Uluslararası Sosyal Araştırmalar Dergisi / The Journal of International Social Research Cilt: 12 Sayı: 62 Yıl: 2019 www.sosyalarastirmalar.com Volume: 12 Issue: 62 Year: 2019 Issn: 1307-9581 http://dx.doi.org/10.17719/jisr.2019.3109 CRITICAL THINKING DISPOSITION LEVELS OF THE RELIGIOUS CULTURE AND ETHICS TEACHER CANDIDATES (THE SAMPLE OF MANISA CELAL BAYAR UNIVERSITY, FACULTY OF THEOLOGY LAST YEAR STUDENTS) Hacer ÂŞIK EV  Abstract The first aim of this study is to try to find out the levels of the dispositions and skills of critical thinking in the students who were in their last year of education at the department of Religious Culture and Ethics (RCE) Education. The second aim is to reveal if there were any changes in the levels of critical thinking dispositions and skills of the students at the end of these four years of Religious Culture and Ethics education. For this purpose, at the end of the eighth semester a Turkish Adaptation of the California Critical Thinking Disposition Scale (TACCTDS) was applied to teacher candidates. Besides, through open ended questions, the students were asked to evaluate themselves. The same scale had been applied to the students at the beginning of the first semester, as well. The computer-mediated evaluation of the analysis of the research data was conducted through SPSS 25.0 package software. According to TACCTDS results, the scores of all candidates were observed to be medium level in all subcategories except for truth seeking. whereas it is not, according to the answers of the open-ended questions. Because the results of the open-ended questions indicate that the teacher candidates had better skills of critical thinking in accordance with different variables. The difference between the critical thinking disposition levels of the teacher candidates at the beginning of the first and at the end of the eighth semester was aimed to be determined through TACCTDS results and it was observed that there was a slight decline in all the subcategories except for analytical. Despite this decline, the scores in all subcategories were observed to be still on the medium level in accordance with several different variables, except for truth seeking. However, in their answers to the open-ended questions, they claimed to have the skills of truth seeking, open-mindedness, self-esteem and curiosity in high numbers. Key words: Critical Thinking, Religious Culture and Ethics (RCE) Education, The Teacher Candidates of RCE, Turkish Adaptation of California Critical Thinking Disposition Scale. I. INTRODUCTION Critical thinking is a way of thinking that brings together components such as cognitive and affective attitudes, abilities and intellectual values which have individually been focused on and defined in several different ways. Known for their studies upon the issue, Paul and Elder define critical thinking as a process which is carried out “by skillfully taking charge of the structures inherent in thinking and imposing intellectual standards upon them” (Paul, Elder, 2001). As a result of a research upon the issue which was conducted with the participation of scholars from different fields, it was reported that critical thinking is a “purposeful, self-regulatory judgment which results in interpretation, analysis, evaluation, and inference, as well as explanation of the evidential, conceptual, methodological, criteriological, or contextual considerations upon which that judgment is based. Critical thinking is essential as a tool of inquiry. As such, critical thinking is a liberating force in education and a powerful resource in one’s personal and civic life” (Critical Thinking: The Delphi Report, 1990, 13). The above-mentioned research argues that critical thinking contains both affective dispositions and cognitive skills and listed these affective dispositions as: truth seeking, reaching correct information, interpretation, establishing cause and effect relationships, questioning, identifying the problem, analysis, bringing the pieces together, reaching conclusions by making correct assumptions, evaluation; cognitive skills as independent thinking, distinguishing self-centered thinking, fair thinking, respecting different perspectives, understanding the relationship between emotions and thoughts, being unprejudiced, delaying the judgment, developing a courage to question, well-intentioned and honest thinking, being determined to think and trusting the skill of thinking (Critical Thinking: The Delphi Report, 1990, 11). Paul and Elder argue that critical thinking owns standards such as “accuracy, clarity, relevance, logical sufficiency, precision, depth, significance, fairness, breadth” (Elder, Paul, 2002) and intellectual traits such as “intellectual humility, intellectual courage, intellectual empathy, intellectual integrity, intellectual perseverance and intellectual fair-mindedness” (Elder, Paul, 1998) and they explain each of these in detail. As can be observed in these and similar studies, critical thinking is not only a mental process, but it is rather a way of thinking with several different components which is conducted in accordance with certain criteria of normative nature (Cuypers, 2004, 77).  Doç. Dr., Manisa Celal Bayar Üniversitesi, İlahiyat Fakültesi, Felsefe ve Din Bilimleri Bölümü.