An Examination of the Critical Thinking Skill Levels of the Primary Education Students

Year 2018, Volume: 9 , 209 - 216, 18.08.2018

Elif Ozturk , Ozge Aslan

Abstract

What is intended in today's renovated and updated sense of education is not
to bring up individuals who merely memorize the information units without
questioning, but to bring up enterprising asking, questioning, wondering, problem-solving,
and researching individuals, who are equipped with decision-making skills, who
may make use of information technologies, and who may think scientifically,
creatively, and multi-dimensionally. It is thus intended in this study to
determine the levels of critical thinking skill levels of the primary education
students, and to examine whether they vary as per the grade levels thereof.
Screening design, which intends to describe an existing situation as it is, is
therefore used herein. This is a study having been conducted with a total of
173 students from a primary education school in Ankara, which is registered to
the Ministry of National Education, 84 of whom are from 6^th Grade,
43 of whom are from 7^th Grade, and the remaining 46 of whom are from
8^th Grade. Cornell Critical Thinking Test-Level X (CCTTLX) was
utilized in order to determine the critical thinking levels of the said
students.  According to the attained
findings, critical thinking levels of the students from 6^th, 7^th,
and 8^th grades were found to be at medium level. A meaningful
difference, which is in favor of the students from the 8^th grade,
was found between the critical thinking levels of the students from 6^th
and 8^th grades. However, no meaningful difference was found between
the critical thinking levels of the students from the 7^th grade and
those from the 6^th and 8^th grades. No meaningful
difference was found between the critical thinking levels of the said grades
also in view of the sub-dimensions of induction, reliability of the
observations and sources, deduction, and that of defining the assumptions
included within the assessment instrument.

Keywords

Primary science education, Thinking skills, Critical thinking

References

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