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Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 47 (2012) 797 801

CY-ICER 2012

and their use of reading strategies

Nevin Akkaya*
Dokuz Eylul University Buca Faculty of Education Turkish Language Teaching Department

- Turkey

Abstract
Critical thinking which refers to a higher-order of thinking that questions assumptions is one of the main learning objectives in
the new elementary curriculum. The core critical thinking skills include observation, interpretation, analysis, inference,
evaluation, explanation, and meta-cognition.
-dimensional thinking and his higher order thinking skills. Particularly, during the reading
activity, readers can use reading strategies that are based on critical thinking principles. Thus, it is important to understand the
relationship between reading strategy use and critical thinking.The aim of this study is to understand the relationship between
Turkish
from Department of Turkish Language Teaching, Buca Faculty of Education, Dokuz Eylul University. A descriptive study
method was used in this study. The data gathering tools used in the study were the California Critical Thinking Disposition
Inventory (CCTDI) and the Metacognitive Reading Strategies Questionnaire (MRSQ). Data analysis revealed that there is a
positive correlation (.B=.
their critical thinking disposition
Keywords: Critical thinking, reading strategies, teacher candidates

1.Introduction
Critical thinking is defined in different ways from various points of views. In his definition, Paul (1988)
emphasizes that critical thinking is based on observation and information. Beyer (1985) defines the term as
(1999), critical thinking is basically the ability and tendency of obtaining, evaluating, and utilizing information in an
effective way. In these definitions, the common point is that reorganizing, evaluating, and using the already existing
knowledge or recently encountered information effectively is important in critical thinking. As can be noticed from
the definitions, the concept of critical thinking is tried to be explained upon philosophical and psychological bases.
While the philosophical approach focuses on the norms of good thinking, the concept of human cognition, and the
cognitive skills required for a realistic world view perceiving events and situations objectively, the psychological
approach emphasizes experimental studies on thoughts and thinking, individual differences in comprehending
complex ideas, and problem solving which is an aspect of critical thinking (Sahinel, as cited in Karaduz, 2010).

* Nevin Akkaya. Tel.: +90 (0)5339629111

E-mail address: nevin.akkaya@deu.edu.tr

1877-0428 2012 Published by Elsevier Ltd. Selection and/or peer review under responsibility of Prof. Dr. Hseyin Uzunboylu
Open access under CC BY-NC-ND license. doi:10.1016/j.sbspro.2012.06.737

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Nevin Akkaya / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 47 (2012) 797 801

According to Cuceloglu, an intellectual individual is the one who can think critically. He constantly perceives
and thinks. Individuals who cannot use critical thinking are not open to new perspectives and cannot look at events,
situations, and people from a different angle. Verbalizing different opinions is important not only for democracy, but
also for education. The goal of education is to educate individuals who can think, question, take action, improve
in reaching this aim. In this respect, language is the primary way of thinking, and educating critically thinking
individuals is only possible by language education. Achieving desired gains in any of the language skills at a critical
thinking level may also affect their development of thinking in a positive way. When gains related to reading skills
turn into critical thinking level, they can make deductions and evaluations from their readings. Considering reading
and learning, and reading and the ability to comprehend and criticize as synonyms is not a new approach, but has
been frequently mentioned. (Ozdemir, 2000:20)
Ozbay (2009) arg
thinking skills. Today, it is not enough to teach reading and help students have a reading habit to be involved in the
information society. When it is considered that comprehending what you read is important in every part of daily life,
the teaching of reading should be done in a more deliberate and strategic way. Recent views on reading processes
show that using reading strategies are effective. Strategy is a plan to reach the learning outcomes. Students having
metacognitive skills are observed to be aware of their own learning styles, and these students are the ones who can
use strategies (Akkaya, 2011). These strategies used during the reading activity foster critical thinking and stimulate
metacognitive processes.
Critical thinking skills can be taught through a suitable curriculum, courses, method and technique. Educating
individuals who are critical thinkers is possible with teachers having these skills. Therefore, teacher candidates
ng
and the interrelatedness of this skill with other skills has a significant importance.
2.Method
strategies and their critical thinking skills. For this purpose, the relational screening model was used in the study
(Balci, 2001; Karasar, 2002; Buyukozturk, 2007). The data were gathered by distributing MRSQ and CCTDI
inventories to teacher candidates.
2.1. Sampling
The population of this study is the 1080 students at the Turkish Language Teaching Department of Buca Faculty
of Education, Dokuz Eylul University. The sample is 420 students, 219 of which are females (52.1%), and 201 are
males (47.9%).
2.2. Data Collection Instruments
In this study, Metacognitive Reading Strategies Questionnaire (MRSQ) which was developed by Taraban and his
colleagues (2004) and translated into Turkish by Cogmen (2010) was used. The reliability of the questionnaire is
0.84. Additionally, California Critical Thinking Disposition Inventory (CCTDI) which was developed by Facione,
Facione and Giancarlo (1998) and translated into Turkish by Kokdemir (2003) was used. The internal consistency
coefficient of the inventory (Alpha) was .88.

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799

2.3. Data Analysis Techniques

The data collected in the study was analyzed with SPSS version 16.0. For the purpose of the study, in order to
analysis was used.
3. Findings

analysis revealed that there is a lower moderate positive relationship (.B=.40; R2 =,168; F=84.127;p=,000;p<.01)
result which indicates that the relationship
thinking disposition is 0/0 16.7.
Figure 1. Scatter Diagram and Regression Line related to MRSQ and CCTDI

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Nevin Akkaya / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 47 (2012) 797 801

4. Discussion and Suggestions

Scientific and technological advances push the countries on the path of being information societies to change and
improve their educational understandings. In this respect, educating teachers who are one of the key constituents of
the educational system is important. Teacher candidates are expected to have critical thinking skills and know their
elements. According to the results of this study, it was found that there is a meaningful relationship between reading
strategy use and critical thinking skills. This relationship is at moderate level. Development of critical thinking skills
in individuals cannot be adhered to only one factor. The environment where the individual grow up, his upbringing,
family and neighborhood, education level, personality, confidence, interpretation ability can all be counted as the
factors. However, an important finding of the study is that using metacognitive reading strategies is a good predictor
of the use of critical thinking skills. Based on these findings, the following suggestions can be made:
The comprehension techniques and expression techniques courses in the teacher training programs should be
covered in a text-based way which may courage the students to use reading strategies.
The selected texts for the courses should have the quality to foster critical thinking skills.
The importance of reading strategies should be told to teacher candidates.
Studies to identify the other factors affecting critical thinking skills should be carried out.
Activities to improve reading habits should be done by making teacher candidates realize the relationship
between reading and critical thinking.
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