Investigating Academic Achievements and Critical Thinking Dispositions of Teacher Candidates

Abstract

The aim of this study is to examine the relationship between academic achievements and critical thinking dispositions of teacher candidates in Faculty of Education and to find out whether critical thinking dispositions and academic achievements scores of teacher candidates differ according to different variables. The population consists of the teacher candidates at the Department of Primary School Teaching, Social Science Teaching, Turkish Teaching and Science Teaching at Ege University and Celal Bayar University, Faculty of Education. The study group was determined by convenience sampling method. Scores of teacher candidates obtained through “Critical Thinking Dispositions Inventory” developed by Akbıyık (2002) and students’ overall grade point average were used in the study. SPSS 17.00 program was used for analysis of the data. Research design is survey and correlational model. By the findings; critical thinking dispositions of teacher candidates do not differ according to gender, but academic achievement differs according to the gender. Both critical thinking dispositions and academic achievements of teacher candidates do not differ according to type of school. Critical thinking dispositions of teacher candidates differ according to field of study. There is a positive and weak relationship between critical thinking dispositions and academic achievements of teacher candidates.