Critical thinking dispositions of primary school secondary stage students

The goal of this study is to determine the critical thinking dispositions of primary school secondary stage students according to different variables. The population of the research is formed by the students of primary school secondary stages who are attending 6th,7th and 8th grade in Çekerek,Yozgat in 2012/2013 academic year. Depended on Ministry of Education, two of the schools were in the city center and two of them in the countryside and the questionnaire has been applied totally on 545 students. This study is a descriptive research. It is carried out by scanning model. "Personal Information Form" developed by the researcher has been used in order to gather data about the independent variables of the research. Beside this ; "CCTDI" (California Critical Thinking Dispositions Inventory) developed by Facione Giancarlo and Facione Ganien in 1998 and which was adapted to Turkish in 2003 by Kökdemir was used to determine the critical thinking dispositions of primary school secondary stage students . Arithmetic mean (M), standard deviation (SD), t test, variance analysis(ANOVA), and Scheffe test have been applied on the data gathered. In the research p<.05 level has been approved for the significance tests. As a result of the study, it has been found out that students' critical thinking disposition levels in analyticity and inquisitiveness subscales are high; however truth-seeking, open-mindedness, systematicity, self-confidence subscales and critical thinking disposition total points are in medium level. The results showed that the mothers' and fathers' educational background , monthly income and gender do not directly affect on but increase the self confidence of the students. It has been determined that urban students' critical thinking disposition total points are higher than rural students' but there is not a significant difference between school area variable and students' critical thinking disposition level. Also, it has been determined that there is a significance difference between grade variable and students' critical thinking disposition level and 6th grade students have more critical thinking dispositions than 7th and 8th grade students. Key Words: Critical Thinking, Critical Thinking Disposition, Secondary School, Student.