EXPLORING EFL STUDENTS' CRITICAL THINKING PROCESSES IN ARGUMENTATIVE WRITING THROUGH PROBLEM-BASED FLIPPED CLASSROOM

Abstract

Argumentative writing is a cognitively complex productive skill in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) education, requiring learners to coordinate logical reasoning, evidence synthesis, and rhetorical persuasion. While quantitative gains of blended instructional models have been widely documented, empirical inquiries capturing the qualitative trajectories of how secondary EFL learners negotiate critical thinking during writing remain scarce. This study explored senior high school students' critical thinking processes during argumentative writing instruction facilitated by a Problem-Based Flipped Classroom model. Designed as the qualitative explanatory phase of an explanatory sequential mixed-methods study, this research investigated four twelfth-grade students selected purposively based on their writing achievement profiles (high, moderate, and developing) at SMA Negeri 12 Bulukumba. Data were gathered through semi-structured interviews, recursive drafting artifacts (pre-outlines, intermediate drafts, and final essays), and peer review sheets, and analyzed using the Miles, Huberman, and Saldaña interactive analysis framework. Methodological triangulation, member checking, and peer debriefing were conducted to establish qualitative trustworthiness. The findings demonstrate that the integrated model facilitated students' critical thinking across five interrelated dimensions: (1) idea generation and information seeking, (2) problem analysis and contextual fact-view connection, (3) logical reasoning and argument construction, (4) critical evaluation and recursive self-revision, and (5) metacognitive reflection and feedback utilization.

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