SOSYAL BİLGİLER İLE FEN VE TEKNOLOJİ ÖĞRETMEN ADAYLARININ ELEŞTİREL DÜŞÜNME EĞİLİMLERİ ÜZERİNE BİR ARAŞTIRMA

Abstract

Extended Abstract Problem and Purpose: Critical thinking is one of the most important tools of education in democratic societies. The teachers ,who are expected to have the students' critical thinking developed and supported , are also expected to think critically so that they can be a model to their students in this way and to be open individuals for different ideas and various ways of thinking. In this context, first of all, the teachers must support the students to establish the bond of knowledge with life. The primary classes are, of course, very important to give the students the habit of critical thinking. For this reason; the teachers, who will be a role model for the students at this stage, must also be open individuals to criticism and at the same time must be individuals thinking critically. Particularly, social studies and science and technology studies are of the two subjects which the individual can interrogate the events and the facts. In this research; it is aimed to show how the social studies and science and technology teacher candidates' critical thinking tendency differentiate according to the programmes, sex, and the facilities of free time evaluating. It is thought that this research is important to determine how much critical thinking ability the teacher candidates have before starting to teach. Method and Materials: Descriptive scanning model was used in this study. The California Critical Thinking Disposition Inventory adapted into Turkish by Kokdemir is used with the aim of determining the disposition of critical thinking ability of the participants. This scale was made as a result of the Delphi Project organized by American Philosophy Society in 1990. The scale has 7 sub-dimensions and 75 items determined theoretically and tested psychometrically. Whereas the internal consistency coefficients (alpha) of sub-dimensions of The California Critical Thinking Disposition Inventory consisting of total 7 dimensions and 75 items changes between 60 and 78, the internal consistency coefficient of the scale for total point is 90.The adaptation of the scale into Turkish was made by Kokdemir (2003) over 913 students. The scale was decreased from 75 items to 51 and 7 dimensions to 6 as a result of the item point correlation and basic component analysis. The internal consistency coefficient (alpha) of the new scale consisting of 51 items and 6 dimensions is 88. The total variant declared by the scale was determined as %36.13. When the scale is evaluated as a whole, we can say that if a person has a point less than 240, his critical thinking disposition is low and if a person has a point more than 300, his disposition is high. The sub-dimensions occurring about the scale as a result of Kokdemir's adaptation (2003) are: Truth-Seeking, open-mindedness, analyticity, systematicity, self-confidence, inquisitiveness. Results: In the study, teachers have achieved the highest score in the analyticity subscale and the lowest score inquisitiveness subscale. On the other hand, teachers are seen to have a tendency to think critically low in total. Within the research, there was not a significant difference between the teachers' gender and their critical thinking dispositions. In terms of departments they study in, social sciences teachers' and science and technology teachers' tendency to think critically shows a significant difference in favor of social sciences teachers in “self-confidenceâ€? subscale. On the other hand, among their leisure activities, reading received very little space for both social sciences teachers and science and technology teachers. Keywords: Teacher candidate, critical thinking disposition, social studies, science education.