Student?s attitudes and teacher?s views on the development of critical thinking skills in the visual arts course

The aim of this research project is to put forward ways in which the critical thinking of visual arts teachers and students in secondary phase primary schools in Trabzon can be improved.The survey method for this research is taken from the 2009 - 2010 academic year in Trabzon: Beşirli İMKB Primary School, Ülkü Primary School, Asrin Atayurt Alparslan Primary School and Araklı Çankaya Primary Public School provided 474 students in the 6th, 7th and 8th grades along with the 4 visual arts teachers. In order to gather their opinions on critical thinking in the visual arts lessons the students were given a 35 item likert-type questionnaire, the teachers were given an interview with 13 question constructed by the researcher. The data obtained through the likert-type questionnaire used in this research was analysed by the SPSS 13.0 software.. When assessing the data from the scale factor analysis of the basic components, Cronbach's Alpha reliability coefficient, KMO (Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin) coefficient, Bartlett's test, "t" test and Anova test were used to form tables. The data gathered from the interviews conducted to gain the teachers' opinions was resolved by using a content analysis method, which is a form of qualitative data analysis. A synthesis of concepts was used to explain the collected data. The numerical data is displayed in tabular form.The findings of the research are that, in general, the attitudes of the students towards critical thinking are positive although there are differences between the various classes (6th, 7th and 8th classes) and the aims of the teachers mainly follow the accepted guidelines in order to develop the thinking skills.Key words: Visual Arts Education, Thinking Skills, Critical Thinking