THE EFFECT OF CRITICAL THINKING SKILLS AND EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE ON THE EPISTEMOLOGICAL BELIEFS OF STUDENTS IN A CHILD DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM

Abstract

The scientific and technological advances in the current information era have given rise tothe need for qualified work force. Individuals are expected to assess their strengths andweaknesses, to have curiosity, to be able to think rapidly and to make accurate decisions, inbroader terms, they should have the abilities to think critically, to use emotions in ingenious,sensitive, beneficial and sensible ways, and should be aware of the significance ofepistemology. The present study was intended to measure the effect of critical thinking skillsand emotional intelligence on the epistemological beliefs of the students enrolled in a ChildDevelopment program in a higher education institution. Given such an objective, theEmotional Intelligence Scale, the Critical Thinking Scale and the Epistemological BeliefScale were administered to 102 participant students who were selected via convenientsampling model in the Child Development program of a Vocational School of HealthServices in a state university in Turkey. In the data analysis stage, the scale sub-dimensionsof skewness and kurtosis values were initially examined in and later on the multivariatenormality analysis, multi correlation tests between variables and multiple linear regressiontests were performed. The findings revealed that when the “perception” sub-dimension, oneof the six dimensions of emotional intelligence increased, the “effort” sub-dimension inepistemological beliefs decreased.