The relationship between middle school students critical reading skills, reading habits and creative thinking skills

The main purpose of this study is to reveal the relationship between secondary school students' critical reading skills, reading habits, and creative thinking skills. The relational screening method, one of the quantitative research methods, was used in the study. The research sample consisted of 436 randomly selected secondary school students studying in central and village schools in the Elbistan district of Kahramanmaraş province in the 2023-2024 academic year. "Personal Information Form", "Critical Reading Scale", "Reading Habit Scale", and "Creativity Scale" were used as data collection tools. The relationship between students' critical reading skills, reading habits, and creative thinking skills was determined with SPSS 26, and descriptive statistics, independent groups t-test, and one-way analysis of variance and correlation were used. As a result of the research, it is seen that there is a high level and significant relationship between students' book reading habits and critical reading skills. Although the relationship between students' book reading habits and creativity levels is positive and significant, the level of relationship is low. When the relationship between students' critical reading and creativity levels is examined, it is seen that although this relationship is positive and important, the level of relationship is low. Some of the results obtained regarding the sub-problems of the research are as follows: It is seen that the independent t-test results of the critical reading scale, reading habit scale, and creativity scale differ statistically significantly in favor of female students according to gender. It is seen that students' book reading habits do not differ significantly depending on where they live. It is seen that book reading habits differ significantly according to grade levels, and as the grade level increases, reading habits decrease. It was concluded that the critical reading scale and creativity scale scores differ significantly according to the mother's profession. Key Words: Critical Reading, Reading Habit, Creative Thinking.