Abstract:

Creative thinking has played a critical role in a number of fields such as science, technology, economy, and education. Given the necessity of creative thinking in mathematics teaching, it can be argued that teachers are responsible for transforming their students into creative thinkers. In this context, the present study aims to determine prospective mathematics teachers’ levels of critical thinking tendency and the main and interaction effects of demographic variables (i.e., gender, grade, and academic achievement) on critical thinking tendency. The study makes use of the survey and causal-comparative designs. Sample of study included 130 prospective elementary mathematics teachers. “The Marmara Creative Thinking Tendencies Scale” developed by Özgenel and Çetin (2017) was used as the data collection tool. Descriptive and two-way analysis of variance were preferred. The study reported high creative tendency levels of prospective teacher. Another outcomes of the study show that the variables of gender, grade, and academic achievement did not have significant main effect on creative tendency levels of prospective teachers. Besides, the interaction effect of gender-grade and gender-academic achievement on the creative thinking tendency levels of prospective teachers are not statistically significant. Based on the findings, recommendations for future research and educational implications are presented.

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