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This study examined whether integrating enthymemic pedagogy into an English oral communication course could strengthen critical thinking and oral communication among pre-service elementary teachers at a Thai university. An embedded mixed-methods, one-group pretest–posttest design was used with one intact class of approximately 50 students. Data came from a 30-item knowledge test (RI-1), an oral communication rubric (RI-2), a classroom observation checklist (RI-3), and weekly reflective journals (RI-4). Knowledge scores did not improve significantly, t(36) = ?0.12, p = .902, and observed engagement was not positively related to score change. End-of-cycle oral performance was rated Good by a single colleague-rater (M = 3.95/5.00), while journal analysis indicated prompted reflective uptake among submitters. However, the four instruments captured different, partially overlapping subsets of the class: only 4 of the 37 students in the matched panel appeared in all four. Given the one-group design, partially overlapping analytic samples, and measurement limitations, the findings do not support a causal interpretation of the intervention. Its principal contribution is methodological. It shows how instrument-specific visibility shapes what teacher-led classroom research can claim, and it offers a simple presence/absence audit and design recommendations for classroom researchers.
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