Factors affecting students' critical reading skills: A meta-analysis study

The main purpose of this research is to reach a general judgment about the factors affecting students' critical reading skills by applying the meta-analysis method. In line with this goal, studies rich in information about the factors affecting critical reading skills were included in this study by scanning the master's theses made at the national level and accepted studies published in peer-reviewed journals in the years 2006-2021. In the scanning phase of the research, words such as "critical, critical reading, critical reading skills" were chosen as keywords. While the google academic search engine, TÜBİTAK ULAKBİM, EBSCO and Dergipark data extensions were used to reach the scientific articles to be examined in the research, the theses made in the graduate school were reached from the theses in the National Thesis Center of the Council of Higher Education. In the study aimed at revealing how much the class, gender, place of residence, parents, education level, and economic conditions contribute to critical reading skills have been examined. While selecting the studies to be included in the meta-analysis study, was decided in line with some criteria. These are the criteria such as the results of the studies conducted between 2006 and 2021, the standard deviation and mean values, the fact that the studies were prepared in Turkish, and the normality of the distribution in the studies. The overall effect sizes and effect sizes of 44 studies consisting of 13 master's theses and 31 articles that met the criteria for participating in the meta-analysis were examined. The arithmetic means, sample numbers, t and p values, and standard deviation numerical data of the studies were calculated for the meta-analytic level effect analysis data revealed in the study. The statistical significance level of the research results in the meta-analysis was accepted as p=0.05. The random effects model is more suitable for the study since the effect size level reached has a heterogeneous structure. As a result of the statistical data in the meta-analysis, students with a library according to the variable of presence, female students according to the gender factor, students with a bachelor's degree and a high school education level according to the education level of the parents, and students with a medium family income according to the income level of the family have higher critical reading skills. size has been reached. Keywords: Critical Reading, Critical Reading Skill, Meta-Analysis.