Evaluation of thinking skills of preschool children within the scope of creative thinking and critical thinking

This study examined the creative and critical thinking skills of preschool children. A correlational screening model, a quantitative research method, was used in the study. The study was conducted in the second semester of the 2024–2025 academic year with 196 4- to 5-year-old children attending three different kindergartens in Ankara. The Critical Thinking Skills Test for 5- and 6-Year-Old Children (CTS) and the Integrated Creativity Test for Preschool-Aged Children (ICTS-Preschool) were used in the study. Findings regarding the relationship between the creative and critical thinking skills of preschool children showed that children generally scored moderately in both types of thinking. While relatively higher scores were observed in the evaluation and analysis sub-dimensions of critical thinking, more limited performance was observed in sub-dimensions such as interpretation, inference, and explanation. In creative thinking, fluency in language was prominent, while scores were lower in dimensions related to originality, such as imagination and originality. In the figurative domain, children were found to have easier completion of structured elements, while performance in dimensions requiring original production remained limited. Positive correlations were obtained between both overall and sub-dimension scores of both assessment instruments. Considering the mutually reinforcing nature of creative and critical thinking in the preschool period, the findings highlight the importance of systematically supporting these skills together in early childhood education.