Lathiful Anwar, Cholis Sa’dijah, Ety Tejo Dwi Cahyowati, Indrani Eka Prastya Zahroh
Critical thinking (CT) is widely endorsed in mathematics education; however, its investigation and classroom enactment remain uneven across educational levels, contexts, and methodologies. This PRISMA-guided systematic review examined Scopus-indexed, English-language, open-access journal articles published between 2014 and 2025. Seventeen full texts were assessed from 398 identified records, and 13 included articles met the eligibility criteria. Because one included article was review-based, the corpus is described throughout as “included articles” or “included studies/articles” rather than exclusively as “empirical studies.” Within this bounded corpus, the included articles suggest a shift from defining, measuring, and diagnosing CT toward examining questioning, collaboration, statistical literacy, contextual learning, digital tools, teaching practices, and other related factors. This temporal pattern reflects the structure of the reviewed corpus rather than a global development trend. The included articles were primarily situated in higher education and teacher education, with limited attention to primary and upper secondary education. Most articles used qualitative or experimental designs, with fewer mixed-methods, research and development, or review-based designs. Given the small and heterogeneous corpus, a descriptive and thematic synthesis was preferred over a meta-analysis. The synthesis identified four recurring areas: contextual teaching strategies, including ethnomathematics and Realistic Mathematics Education; digital technologies, including multimedia, GeoGebra, and AI-related contexts; collaborative learning through questioning and mathematical dialogue; and teachers’ challenges related to knowledge, dispositions, resources, and systemic constraints. Limitations include the small corpus, reliance on a single database and open-access publications, heterogeneous conceptualizations of CT, and the absence of a formal risk-of-bias assessment. Future research should diversify educational levels, geographical contexts, methodological designs, CT conceptualizations, longitudinal frameworks, mixed-methods designs, and studies of teacher agency in technology-rich and culturally responsive mathematics classrooms. © 2026 The Authors.
Department of Mathematics, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, Universitas Negeri Malang, Jl. Semarang No. 5, East Java, Malang, 65145, Indonesia
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