Do the critical thinking skills perform well? A Survey on Preservice Science Teachers

Abstract

Critical thinking skills are a pivotal domain for students to have in today’s era. The learning process therefore must be able to train it. In order to train it by the learning process, its very important to be mapped. This study aims to investigate how level of students’ critical thinking skills of preservice science teachers. A survey method was conducted. The Cornel Critical Thinking Skill Test-Level X instruments used to measure the aspects of induction, deduction, observation and credibility, and assumption. The participants of this study were 106 science teacher candidates. The analysis was carried out by grouping students into five levels of critical thinking skills, namely level 1 (very low), level 2 (low), level 3 (sufficient), level 4 (high), and level 5 (very high). The results show that the generally are in the level 2 (low category). For the induction, deduction, observation and credibility aspects are in the level 2 (low category), while the assumption aspects are in the level 1 (very low category). This shows that critical thinking skills need to be trained in students. The learning process carried out must be able to facilitate students to have critical thinking skills.