| dc.description.abstract | The aim of this study is to determine the critical thinking tendency levels of the classroom and elementary mathematics teacher candidates, and the effect of gender and class level variables on the levels of critical thinking. Cross-sectional model was used. The study was conducted with 549 teacher candidates studying at Balıkesir University Necatibey Education Faculty in the fall semester of 2014-2015 academic year. 240 of the teacher candidates participating in the study are taught in classroom education and 309 are taught in elementary mathematics education. As data collection tool, the California Critical Thinking Tendency Scale (CCTDI-T) developed by Demographic Information Form and Facione, Facione and Giancarlo (1998), and adopted to Turkish by Kökdemir (2003) was used. The data were analyzed using SPSS 20.0 software. According to the results of the study, it was found that general critical thinking tendencies of the teacher candidates participating in the study were slightly above the average level. The gender variable was found to have no significant effect on the general level of critical thinking. When the effect of the gender variable in the subscales was analyzed, analyticity, open-mindedness and truth-seeking dimensions were found to be significantly higher in female teacher candidates, whereas inquistiveness dimension was statistically significant in the male teacher candidates. In systematicity and self-confidence sub-dimensions, gender was not significant. When we look at scores from the overall scale, there was a significant difference between grades in terms of the critical thinking tendency levels. 1st and 2nd graders had significantly higher scores than 3rd and 4th grades. In the analytical, open-mindedness and systematicity sub-dimensions, a significant difference was found among grades, and the difference was in favor of the 1st graders. In the other sub-dimensions, the grade level did not make any significant difference. As both groups of teachers will teach mathematics, by establishing relationship between critical thinking and mathematics teaching, the results were discussed.The aim of this study is to determine the critical thinking
tendencies of the preservice primary school and elementary mathematics
teachers. The effects of gender and grade on the critical thinking
tendencies of teacher candidates were investigated. The study was carried out with 549 preservice teachers studying at Balikesir University,
the Faculty of Education in the fall semester of 2014-2015 academic year.
240 of the teacher candidates participating in the study were taught in
primary school teaching while 309 were in elementary mathematics
teaching. Cross-sectional survey model was used in the study. The
California Critical Thinking Disposition Inventory (CCTDI) developed by
Demographic Information Form and Facione, Facione and Giancarlo
(1998), and adopted to Turkish by Kökdemir (2003) was used as data
collection tool. In data analysis, descriptive statistics including mean,
percentage and standard deviation were used. Independent sample T-test
was used to investigate whether gender had a significant effect on the
scores obtained from the general and subscales of the inventory. Oneway
ANOVA test was used to examine whether grade affected the critical
thinking tendencies. Before using one-way ANOVA, whether the data
showed a normal distribution was checked. Values of skewness and
kurtosis were taken into account to check whether the data were
normally distributed. It was found that the data showed normal
distribution. Tukey test was used to determine the source of the
difference in the case of significant differences was observed in ANOVA
analysis. When the results obtained from tukey analysis was significant,
the value of the chi square (?2) was used to determine the effect of the
grade variable. The findings were evaluated in 95% confidence interval
and 5% significance level. SPSS version 20.0 software was used for the
analysis of the data.
The findings of the data demonstrated that the critical thinking
tendencies of preservice primary school and elementary mathematics
teachers were high. However, this level was closer to the average. There
are similar studies in the literature which reported average critical
thinking tendencies for university students and preservice teachers
(Bayrak, 2014; Beşoluk & Önder, 2010; Kartal, 2012; Koçak et al., 2015).
A tendency to think critically at a little higher than average level may not
be sufficient to achieve the program goals of mathematics teaching. As
Gupta (2005) notes, this situation highlights the inadequate critical
thinking teaching and learning during university education. Although the
level of critical thinking tendency of teacher candidates is a little higher
than average, this situation might be due to the influence of education
prior to university. In other words, the critical thinking tendency of
preservice teachers, who had a high level at the beginning of their
university education was not developed yet gradually decreased to
average. Preservice teachers will be expected to improve their students’
critical thinking skills. Yet, as future teachers, they first need to have a
high level of critical thinking skills so that they can assist to the education
of learners targeted by renewed primary and secondary school
mathematics teaching programs.
In the study, the subscales of the critical thinking tendency
inventory were also examined. The participants had the highest score in
open-mindedness subscale, while they had the lowest score in
systematicity subscale. The fact that the elementary preservice
mathematics teachers had the highest scores in open mindedness
subscale shows that they are innovative, open to new ideas and can think
flexibly. Additionally, the fact that the highest average score was in the open-mindedness subscale can be interpreted as the teacher candidates
are enthusiastic about developing their critical thinking levels which are
above the average. In the study, the lowest mean scores were in
systematicity subscale. This may indicate that preservice teachers lacks
in planning and organizing research. The second highest scores were in
the analyticity subscale. Analytical thinking is important and necessary
for both mathematical thinking and critical thinking.
It was also found that the gender variable did not significantly differ
in terms of critical thinking tendencies. This result is in parallel with
many studies (Bayrak, 2014; Bozpolat, 2010, Ekinci & Aybek, 2010;
Leach & Good, 2011; Myers & Dyer, 2002). Regarding gender, different
results have been observed in different studies. There were no significant
differences in the level of critical thinking between male and female
teacher candidates, which is similar to the majority of studies on critical
thinking. It can be said that the activities to develop critical thinking can
be applied regardless of gender.
It was also examined whether the gender caused a significant
difference between the scores obtained from the subscales. The results
demonstrated that there was a significant difference between mean
scores of female and male preservice teachers in the subscale of
inquistiveness which favoring males and the mean scores of male
preservice teachers were higher than that of females. In the analyticity,
open-mindedness and inquistiveness subscales, there was a statistically
significant difference in gender variable favoring female teacher
candidates. When various studies on critical thinking were examined, it
was seen that the results were similar. McBridge, Xiang and Wittenburg
(2007) found significant differences in open-mindedness and
inquistiveness, Genç (2008) observed differences in open-mindedness
and inquistiveness, and Semerci (2010) found differences in analyticity
open-mindedness and inquisitiveness, which was in favor of females.
When the effect of gender on the subscales was taken into consideration
as a whole, it was found that the results differed in truth-seeking and
inquisitiveness; however female teachers had higher scores in analyticity
and open-mindedness.
The results also showed that there was no significant difference
between the mean scores of preservice teachers’ critical thinking
tendency regarding their grade levels. The mean scores of the critical
thinking tendency according to grades showed a gradual decrease from
1st to 4th grades. Significant differences were found between 1-3 and
1-4 classes, favoring first grades. In addition, significant differences were
discovered between 2-3 and 2-4 grades, favoring second grades. This
result were in parallel with the studies of Gülveren (2007) and Akar
(2007), and quite similar to Koçak et al. (2015).
Although the tendency of critical thinking was found to be the
highest at the first grades, this level of tendency was slightly higher than
the average level. The classes that the preservice mathematics teachers
take during university education do not support their high-level critical
thinking development. University education is an important stage for
critical thinking. As the mainstream courses are mostly emphasized at
the first grade, the critical thinking levels mostly develop at this grade (Cross & Steadman, 1996). However, such a development was not
observed for teacher candidates in this study. Another reason may be the
teaching styles of academicians in universities. According to Tobias
(1992) and Tsui (1999), teachers should use learning and teaching
strategies that focus on the cognitive development of learners. These
strategies should be in combination with content and understandable for
the learners. Additionally, they should be enhance student-student
interaction and focus on structuring students' learning rather than
memorizing. An education based on recalling and memorizing may not
have provided sufficient development of critical thinking as seen in this
study. The level of critical thinking, which is higher than the average at
the first graders, gradually decreased towards the fourth class. Classes
not adequately including complex problem solving situations, teaching
styles that require low-level thinking and memorizing and the use of
multiple choice questions can be seen as an impediment to the
development of critical thinking (Halpern, 1999; King, 1995; Pinet, 1999).
However, emphasis should be placed on methods related to real life and
problem solving instead of memorizing and remembrance for the
development of critical thinking in mathematics teaching (Hammerman
& Goldberg, 2003; Hosseinpour, 2006; Paul, 2004).
As a result, education faculties should support, develop and
maintain critical thinking skills of preservice teachers. Relations between
high-level thinking skills and mathematics teaching should be well
structured in all levels of education, especially during university
education. Activities that promote high-level thinking skills should be
included in mathematics teaching and in other teaching courses during
university education. The reasons for the tendency of teacher candidates
to think critically, usually at an average level and slightly above, should
be questioned. | en_US |
