Abstract:

Review of literature at both national and international level shows that a number of qualitative and quantitative studies have investigated the relationship of thinking styles with several variables (gender, age, grade level, academic success, learning styles, and metacognition). For instance, Sünbül (2004) evaluated the Thinking Styles Questionnaire (TSQ) in terms of language equivalence, validity, and reliability and found the reliability coefficiency in relation to internal consistency and score stableness to be at sufficient level. Sofo (2005) investigated Chinese leaders’ views on thinking processes, things they value in thinking styles, and their thinking preferences. Balgamış and Baloğlu (2010) analysed the thinking styles of education directors in the city of Tokat and searched how thinking styles change according to variables such as age, gender, years of experience, and school type. The study was conducted with 241 school directors who were recruited using convenience sampling method. Findings show that directors mostly preferred hierarchic, executive, and external thinking styles and the least preferred thinking styles were found to be conservative, oligarchic, and local thinking styles. Independent variable dimensions also demonstrated statistically significant differences. Tok and Sevinç (2010) investigated the effects of the thinking skills education program on pre-school prospective teachers’ perceptions concerning their critical thinking and problem solving skills. The thinking skills education program used in the study was based on Robert J. Sternberg’s Theory of Successful Intelligence. Results indicate that all post-test scores of the education group in the Critical Reasoning Power Scale, except for ‚commenting,‛ were higher than the scores in the pre-test. Post-test scores of the education group were found to be statistically higher than the post-test scores of both groups in the Critical Reasoning Power Scale total scores. Palut (2008) investigated the relationship between parent attitudes and thinking styles proposed in the framework of ‚Mental Self Government‛ by Sternberg (1995). Results show that there is a positive relationship between providing children with attitudes that enhance care/psychological autonomy and children’s critical, innovative, and hierarchical thinking styles.

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