Abstract:

The importance of critical thinking skills in public relations education has been increasing every day. The expectations about the modern organizations not only include carrying out the duties assigned, but also a variety of different skills such as critical thinking, taking initiative, multidimensional evaluation of incidents, resilience, and decision-making. Critical thinking is not a linear and instant process; it is rather a phenomenon that can be developed with education.In this context, the purpose of this study is to determine and present the relationship between the attitudes of Public Relations and Advertising department students in Fırat University towards research methods class and critical thinking. The relational screening model was used in this study. The population of the study is Fırat University students studying in Public Relations and Advertising department. Sampling selection wasn’t made as the purpose of the study was to reach the whole population. Surveys and scales were prepared online through Google Forms; answers were collected from 275 students and 249 students were included in the study. The survey form prepared by the researcher was used as the data collection tool. In addition to this, Scientific Research Methods Class Disposition Inventory developed by Yaşar (2014) and the “California Critical Thinking Disposition Inventory (CCTI)” adapted to Turkish by Kökdemir (2003) were used. At the end of the study process, it was seen that there was a relationship between Scientific Research Methods class and critical thinking skills. On the other hand, it was determined that there were meaningful differences between the California Critical Thinking Disposition Inventory’s subdimensions of “broadmindedness”, “curiosity”, “searching for the truth”.

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