate the credibility of information sources, formulate independent questions, accept the consequences of their academic decisions, and participate more actively in learning processes. The findings suggest that critical thinking education, when implemented explicitly, dialogically, and through authentic problems, can go beyond the acquisition of cognitive skills and reshape students’ relationship with knowledge, teachers, assignments, and themselves as learners. Therefore, systematic integration of critical thinking into curriculum design, assessment practices, and teachers’ pedagogical strategies may contribute to the development of cognitive identity, intellectual autonomy, and academic responsibility among students.
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