Study on relation between science process, critical and creative thinking skills of primary school eighth grade students

In this study, it is aimed to determine the relation between science process, critical and creative thinking skills of primary school eighth grade students research and to examine this relation in the sense of some variables (gender, educational background of parents, number of siblings, having a private room, possession of a computer, internet access). Exemplification of survey model consists of 235 8th grade students enrolled on spring semester of 2010-2011 in 8 state schools of Çankaya, Yenimahalle and Keçiören districts of Ankara. In this research; Cornell Critical Thinking Test Level X (CCTTLX), Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking Figural Form A and Science Process Skills Test developed by author are used as tool for data gathering. In order to test reliability Science Process Skills Test (SPST) was applied in schools being on diverse socio-economic levels and reliability was determined as very high (Cronbach's alpha = 0.93). SPSS 13.0 program was used to analyze data gathered, Kolmogorov-Smirnov test, t test, one factor Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), Mann Whitney U test, Kruskal?Wallis test, Pearson correlation analysis was applied.As a result in this research it is determined that students? success in basic skills of SPST is 63% and united skills of SPST successis 52%. It is determined that variation of Science Process Skills levels of students is statistically meaningful according to gender, educational background of parents, internet access. In these variations; female gender, higher levels of educational background of parents and internet access was advantageous to students. Other variables did not consist any meaningful differences.viiAs far as critical thinking skills were considered, according to CCTTLX all sub dimensions and total test success was 51,59%. Among critical thinking skills levels CCTTLX total and reliability of observations and sources sub dimensions was advantageous to female students, CCTTLX total was advantageous to students having university graduate father. It was not determined any relation between other variables and critical thinking skills.Due to the smallness of the sample, independent variables of creative thinking skills were not analysed. Creative thinking skills were examined on the purpose of relational analyses. Considering three basic skills relations among themselves:scientific process and critical thinking had middle meaningful relation, creative thinking skills do not have any relation with two others except defining assumptions.Key Words: Science process skills, critical thinking skills, creative thinking skills, 8th grade students.