The Relationship between Teachers’ Democratic Classroom Management Attitudes and Students’ Critical Thinking Dispositions

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate the relationship between democratic classroom management attitudes of teachers and critical thinking dispositions of students. The study group consisted of 530 students from public high schools located in Altındağ district of the province of Ankara. The data was collected with the use of “Democratic Classroom Management Scale” developed by Demirtaş (2004) and “Critical Thinking Dispositions Inventory” developed by Akbıyık (2002) during the spring term of 2013-2014 academic year. The data were analyzed by conducting t test, ANOVA, Pearson correlation and simple linear regression analysis. In the study it was observed that students’ views about teachers’ democratic classroom management attitudes were at moderate level and their critical thinking dispositions were at high level. Furthermore, it was concluded that students’ views regarding teachers’ democratic classroom management attitudes and their critical thinking varied according to different variables. In the study, it was found that there was a low, positive and statistically significant relationship between the democratic classroom management attitudes of teachers and the critical thinking disposition of students. In addition, it was also founded that democratic classroom management attitudes of teachers was a significant predictor of the critical thinking disposition of students.