Abstract
Abstract The aim of the study is to analyze the effectiveness of an integrated active-learning approach within an English-medium educational environment in fostering critical thinking among pre-service teachers, as well as to develop methodological recommendations for its successful implementation. The study involved 300 third-year education students ( M = 20.53 years, SD = 0.68) from two universities in Astana, Kazakhstan. The research instruments included the California Critical Thinking Skills Test (CCTST) and a specially designed questionnaire titled “Assessment of the Effectiveness of Methods for Developing Critical Thinking in the Context of Teaching Pedagogical Disciplines in a Foreign Language”. The findings confirm the effectiveness of the intervention: the intervention group demonstrated statistically significant improvements across all components of the CCTST critical thinking scale, and academic performance also improved significantly following the intervention ( p < 0.001). Multiple regression analysis revealed that the strongest predictors of critical thinking development were its initial level ( β = 0.538, p < 0.001) and the type of instruction ( β = 0.439, p < 0.001). Thematic analysis facilitated the development of methodological recommendations for the application of critical thinking development strategies among education students in the context of English-medium instruction.