Abstract:

The aim of this research is to identify the relationship between the autonomy support that high school students perceive in science and math courses and problem-solving skills and critical thinking trends. For this purpose, the relational scan model was used in this research. The study’s sample in 2014-2015 educational year formed 1063 students who studied in 7th and 8th classes in Mersin’s central districts. The research data is collected by the scale of learning climate, the scale of critical thinking tendency and the scale of problem-solving skills for high school students. Because the collected data did not show normal distribution, visual statistics, Mann Whitney U Test and Spearman-rho correlation ratio and non-parametric regression analysis were used. The analysis of the data found that the self-sufficiency support that high school students perceive in the courses of science and mathematics has a meaningful relationship with critical thinking trends and problem-solving skills (p<.05); the self-sufficiency support has a meaningful impact on critical thinking trends and problem-solving skills (p<0.0001).

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