An Investigation of the Relationship between Prospective Classroom Teachers’ Critical Thinking Standards and Their Attitudes Towards Democracy

Abstract

The main objective of this study is to analyze the relation between prospective classroom teachers’ critical thinking standards and their attitudes towards democracy. The research was carried out with prospective teachers who are from the 1 st , 2 nd , 3 rd and 4 th grades and who study at the Department of Elementary Teaching at Cukurova University. The study used random sampling method. The research group holds a total of 326 prospective teachers. The study deployed two data collection tools. Attitude Scale for Democracy and Critical Thinking Standards Scale. Pearson product-moment correlation and multivariate variance analysis were used during the data analysis. Research results have demonstrated a positive and medium level of significant relationship between prospective teachers' critical thinking standards and their attitudes towards democracy. The dimensions of critical thinking standards such as depth-breadth-sufficiency, precision-accuracy and significance-relevance-clarity dimensions were found to have a significant relationship with the attitude towards democracy and three variables account for about 38% of the attitude towards democracy.