Developing Critical Thinking Through Writing Courses in a Public University in Azerbaijan.

This study investigates if academic writing courses develop critical thinking skills among undergraduate students at a public university in Azerbaijan. The research explores the relationship between student writing, critical thinking, and instructional practices used in academic writing classes. A qualitative research design was utilized through semi-structured interviews with five English language instructors and document analysis of seven student essays. The findings show that writing courses help students develop basic writing skills like organization, structure, and simple idea comparison. Most students were able to write structurally organized essays. However, deeper critical thinking skills such as analysis, evaluation, argument development, and evidence-based reasoning were limited. Student writing was mostly descriptive and detailed explanation or critical judgement was absent. The study found that language proficiency, limited vocabulary, lack of topic knowledge, and curriculum related factors prevent students’ ability to express critical ideas in writing. Teachers focus on structural and grammatical correctness of writing, but do not require analysis. Additionally, late introduction of the academic writing course and outdated teaching materials important barriers that were identified. The study concludes that academic writing courses provide a foundation for critical thinking development, but existing instructional and curricular ractices aren’t sufficient to develop higher order thinking skills at a public university in Azerbaijan.