The Relationship Between Teacher Candidates' Critical Thinking Standards and Reflective Thinking Skills

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between teacher candidates' critical thinking standards and reflective thinking skills. The study investigated the level of critical thinking standard and reflective thinking skills of teacher candidates, as well. Also, another sub-problem of the study was whether reflective thinking skills significantly differentiated according to critical thinking standards divided into three sub-levels. When the findings were examined, it can be stated that students had a high level of critical thinking standards, “depth, width, and competence”, “precision and accuracy”, and “importance, relevance, and clarity” sub-dimensions, and reflective thinking skills. Also, there was a significant and positive correlation between teacher candidates’ reflective thinking skills with critical thinking standards, “depth, width, and competence”, “precision and accuracy”, and “importance, relevance, and clarity” sub-dimensions. When the data were examined, it can be said that teacher candidates’ reflective thinking skills differed significantly according to critical thinking standard level. Besides, it can be stated that the mean ranks determined in all scale were high in favor of teacher candidates with high critical thinking standard level. However, compound effect of the level of critical thinking standards with gender and grade was not significant on reflective thinking skills; compound effect of critical thinking standards with department on reflective thinking skills was significant.