776-784 Elementary Education Online, 10(2), 785-797, 2011. İlköğretim Online, 10(2), 785-797, 2011. [Online]: http://ilkogretim-online.org.tr The Relationship Between the Elementary School Teachers’ Thinking Styles and the Teaching Methods They Use * Bilal DUMAN ** , Özkan ÇELİK *** Abstract. This study aims to determine the relationship between the elementary school teachers’ thinking styles and their teaching methods and investigate the teachers’ thinking styles in relation to their subject area, and gender. The study was carried out with 57 classroom teachers and 44 subject area teachers working in seven elementary schools located in Muğla city in 2009- 2010 school year. For the collection of data, thinking style inventory and teaching methods questionnaire were used. While the highest scores were obtained by the teachers for hierarchic, legistlative, executive thinking styles, the lowest scores were obtained for conservative, oligarchic, local thinking styles. Moreover, their thinking styles do not significantly vary depending on gender and subject area variables (p>.05). Except for legistlative, oligarchic and conservative styles, positive significant correlation was found between their styles and the scores they obtained from teaching methods questionnaire. Key Words: Elementary school teacher, thinking style, teaching method SUMMARY Purpose and significance: One of the most important factors affecting the selection of teaching methods is the perceptive dimension related to thinking. Perception and the way we process the information affect our emotions and thoughts and subsequently our thoughts affect how and through which methods we solve the problems we encounter. Determining how teachers think and which teaching methods they follow while solving problems may have influences on students’ being effective, critical and creative problem solvers during learning processes by contributing to the development of students’ thinking skills. In stead of just transferring information throughout teaching-learning processes, from the methodological standpoint, it is of great importance to teach students how to think at different levels. This requires a rich repertoire of teaching methods and knowledge about how to implement them. Teachers’ thinking styles find direct reflections on the teaching methods they use. The teaching methods used by teachers can affect students’ thinking, perception, information processing, meaningful and permanent learning. The purpose of the present study is to investigate the relationship between the thinking styles of elementary school teachers working in elementary schools in Muğla in 2009-2010 school year and the teaching methods they use. In line with this general purpose, answers to the following questions were sought. 1. What is the distribution of elementary school teachers’’ thinking styles? 2. What is the distribution of the teaching methods used by the elementary school teachers? 3. Is there a significant difference between the classroom teachers and subject area teachers’ thinking styles? 4. Is there a significant gender-based difference among the elementary school teachers’ thinking styles? 5. Is there a relationship between the elementary school teachers’ thinking styles and the teaching methods they use? 6. Is there a significant difference between the elementary school teachers’ learning styles and the teaching methods they use? Method: As a descriptive study, the present study makes use of a correlative survey model, one of the survey methods. The study was carried out with 101 teachers randomly selected from seven elementary schools located in neighborhoods with varying socio-economic levels in 2009-2010 school year. Two data collection tools were used in the study. First data collection tool is “The Thinking Style Inventory-TSI” developed by Stemberg (1992) and adopted to Turkish by Fer (2005) to determine the thinking styles of teachers. The reliability and validity of this scale were established. The Thinking Styles Inventory has five dimensions and totally 13 sub-dimensions measuring 13 different thinking styles. * 1. It was presented in National Educational Programs and Instruction Congress held in Balıkesir-Ayvalık/Turkey on 13-15 May 2010. ** Ass. Prof. Muğla University Education Faculty Educational Sciences, bduman@mu.edu.tr *** Research Ass. Muğla University Education Faculty Elementary School Program, ocelik@mu.edu.tr