An assessment of teachers' conceptions of critical thinking and practices for critical thinking development at seventh grade level

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Tezin Türü: Doktora

Tezin Yürütüldüğü Kurum: Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi, Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü, Eğitim Bilimleri Bölümü, Türkiye

Tezin Onay Tarihi: 2010

Öğrenci: FİGEN KANİK

Danışman: ALİ YILDIRIM

Özet:

This study aimed to explore teachers’ conceptions of critical thinking and practices for critical thinking development in Turkish, social studies, science and technology and mathematics courses at seventh grade level. The study was conducted with a phenomenological approach in which 70 teachers from 14 elementary schools in Ankara participated. Data were collected through in-depth interviews with teachers. The findings of the study revealed that there were cognitive skills, dispositions and criteria that teachers perceived to relate to critical thinking. The results also shed light on teachers’ perceptions on the acquisition of critical thinking, the roles that they assumed in the process of enhancing students’ critical thinking, teaching approaches they held with regard to the enhancement of students’ critical thinking, and the conditions that they deemed necessary to develop critical thinking in class. Moreover, teachers’ planning for the integration of critical thinking into their instruction revealed the limitations of the programs in teaching for critical thinking and the alterations that they made to eliminate these limitations and set the stage for students to think critically. In addition, teachers’ practices for the incorporation of critical thinking into instruction at seventh grade level illuminated instructional strategies that teachers used, in-class activities that they conducted, and assignments that they gave to students for the purpose of fostering their critical thinking. Furthermore, perceptions on teachers’ assessment of students’ critical thinking provided insight into the instruments that teachers used in the assessment of students’ critical thinking, the kind of critical thinking skills and dispositions that they aimed to assess, their perceptions on criteria by which they judged students’ critical thinking, and reasons behind any reservations about the assessment of students’ critical thinking. Besides, teachers’ perceptions on obstacles to and opportunities for the development of students’ critical thinking helped to identify the factors that inhibited or fostered their ability to focus on critical thinking skills in their classes. Finally, it should be noted that with regard to all the aforementioned issues, discipline-specific categories, as well as the categories across all four disciplines, emerged.