A Study on the Link between Moral Judgment Competences and Critical Thinking Skills

Abstract

Although many studies have established a direct link between moral judgment competences and critical thinking skills, none has been found to reveal the nature of the link between these two skills in the national and international literature. The present study looked at biology and primary education teacher candidates’ moral judgment and critical thinking skill levels and the link between these skills. It further investigated the impact of the department, gender, and academic performance scores (GPA) on biology and primary education teacher candidates’ moral judgment and critical thinking skills. In the study, the correlational and comparative survey model was used. The Moral Judgment Test (MJT) was administered to determine the teacher candidates’ moral judgment competences and the Cornell Critical Thinking Tests (Level Z) were used to develop a picture of their critical thinking abilities. A total of 76 final-year teacher candidates at the departments of biology and primary education took part in the study. The results indicated a positive and statistically significant relationship between the moral judgment competences and critical thinking abilities of pre-service primary and biology teachers (r = .227 p < .05). The participating pre-service teachers’ average scores of moral judgment competences and critical thinking abilities were 16.56 and 22.74, respectively. The study also investigated the impact of the department and gender of the pre-service biology and primary teachers on their moral judgment and critical thinking skills, and the data indicated no such impact on the teacher candidates’ critical thinking and moral judgment competences. Furthermore, the research findings suggest no statistically significant link between the moral judgment scores and the GPA’s. However, a statistically significant, mid-level positive relationship does exist between the critical thinking test scores and the GPA’s.