Analyzing the relation between the problem solving abilities and critical thinking tendencies of pre-school teachers

This study aims to investigate the determination of pre-school teachers? problem solving abilities and their critical thinking tendencies, and the relationship between these two important phenomena.This research is based on descriptive survey method. The sampling of this research was composed by 352 pre-scool teachers, working in İstanbul, Denizli and İzmir.To Access the data of this search,there are three main techniques. One of them is ''Personal Information Form'' which has been developed by the researcher; the second one is ''Problem Solving Inventory'' developed by Heppner and Peterson to assess the problem solving ability of teachers.The third one is ''California Critical Thinking Tendency'' developed by Kokdemir to assess critical thinking ability of pre-school teachers.To analyze the input data; T-test, One Way Anova and Pearson Correlation Factor have been used.As a result of the search, there is a sharp correlation between the pre-scho ol teachers problem solving ability and their level of education and the sytle of the schools they work.According to search, pre-school teachers who have formal education are more qualified than the others. There is a big correlation between teachers critical thinking abilities and their working style, marital status and parents education level.According to search, teachers who work as part-time teachers, single and whose parents have a high level of education have higher critical thinking tendency than other pre-school teachers.As a result of the search; it has been determined that there is negative low meaningful correlation between problem solving abilities of pre school teachers and their critical thinking tendencies.According to the results of the survey, some suggestions have been proposed to educators and researchers.Key Words: Pre-school teachers, Problem Solving Ability, Critical Thinking Tendency