As we transition to an endemic phase past the Covid-19 fiasco, the impact of those events still rings clear within the education field. The aftermath of the pandemic in the education field is everlasting, as research swarmed on the effects it had on students. Nevertheless, studies have shown that critical thinking skills are still intact regardless of the learning mode. Consequently, critical thinking is a vital factor in a student’s repertoire, which is also a sought commodity among employers. Therefore, the objective of this study is to determine whether critical thinking has an impact on student learning performance in both academic and non-academic contexts. Hence, this study first, set out to determine the students’ perception of critical thinking. Secondly, it explored the students’ perception of critical thinking on their learning performance in academic and non-academic contexts. A qualitative research design was employed during the conduct of the study. The findings were retrieved from focus group interview sessions among 15 final-year degree students from two public universities in Malaysia. The findings suggest that students are indeed aware of their critical thinking skills. Furthermore, findings show that critical thinking impacts student learning performance in several distinctive ways. These include improving their learning styles, strategies, and thinking skills. In the non-academic context, critical thinking provides further exposure and training for individual development in terms of survival skills and self-efficacy. Therefore, it is important for instructors to note the urgency for the inclusion of critical thinking in the teaching and learning process regardless of mode, be it in a physical or online classroom. This paper could benefit educators who seek to inculcate critical thinking in their lessons, programme developers who plan to embed critical thinking within the curriculum, and students themselves who prepare their learning journey with relevant critical thinking strategies.
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