Opinions of secondary school science and technology, english language, mathematics and Turkish language teachers on promoting critical thinking

Purpose of this study is to define the opinions of secondary school Science and Technology, English Language, Mathematics and Turkish Language Teachers on promoting critical thinking. Promoting critical thinking includes all kinds of behavior, attitude, approach, method, technique or method to promote students critical thinking.Survey method was used in the research. Research population consists of the teachers who work in secondary schools (Secondary School for the Visually Impaired, Secondary School for the Hearing Impaired, Regular secondary schools, Regional Primary Boarding School) which locate in the central districts (Bağlar, Kayapınar, Sur ve Yenişehir) of Diyarbakır. Research sample consists of 81 Science and Technology, 102 English, 78 Mathematics and 102 Turkish Language Teachers who work in the secondary schools. 363 teachers participated in the reseacrh in 4 different disciplines. This number constitutes %25.1 of total 1443 teachers serving as a Science and Technology, English, Mathematics and Turkish Language Teachers in the population of research. In the research, data was collected by the survey method which consists of 28 item questionaire and developed by the researcher.7 sub-dimensions were took into account for preparing the Measuring tool which was prepared to determine the opinions of teachers on students? promoting critical thinking. Measuring tool comprises 3 questions with 4 choices, 5 questions with 5 choices, 10 questions with 6 choices, 3 questions with 4 choices, 7 questions with 7 choices, 2 questions with 8 choices. 27 of them are closed-ended questions and 1 of them is open-ended question, totally 28 questions. In the developing process of the research tool expert opinion was got by the faculty members of Fırat University. Analysis of the data, frequency, percentage, arithmetic mean, standard deviation, loss-square technique were used. The data analyzed by computer package program SPSS 17.0.The results obtained as a result of the research findings can be summarized as follows:1- The vast majority of participating teachers (%54.4) explained their eagerness to promote students critical thinking but had difficulty to achieve.2-There are no significant differences between methods and techniques used to promote students critical thinking in the context of teachers? seniority.3-Gender was not a decisive impact on the types of assignments given by the teachers.4-In terms of length of service of teachers, there is a significant difference between the types of questions used during the lessons. Teachers who have 30 years and more service stated that they used Combination-type questions (more than one type of question), teachers who have less than 30 year service stated that they used factual (Single questions with one correct answer) questions. Into the bargain, English and Mathematics teachers stated that they used factual (Single questions with one correct answer) questions, Science and Technology teachers stated that they used Combination-type questions (more than one type of question) and Turkish Language Teachers stated that they used Divergent questions (questions with many answers).5-The vast majority of participating teachers stated that questions were more associated with ?comprehension? types of questions based on Bloom Taxonomy. In this context, it can be said that teachers are unsuccessful to promote students to the process of critical thinking as knowledge, comprehension, application comprise lower-level thinking skills, analysis, synthesis and evaluation comprise higher-order thinking skills.6-The vast majority of participating teachers (%47.5) reported that examination system prevents critical thinking. Furthermore, teachers who have 30 years and more teaching experience reported that emphasis knowledge transfer on education and crowded classes prevent critical thinking, teachers who have less than 30 years teaching experience reported that examination system prevents critical thinking.As a result of this research, it can be said that teachers are overzealous and encouraged to promote students to think critical thinking but when the reality that people are not objective enough to evaluate themselves is taken into account, it is thought that it will be supportive to apply another research which has a wider population and comprises all the educational levels. On the other hand, it will be beneficial to increase the knowledge of teachers on critical thinking by in service trainings and distance education, schools, classrooms, laboratories and textbooks should be designed to promote students thinking critically.