The effects of critical multicultural education on prospective teachers' critical thinking skills, dispositions and multicultural efficacy

The aim of this study is to investigate the effects of critical multicultural education on critical thinking skills, dispositions, and multicultural efficacy of prospective teachers. A pretest-posttest quasi-experimental design is followed for this study. The participants of the study are 46 prospective teachers who study at English Preparatory Department of a state university in Western Black Sea Region of Turkey. "Critical Thinking Dispositions Scale", "Ennis-Weir Critical Thinking Essay Test" and "Multicultural Efficacy Scale" were used to collect data for this study. The results of the study are as follows: • There is significantly considerable difference between pretest and posttest results of multicultural efficacy, critical thinking dispositions and critical thinking skills of the Experimental Group. • There is no significant difference between pretest and posttest results of multicultural efficacy, critical thinking dispositions and critical thinking skills of the Control Group. • When pretest scores of Experimental and Control Groups are controlled, the results of Experimental Group in multicultural efficacy scale posttests are found significantly different from those of Control Group. • When pretest scores of Experimental and Control Groups are controlled, the results of Experimental Group in Critical thinking skills posttests are found significantly different from those of Control Group. • When pretest scores of Experimental and Control Groups are controlled, the results of Experimental Group in Critical Thinking Dispositions Scale posttest are found significantly different from those of Control Group. Considering all those results, it is concluded that critical multicultural education can be integrated with language skills in order to improve critical thinking skills, critical thinking dispositions and multicultural efficacy of prospective teachers studying English. KEYWORDS: Multicultural Education, Critical Multicultural Education, Multicultural Efficacy, Critical Thinking Dispositions, Critical Thinking Skills, Prospective Teachers