Abstract:

The need for qualified managers and teachers who will improve and give importance to critical thinking skills and accept these skills as a philosophy of life in educational institutions has increased recently. It is unexpectable that managers and teachers who do not improve themselves in terms of critical thinking skills such as analytical thinking, questioning, research, synthesis, analysis and evaluation can contribute to institutions or students. These skills may influence the whole life of students. In this regard, the research purposed to examine how much school administrators and teachers give importance to critical thinking skills in their personal and professional lives. In this frame, it was also aimed at determining whether the importance of critical thinking skills of administrators and teachers would significantly differ in terms of age, seniority, gender, professional seniority, branch, administrative seniority, educational status and the number of in-service training taken variables. The research was carried oud with a survey method. The population of research consisted of school administrators and teachers from formal high schools in Basaksehir, Esenyurt, Avcılar and Beylikduzu townships at the European side of Istanbul. The data were collected through “Critical Thinking Tendency Scale (CTTS). The results revealed that school administrators and teachers give importance to critical thinking skills at medium level both in their professional and personal lives. Although significant difference was found in age, professional seniority and in-service training variables, there is no significant difference in gender, branch and educational status variables. It is suggested that teachers’ critical thinking skills be improved during their pre-service education. 

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