Determination and comparison of critical and creative thinking tendencies of primary school teacher candidates

In this research, it was aimed to determine and compare the critical and creative thinking tendencies of the primary school teacher candidates. In this research, which is carried out by using survey method, it has been tried to determine the differences between the levels of critical and creative thinking tendencies according to the education year, sex, parents' education levels and family income levels. The study group of research consists of 121 teacher candidates, 52 of whom are at first and 69 are in third year at Faculty of Education in Department of Primary School Education at Giresun University. In the research, to identify prospective teachers critical thinking tendencies "Critical Thinking Disposition Scale' and to determine creative thinking tendencies. "How Creative Are You?" scale were used. Looking at the results of the research; it was found that the creative thinking tendencies of the teacher candidates were average as well as the education year, sex, parents' education levels and family income levels have not had any impact on the critical thinking tendencies. On the other hand, it was revealed that creative thinking tendencies of teacher candidates were above average and related variables have no significant effect on creative thinking tendency. In addition, when a comparison between the critical and creative thinking tendencies of the prospective teachers was made, there has a positive and a low significant relationship between skill dimension, which is the sub-dimension of critical thinking, and creative thinking. Findings of this research has showed that critical and creative thinking tendencies of teacher candidates were not significantly high and related variables have not had significant impact on changing these. As a result of this research, it is suggested that a new study could be carried out by taking into account the variables which were not focused in this study and a course on thinking education should be included to the curriculum of the Faculty of Education and began to be implemented since the first year.