Critical thinking dispositions of pre-service Turkish language teachers and primary teachers

Abstract

The present study aimed to determine critical thinking dispositions of pre-service Turkish language and primary teachers in terms of several variables by employing descriptive survey design. The study group consisted of 215 senior students attending Turkish Language Teaching and Primary Education Departments of Necatibey Faculty of Education at Balikesir University in the 2012-2013 academic year. The data of the study was collected with The California Critical Thinking Disposition Inventory which was adapted to Turkish by Kökdemir (2003). The scale consisting of 6 sub-scales namely analyticity, open-mindedness, inquisitiveness, self-confidence, truth-seeking and systematicity has a reliability coefficient of 0.88. Coefficients of internal consistency for each subscale range between 0.61 and 0.78. The present study found the reliability of the scale as .85. The data were analyzed through descriptive statistics, t test and one was variance analysis. It was observed in the study that the pre-service teachers had medium levels of critical thinking dispositions and that the level did not vary by their department, gender, time spent watching TV while critical thinking disposition increased as the number of books read per year went up.