American plays are an integral part of the syllabus of English literature departments of non-native English countries worldwide. Understanding how learning takes place in teaching American plays is crucial for fostering learners' creativity. To grasp American plays and get compact views of thematic concerns and the intended aims of the playwrights, it is vital to understand the association between texts and contexts. This article shows how the infusion of cognitivist and constructivist practice navigates students’ mind-mapping and social interaction, leading to critical thinking skills, such as reasoning, problem-solving, and meaning-making. The article also investigates how interactive in-class tasks as parts of instructional strategies can help learners transition from lower-order thinking skills (LOTs) to higher-order thinking skills (HOTs). By conducting a thorough analysis of primary and secondary data, this study offers a comprehensive insight into how the combination of cognitivism and constructivism enhances critical thinking abilities. The study employs various methods of data collection, including interviewing 30 undergraduate students and the researcher’s classroom experiences, analyzing articles, and reviewing books. The results indicate that integrating cognitivist and constructivist approaches in teaching and in-class convergent and divergent assessment tasks has a significant impact on creating a more interactive learning environment and nurturing students' critical thinking skills. This research is particularly valuable for non-native English students studying English literature worldwide. The findings will also assist professionals in stimulating students' mind mapping and engagement with distributed knowledge to enhance creativity, the innovative stage of learning.

Keywords: Non-native English Students, Mind-Mapping Learning, Scaffolding with MKO, Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy, Higher Education.