INVESTIGATION OF CRITICAL THINKING TENDENCY LEVELS OF CLASSROOM AND ELEMENTARY MATHEMATICS TEACHER CANDIDATES IN TERMS OF SOME VARIABLES

SINIF VE İLKÖĞRETİM MATEMATİK ÖĞRETMEN ADAYLARININ ELEŞTİREL DÜŞÜNME EĞİLİM DÜZEYLERİNİN BAZI DEĞİŞKENLERE GÖRE İNCELENMESİ

Abstract

The aim of this study is to determine the critical thinking tendency levels of the classroom and elementary mathematics teacher candidates, and the effect of gender and class level variables on the levels of critical thinking. Cross-sectional model was used. The study was conducted with 549 teacher candidates studying at Balıkesir University Necatibey Education Faculty in the fall semester of 2014-2015 academic year. 240 of the teacher candidates participating in the study are taught in classroom education and 309 are taught in elementary mathematics education. As data collection tool, the California Critical Thinking Tendency Scale (CCTDI-T) developed by Demographic Information Form and Facione, Facione and Giancarlo (1998), and adopted to Turkish by Kökdemir (2003) was used. The data were analyzed using SPSS 20.0 software. According to the results of the study, it was found that general critical thinking tendencies of the teacher candidates participating in the study were slightly above the average level. The gender variable was found to have no significant effect on the general level of critical thinking. When the effect of the gender variable in the subscales was analyzed, analyticity, open-mindedness and truth-seeking dimensions were found to be significantly higher in female teacher candidates, whereas inquistiveness dimension was statistically significant in the male teacher candidates. In systematicity and self-confidence sub-dimensions, gender was not significant. When we look at scores from the overall scale, there was a significant difference between grades in terms of the critical thinking tendency levels. 1st and 2nd graders had significantly higher scores than 3rd and 4th grades. In the analytical, open-mindedness and systematicity sub-dimensions, a significant difference was found among grades, and the difference was in favor of the 1st graders. In the other sub-dimensions, the grade level did not make any significant difference. As both groups of teachers will teach mathematics, by establishing relationship between critical thinking and mathematics teaching, the results were discussed.The aim of this study is to determine the critical thinking tendencies of the preservice primary school and elementary mathematics teachers. The effects of gender and grade on the critical thinking tendencies of teacher candidates were investigated. The study was carried out with 549 preservice teachers studying at Balikesir University, the Faculty of Education in the fall semester of 2014-2015 academic year. 240 of the teacher candidates participating in the study were taught in primary school teaching while 309 were in elementary mathematics teaching. Cross-sectional survey model was used in the study. The California Critical Thinking Disposition Inventory (CCTDI) developed by Demographic Information Form and Facione, Facione and Giancarlo (1998), and adopted to Turkish by Kökdemir (2003) was used as data collection tool. In data analysis, descriptive statistics including mean, percentage and standard deviation were used. Independent sample T-test was used to investigate whether gender had a significant effect on the scores obtained from the general and subscales of the inventory. Oneway ANOVA test was used to examine whether grade affected the critical thinking tendencies. Before using one-way ANOVA, whether the data showed a normal distribution was checked. Values of skewness and kurtosis were taken into account to check whether the data were normally distributed. It was found that the data showed normal distribution. Tukey test was used to determine the source of the difference in the case of significant differences was observed in ANOVA analysis. When the results obtained from tukey analysis was significant, the value of the chi square (η2) was used to determine the effect of the grade variable. The findings were evaluated in 95% confidence interval and 5% significance level. SPSS version 20.0 software was used for the analysis of the data. The findings of the data demonstrated that the critical thinking tendencies of preservice primary school and elementary mathematics teachers were high. However, this level was closer to the average. There are similar studies in the literature which reported average critical thinking tendencies for university students and preservice teachers (Bayrak, 2014; Beşoluk & Önder, 2010; Kartal, 2012; Koçak et al., 2015). A tendency to think critically at a little higher than average level may not be sufficient to achieve the program goals of mathematics teaching. As Gupta (2005) notes, this situation highlights the inadequate critical thinking teaching and learning during university education. Although the level of critical thinking tendency of teacher candidates is a little higher than average, this situation might be due to the influence of education prior to university. In other words, the critical thinking tendency of preservice teachers, who had a high level at the beginning of their university education was not developed yet gradually decreased to average. Preservice teachers will be expected to improve their students’ critical thinking skills. Yet, as future teachers, they first need to have a high level of critical thinking skills so that they can assist to the education of learners targeted by renewed primary and secondary school mathematics teaching programs. In the study, the subscales of the critical thinking tendency inventory were also examined. The participants had the highest score in open-mindedness subscale, while they had the lowest score in systematicity subscale. The fact that the elementary preservice mathematics teachers had the highest scores in open mindedness subscale shows that they are innovative, open to new ideas and can think flexibly. Additionally, the fact that the highest average score was in the open-mindedness subscale can be interpreted as the teacher candidates are enthusiastic about developing their critical thinking le

Özet

Bu çalışmanın amacı, sınıf ve ilköğretim matematik öğretmen adaylarının eleştirel düşünme eğilim düzeylerini, eleştirel düşünme eğilim düzeylerine cinsiyet ve sınıf düzeyi değişkenlerinin etkisini belirlemektir. Çalışmada kesitsel tarama modeli kullanılmıştır. Çalışma, 2014-2015 eğitim-öğretim yılının güz yarıyılında Balıkesir Üniversitesi Necatibey Eğitim Fakültesi'nde öğrenim gören 549 öğretmen adayıyla yürütülmüştür. Çalışmaya katılan öğretmen adaylarının 240'ı sınıf öğretmenliğinde, 309'u ise ilköğretim matematik öğretmenliğinde öğrenim görmektedir. Veri toplama aracı olarak Demografik Bilgi Formu ve Facione, Facione ve Giancarlo (1998) tarafından geliştirilmiş olan, Kökdemir (2003) tarafından Türkçeye uyarlanan Kaliforniya Eleştirel Düşünme Eğilimi Ölçeği (CCTDI-T) kullanılmıştır. Veriler, SPSS 20.0 paket programı kullanılarak çözümlenmiştir. Çalışmanın sonuçlarına göre çalışmaya katılan öğretmen adaylarının genel eleştirel düşünme eğilim düzeylerinin ortalamanın biraz üstünde olduğu belirlenmiştir. Cinsiyetin değişkeninin genel eleştirel düşünme eğilim düzeyleri üzerinde anlamlı bir etkisinin olmadığı bulunmuştur. Ölçeğin alt boyutlarında cinsiyet değişkeninin etkisi incelendiğinde analitiklik, açık fikirlilik ve doğruyu arama boyutlarının kadın öğretmen adaylarının lehine, meraklılık boyutununsa erkek öğretmen adaylarınn lehine anlamlı farklılık oluşturduğu görülmüştür. Sistematiklik ve kendine güven alt boyutlarında cinsiyet değişkeni anlamlı farklılık oluşturmamıştır. Ölçeğin genelinden alınan puanlara bakıldığında sınıf düzeyine göre eleştirel düşünme eğilim düzeyleri arasında anlamlı farklılık belirlenmiştir. Anlamlı farklılık 3. ve 4. sınıflara göre 1. ve 2.sınıflar lehine olmuştur. Analitiklik, açık fikirlilik ve sistematiklik alt boyutlarında sınıf düzeyi anlamlı farklılık oluşturmuş anlamlı farklılık 1.sınıflar lehine olmuştur. Diğer alt boyutlarda sınıf düzeyi anlamlı fark oluşturmamıştır. Her iki öğretmen adayı grubu da matematik öğretimi yapacağından, eleştirel düşünmeyle matematik öğretimi arasında ilişki de kurularak elde edilen sonuçlar tartışılmıştır