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Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 93 (2013) 831 – 835

3rd World Conference on Learning, Teaching and Educational Leadership – WCLTA 2012

Critical Thinking Skills of Teacher Candidates of Elementary

Mathematics
Gülfem Sarpkaya Aktaşa , Melihan Ünlü ∗

a
Aksaray University, Faculty of Education, Department of Elemantary Mathematics Education, 68100, Aksaray, Turkey

Abstract

This research aims to investigate critical thinking skills of elementary mathematics teacher candidates in Turkey. Cornell Critical
Thinking Skills Test-Level X (CCTTLX) was used as data collection tool. The study group was chosen from a public university
located in Inner Anatolia Region of Turkey. 117 mathematics teacher candidates participated to this study. Descriptive statistics
were used to profile the critical thinking skills of mathematics teacher candidates. Both scores of each subscale and the total score
were taken into account to profile critical thinking skills of the sample. According to the analysis of the data, critical thinking
skills of teacher candidates of elementary mathematics were medium level but not high enough.
© 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. Open access under CC BY-NC-ND license.
Selection and peer review under responsibility of Prof. Dr. Ferhan Odabaşı
Key Words: Critical thinking, teacher education, mathematics;

1. Introduction

The Turkish educational system implements a new mathematics curriculum including a vision of integrated
mathematics and all students are offered the same compulsory mathematics courses until the end of eighth grade.
With the revised curriculum, gaining critical thinking skills to student comes to the fore among the mathematics
lesson’s purpose. Critical thinking skills are among the higher-order thinking skills (MEB, 2005, Marzano, 1998;
White & Hargrove, 1996; Ikuenobe, 2001). Components of critical thinking skills are analyzing, making comments,
self-regulation, assumption identification, explanation, and evaluation (Facione, 1998). In teaching program it is
stated that critical thinking consists of many subskills such as cause-and-effect relationships, finding similarities and
differences in the details capture, by using various criteria, making the acceptability of the information provided, the
validity of the identification, analysis, evaluation, interpretation, assumption identification (MEB, 2005).
It is needed teachers were possesed critical thinking skills and well-trained in terms of content knowledge and
pedagogical skills for the students acquire critical thinking skills in Teaching Programs. Ashton (1988) stated that
the greatest obstacle to the purpose of training individuals who are critical thinkers in schools is teachers who have
not got critical thinking knowledge and skills (cited by: Aybek, 2007). To train students who have more participants,
good questioning, willing to participate in discussions, able to identify estimates and priorities, looking for

∗
* Corresponding author. Tel.:+90-382-288 22 69
E-mail address: gulfemsarpkaya @yahoo.com

1877-0428 © 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. Open access under CC BY-NC-ND license.
Selection and peer review under responsibility of Prof. Dr. Ferhan Odabaşı
doi:10.1016/j.sbspro.2013.09.288
832 Gülfem Sarpkaya Aktaş and Melihan Ünlü / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 93 (2013) 831 – 835

alternatives, able to infer various persuasions in schools, firstly it is needed that the teachers were trained according
to these skills (Aybek, 2007). The researches that were studied with students attending in educational faculty
revealed that critical thinking disposition of teacher candidates of elemantary mathematics was mid-level (Türnüklü
& Yeşildere, 2005; Durukan & Maden, 2010) ). According to Facione and his colleagues (1995) critical thinking
dispositional attributes help predicting critical thinking skills. Therefore it is said that the determination of teacher
candidates of elemantary mathematics’ critical thinking skills and factors are affecting these skills.
The purpose of this study is to investigate determining the critical thinking skills of Elementary Mathematics
Teacher Candidates. The research addresses the following questions:
1. How does elemantary mathematics teacher candidates' critical thinking skills?
2. . How does elemantary mathematics teacher candidates' critical thinking subskills?
3. How critical thinking skill level varies according to gender and grade level?

2. Methodology

This research was designed by using descriptive research. The study was conducted with 117 students enrolled at
the faculty of education’s Elemantary Education in Mathematics. Information on teacher candidates participating in
the study are given in table1.

Table1. Information on The Subject Group

Variables N %
Gender
Female 79 67..5
Male 38 32.4
Total 117 100
Class
1 44 37.6
2 47 40.1
3 26 22.3
Total 117 100

Cornell Critical Thinking Skills Test-Level X (CCTTLX) was used as data collection tool. CCTTLX was
developed by Enis, Millman (1985). Test consists of 4 subskills; inductive reasoning, deductive reasoning,
judgement of reliability of the observations and the identification of resources. CCTTLX is a three-options multiple-
choice measurement tool which consists of totally 71 items. There are 23 questions in the size of induction, 24 in
the size of judgment of the reliability of the observations and resources, 14 in the size of deductive reasoning and 10
identification of resources.Questions distributions according to subskills are given Table2. The test application time
is around 50 minutes for groups of secandary education and above. For primary school level is estimated at 64
minutes.
Table 2. The Sub-skills of CCTTLX and The Items in This Sub-skills

Subscale Items
Induction 3-25
Deduction 52-65
Observation 27-50
Assumption identification 67-76

In this research it was used a scale which was adapted to the Turkish by Kurnaz (2007). Turkish adaptation
study, Cronbach Alpha reliability coefficient was 0.58 (Kurnaz, 2007). The reliability of the measurement
instrument were similar to the international findings (0.67). Taking into consideration the expert opinions, the
Cronbach Alpha reliability coefficient was found to be adequate
When scoring CCCLX 1, 2, 26, 51 and 66 items are not scored because the answers have been given. The total
score from the test was calculated giving for each correct answer "1" points, each wrong answer and empty "0"
points. The values in consist of CCTTLX and sub-skills was calculated separately.
 Gülfem Sarpkaya Aktaş and Melihan Ünlü / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 93 (2013) 831 – 835 833

3. Findings

3.1. The Distribution of Teacher Candidates’ Critical Thinking Skills

The first question to be answered requires determining the critical thinking skills of Elementary Mathematics
Teacher Candidates. Firstly, the styles’ arithmetical averages and standard deviations were calculated in order to get
an idea of the sample group’s critical thinking skills. The results are shown in Table 3.

Table 3 Mean Scores and Standard Deviations in Terms of Critical Thinking Skills

Subscale Mean SD Variance Range

Induction 12.8205 3.19648 10.218 17
Deduction 9.0256 2.26465 5.129 12
Observation 11.7607 3.52980 12.459 23
Assumption identification 6.3846 1.73128 2.997 9
CCTTLX 39.9915 7.00184 49.026 40

When these findings are analyzed, it can be seen that individuals exhibit differences in terms of their critical
thinking skills. When mean values in Table3 are considered, it is easy to see that the individuals have higher scores
on the induction ( X =12.82) and observation ( X = 11.76) critical thinking skills. Thus, it can be said that these
individuals assert that they think they exhibit more behaviours associated with these critical thinking skills. The
thinking skills with the lowest averages are the deduction ( X = 9.02) assumption identification ( X = 6.3) critical
thinking skills. With respect to critical thinking skills in general; the highest score that can be taken is 71. According
to elementary mathematics teacher’s candidates average scores obtained from the test ( X = 39.9) , it can be said that
teachers candidates have medium-level critical thinking skills.

3.2. The Difference of Teacher Candidates' Critical Thinking Skills According to Different Variables

In this study, gender was taken as a variable. For each critical thinking skills, there are individual differences in
terms of exhibiting the related behaviours. Each individual feels the need for the different critical thinking
dimensions depending on his/her own conditions. Table4 demonstrates the critical thinking skills differences of the
sample group according to their gender.

Table4. The diffrences of critical thinking skills based on gender

Critical Thinking Skills Gender N X sd df t p

Induction Female 79 12.85 2.88 57.9 0.122 0.904
Male 38 12.76 3.81
Deduction Female 79 8.96 2.17 65.5 -0.418 0.678
Male 38 9.15 2.46
Observation Female 79 11.54 3.04 54.6 -0.843 0.403
Male 38 12.21 4.39
Assumption Identification Female 79 6.74 1.49 115 3.4 0.001*
Male 38 5.63 1.95
CCTTLX Female 79 40.10 5.62 115 0.244 0.808
Male 38 39.76 9.32
p < 0.05
When averages regarding individuals’ critical thinking levels according to their gender are taken into account,
gender can be considered as a factor. When the results in Table 4 are examined, it can be seen that gender plays
only an important role (at the significance level of 0.05) in the critical thinking skills of assumption identification.
In this study, class was taken as a second variable. Table 5 demonstrates the results regarding the distribution of
critical thinking skills based on class level.
834 Gülfem Sarpkaya Aktaş and Melihan Ünlü / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 93 (2013) 831 – 835

Table5.Distribution of Critical Thinking Skills Based on Class Level

Critical Thinking Skills Class N sd

X
1 44 12.09 3.69
Induction
2 46 13.12 3.21
3 26 13.5 1.83
1 44 8.8 2.56
Deduction 2 46 9.2 2.14
3 26 9 1.97
1 44 12.2 3.73
Observation
2 46 11 2.95
3 26 12.1 4.03
1 44 6.04 2.03
Assumption Identification 2 46 6.7 1.45
3 26 6.3 1.57
1 44 39.2 8.2
CCTTLX 2 46 40.1 6.4
3 26 41.03 5.8

Table6. Variance Analysis on Critical Thinking Skills Averages According to Their Class Level


Critical Thinking Skills Variance Source Sum of Squares df Mean Square F p
Between Groups 39.8 2 19.9 1.984 0.142
Induction
Within Groups 1145.3 114 10.04
Total 1185.2 116
Between Groups 3.1 2 1.5 0.305 0.738
Deduction Within Groups 591.7 114 5.1
Total 594.9 116
Between Groups 36 2 18 1.456 0.237
Observation
Within Groups 1409.2 114 12.3
Total 1445.2 116
Between Groups 9.8 2 4.9 1.653 0.196
Assumption Identification Within Groups 337.8 114 2.9
Total 347.6 116
Between Groups 55 2 27.5 0.557 0.574
CCTTLX Within Groups 5631.9 114 49.4
Total 5686.9 116
p < 0.05
Table 6 demonstrates variance analysis on critical thinking skills averages according to their class levels. When
we examine Table 6, we can see that there is no significant statistical difference between class level.

4. Discussion

Findings revealed that teacher candidates have higher scores on the induction and obsevation critical thinking
skills. Teacher candidates especially for mathematics teacher candidates, the low scores of some sub-skills.The
thinking sub-skills with the lowest averages are the deduction and assumption identification critical thinking
skills.This result requires questioning teacher education programs. Learning environments should be constructed
which develop critical thinking of teacher candidates and the teacher candidates should improve themselves in this
respect in order to be qualified teachers.
There is no significant difference between the total scores of teacher candidates critical thinking skills and gender
variable. Özdemir (2005), Kürüm (2002), Çekiç (2007), Çetin (2008), Akar (2007) also viewed the factors affecting
critical thinking skills and the result of these studies teacher candidates critical thinking skill scores were not
significantly different between the gender variable. When gender and critical thinking sub-skills scores were
compared, there was significant difference between gender and assumption identification. With the other sub-skills,
induction, deduction, and observation; the total scores of these sub-skills were not significantly according to gender.
It was found that the girls have sub-skills of assumption identification more than boys. Studies have also found
favorable results for girls in terms of critical thinking sub-skills assumption identification (Gülveren, 2007; Yıldırım,
2005; Zayif 2008).
 Gülfem Sarpkaya Aktaş and Melihan Ünlü / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 93 (2013) 831 – 835 835

A total of teacher candidate’s critical thinking skill scores were not significantly different between class level.
Gülveren (2007) concluded that the class level does not affect the level of critical thinking skills in the research
which examined on university students' critical thinking skills. Gülveren (2007) stated that assumption identification
and observation sub-skills scores were not significantly different between the class level and induction and
deduction sub-skills scores were significantly different between the class levels in terms of sub-skills. Because of
the level of critical thinking skills differ according to class level. It may be that there is not course which students
can develop critical thinking skills in university, that it has not used methods and techniques which to support and to
develop on the courses. The strategies used in teaching environments have positive effect on critical thinking
(McMillan, 1987). For this reason, critical thinking skills can be examined in terms of class level, classes, methods
and techniques used by the teaching environments. Critical thinking is a feature which can be improved of different
strategies, methods and techniques. In particular, it is recommended that different methods and techniques may used
and studies may increased on the subject to develop teacher candidate’s critical thinking skills in faculty of
education.

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