When I look back at all the publications I have written, I realize that they are not isolated pieces of work. Although the topics may appear diverse, ranging from critical thinking and Islamic education to digital literacy and artificial intelligence, they are all connected by the same underlying interest: understanding how education can help students become better learners.

This interest began during my undergraduate studies in English Language Education. At that time, I was constantly intrigued by a simple question: what should students learn beyond grammar and vocabulary? The more I read and explored educational research, the more I realized that success in language learning is determined not only by linguistic competence but also by the ability to think critically.

This realization encouraged me to investigate various aspects of critical thinking in education. One of the studies I conducted was titled "Critical Thinking in Islam: What and How Its Practices." Through this research, I sought to understand how the Islamic intellectual tradition views critical thinking. I discovered that questioning, analyzing, and evaluating information are deeply rooted in the rich heritage of Islamic scholarship.

This understanding led me to a more contemporary issue. If critical thinking is such an essential skill, how can it help individuals navigate the challenges of the digital age? This question inspired my study, Digital Literacy in Education: An Analysis of Critical Thinking Culture for Preventing the Hoaxes. Through this research, I found that critical thinking and digital literacy are inseparable competencies in an era characterized by an overwhelming flow of information.

From this point onward, my research interest gradually shifted toward English language teaching. I became interested in exploring how critical thinking could be fostered through language learning. This curiosity resulted in my study, Fostering EFL Students’ Critical Thinking Skills in Differentiating Between Factual and Fake News. The findings demonstrated that English language classrooms can serve as effective spaces for developing students’ ability to evaluate information, construct arguments, and make evidence-based judgments.

While conducting research in English language teaching, I became increasingly interested in the context of Islamic education. I saw an opportunity to integrate language learning with Islamic values, which have long played an important role in Indonesian education. This interest led to my study Integrating Islamic Values in Teaching Grammar for Young Learners: A Guide for Educators. Through this research, I learned that language instruction and character education can complement one another rather than exist as separate educational goals.

As I continued reading more studies in the field, I began to realize that many research questions could not be fully answered through a single investigation. I wanted to gain a broader understanding of how knowledge develops within a particular field. For this reason, I became interested in bibliometric analysis and systematic literature reviews.

This shift in focus resulted in several studies, including English Language Teaching in Islamic Education: A Bibliometric Analysis, which I co-authored with Dr. Dedi Sulaeman, M.Hum. This research enabled me to understand how a field evolves over time, identify influential scholars, and recognize research themes that still require further exploration.

My experience in the course Scientific Writing for Scholarly Research and Publication further strengthened my interest in evidence synthesis research. I began to see academic publishing not merely as a process of producing new articles, but as an effort to understand, connect, and extend the knowledge that has already been generated by previous scholars.

My interest in educational technology eventually led me to a rapidly growing area of research: artificial intelligence. For me, AI was neither sudden nor unrelated. Rather, it represented a logical continuation of my long-standing interests in learning, technology, and the development of students’ thinking skills.

As a result, I conducted a study titled "AI-Powered Tools in English Language Teaching within Islamic Educational Institutions: A Systematic Literature Review." This research brought together many of the themes that I had explored throughout my academic journey, including Islamic education, English language teaching, educational technology, and systematic evidence synthesis.

Throughout this journey, I also received valuable guidance from my supervisor, Dr. Sajidin, M.Pd. His mentorship encouraged me to view language not merely as a tool for communication but also as an object of inquiry capable of explaining broader social phenomena. This perspective is reflected in the study Political Language in Zohran Mamdani’s Victory Speech: A Critical Discourse Analysis.

Looking back on this journey, I realize that every study I have conducted emerged from a previous one. Each research project answered a particular question while simultaneously generating new questions to explore. This continuous process of inquiry has shaped my development as a researcher and continues to motivate me to learn, write, and contribute to academic knowledge.