A study on pre-service pre-school teachers' creative thinking levels and critical thinking dispositions by some variables

The main objective of this study is to examine the relationship between the levels of creative thinking and the critical thinking dispositions of the pre-school teacher candidates in the 1st and 4th grade and, to determine whether these dispositions vary according to the variables such as gender, parents' educational level, and the type of high school they graduated.The survey was conducted on 107 students who attend the 1st and 4th grade of the Department of Pre-school Education in the Faculty of Education in Dokuz Eylül University.In the research, as data tools, a "Personal Information Form","The Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking"(TTCT) and "California Critical Thinking Disposition Inventory" (CCTDI) are used.At the end of the study, no significant difference was noticed in sense of fluency, flexibility and originality in spite of the high measure of creative thinking levels of female students. The level of creative thinking of students showed no significant difference compared to the parents' educational level and the type of high school they graduated. A significant difference is noticed in the dimension of analytical thinking, by gender and the class they attended in the critical thinking disposition. No significant difference is noticed between the students' thinking dispositions depending on their parents' educational level and the type of school they graduated. The relationship between the creativityscores and the critical thinking dispositions of the students was found the low level and positive direction. Keywords; Creative thinking, critical thinking, The Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking, California Critical Thinking Disposition Inventory