Analysis of the Critical Thinking Tendency of the University Students in English Language Teaching Departments in Terms of Certain Demographical Variables

The purpose of this study is to analyze the critical thinking tendency of the university students who study in the English language teaching departments in terms of certain demographical variables. A total of 169 voluntary students studying in the English language teaching departments of the following state universities form Turkey: Gazi University, Sakarya University and Balıkesir University have been included in the study. In this study, descriptive research method, as a commonly used method in the educational sciences has been used to determine the present situation for the study group. In order to determine the critical thinking tendency of the participant students, 5-likert type “Critical Thinking Tendency Scale” by Semerci (2016) was used. Also, a questionnaire determining the demographical variables of the study which are gender, age groups and grade, designed and applied by the researcher. For the statistical analyses of the data obtained, Mann Whitney U test, Kruskal Wallis H test and Spearman Correlation analyses have been conducted via SPSS 22.0 program. Following the research, it has been ascertained that the participants showed a high level of tendency in all the sub-dimensions of critical thinking: open-mindedness, systematicity, flexibility, tenacity-patience and meta-cognition. Analyses in terms of demographical variables indicated that critical thinking tendencies of students have differed significantly by age group, gender and the grade  (p<0.05). Participants in the age group 21-23 have a higher tendency than the ones in the other two age groups in all the sub dimensions of critical thinking (p<0.05). Female participants were found to have a higher tendency than male ones in the following sub-dimensions of critical thinking: open-mindedness, systematicity, flexibility and meta-cognition (p<0.05). Finally, when participants were compared to each other in terms of the grade they are in, 4th graders were determined to have a higher tendency than the students in lower grades in critical thinking. When it comes to the correlations between the sub-dimensions of the scale, it was determined that there are significant positive correlations between the sub-dimensions of systematicity, flexibility, metacognition and tenacity-patience. In conclusion, it can be stated that the students who study in English language teaching departments have a high level of critical thinking tendency, demographical variables are also important determinants in critical thinking tendency and sub-dimensions of critical thinking are interrelated for the participants of this study. Therefore, it can be concluded that the university education enhance the critical thinking tendency of the students.

Key Words: University students, critical thinking tendency, age, gender, grade, English language teaching