Critical thinking tendencies among teacher candidates

The study aims to determine critical thinking tendencies among teacher candidates. 720 students from primary school teaching department (Primary School Teaching Programme, Science Teaching Programme and Prc-School Teaching Programme) form the sample of the study. When the gender and age distributions were investigated, 253 candidates arc males and 467 are females. All the teacher candidates aged between 17-22 years old. The reliability coefficient of the California Critical Thinking Tendency Scale is 0.88. The scale consists of 6-point Likert-type 51 items and is adapted to Turkish by Kokdemir (2003). The scale consists of 6 scales: Analyticity, Curiosity, Open-Mindedness, Self-Reliance, Search for Truth, and Systematicty. The data collected through the scale were analyzed by using t-tests and analysis of variance and interpreted in tables. As a result, it was found that the critical thinking tendency of teacher candidates differs in sub-scalcs on open-mindedness and curiosity with regards to gender, on analyticity and search for truth with regards to learning styles, on analyticity with regards to grades, and on analyticity, curiosity, and search for truth according to majors.