THE CURRENT STATE OF CRITICAL THINKING AMONG HIGH SCHOOL TEACHERS IN LAO CAI PROVINCE IN SELECTING AND USING ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE TOOLS FOR DESIGNING LEARNING ACTIVITIES

Abstract

In the context of artificial intelligence reshaping the education sector, this study was conducted to address the current state of critical thinking competency among high school teachers in Lao Cai province when selecting and using these tools to design learning activities. To address this, the study applied an explanatory sequential mixed-methods design, beginning with a quantitative survey of 350 teachers at 12 high schools, followed by using qualitative data from open-ended questions to clarify the findings. The results show that the overall critical thinking level of teachers is predominantly at the medium level (60.0%), with a significant imbalance among the component skills: teachers demonstrated good skills in "Self-assessment" and "Identifying requirements" but were markedly weak in core skills such as "Querying and verifying information" and "Detecting bias". The main barriers identified include the time-consuming nature of verifying artificial intelligence generated information and difficulties related to technological skills.