The relationship between curriculum literacy levels and critical thinking tendencies of teachers

The main purpose of this research is to investigate the curriculum literacy and critical thinking tendencies of teachers working in the Efeler district of Aydın province. The sample group of the research consists of 364 teachers working in the Efeler district of Aydın province in the 2021-2022 academic year. The study was designed as a correlational survey model one of the quantitative methods. Personal Information Form, Teachers' Curriculum Literacy Scale and Critical Thinking Tendency Scale were used as data collection tools. Descriptive statistics, independent samples t-test, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), and Pearson correlation test were used to analyze the data collected within the scope of the research. According to the study results, the total scores of the curriculum literacy and the average scores of the sub-dimensions of the teachers showed statistically significant difference according to their professional seniorities. It was observed that the teachers' total scores of curriculum literacy and the average scores of knowledge and skill sub-dimensions differed significantly according to both the type of school and branch. Total curriculum literacy scores of the teachers did not differ significantly in terms of gender and the graduated institution variables. The results also show that the total scores of critical thinking tendencies and the mean scores of its sub-dimensions differed significantly according to the professional seniority variable. Additionally, the total scores of the teachers' critical thinking tendencies did not differ significantly according to gender, graduated institution, school type and branch variables. Lastly, teachers' curriculum literacy and critical thinking tendencies were found to be moderately positively correlated. The regression model was found statistically significant, and the curriculum literacy levels of the teachers explained 29.3% of the variance in their critical thinking tendencies.