Journal of International Education Research – Third Quarter 2013 Volume 9, Number 3 2013 The Clute Institute Copyright by author(s) Creative Commons License CC-BY 257 An Analysis Of Mathematics Teacher Candidates’ Critical Thinking Dispositions And Their Logical Thinking Skills Lutfi Incikabi, Kastamonu University, Turkey Abdulkadir Tuna, Kastamonu University, Turkey Abdullah Cagri Biber, Kastamonu University, Turkey ABSTRACT This study aimed to investigate the existence of the relationship between mathematics teacher candidates’ critical thinking skills and their logical thinking dispositions in terms of the variables of grade level in college, high school type, and gender. The current study utilized relational survey model and included a total of 99 mathematics teacher candidates from the department of elementary mathematics education at a university in Turkey. Among the results of the study were that mathematics teacher candidates had a low level of logical thinking skills and critical thinking dispositions; mathematics teacher candidates’ logical thinking skills were improved from second grade to third grade level while their critical thinking skills did not change considerably by the grade level; mathematics teacher candidates’ critical thinking abilities did not affect considerably by the high school type that were graduated from while regular high school graduates possessed lower level of logical thinking abilities than the others; a weak and negatively directed correlation between mathematics teacher candidates’ critical thinking dispositions and their logical thinking skills was evident. Keywords: Critical Thinking Dispositions; Logical Thinking Skills; Mathematics Teacher Candidates INTRODUCTION ritical thinking has been received a considerable amount of interest from scholars. In 1962, Robert Ennis provided the very first definition of the critical thinking as finding the meaning of a statement and to decide whether to accept or reject it (Kazancı, 1989). Another definition of the critical thinking comes from Johnson (2000). According to him, “critical thinking is a demonstration of thought that classifies, analyzes and evaluates an interest. Halpern (1993) provides different aspect of critical thinking as a skill of using cognitive abilities or strategies to increase the achievement rate of intended behaviors. On the other hand, Norris and Ennis (1989) provides a construction of critical thinking on logical thinking by indicating that critical thinking is a decision making process that requires logical and reflective thinking on what to do or what to believe. Critical thinking does not require disputing or looking for negative critics (Külahç ı, 1995). Özden (1997, 1998) explain critical thinking as “critical, evaluative, analytical, attentive, and independent.” In addition, Aydin (2000) asserts that critical thinking needs logical thinking to provide meaningful relations among independent variables. Being in line with this assertion, Ministry of National Education (MoNE) in Turkey also states “critical thinking is a process including such mental procedures as reasoning, analysis, and evaluation” (MoNE, 2012), and categorizes logical thinking within the steps of critical thinking. Piaget defines logical thinking as mental procedures that one utilizes when an unknown situation (problem) occurs (Karplus, 1977). Among Piaget’s cognitive stages of development, logical thinking is a skill included in the concrete operational and formal operational stages. In the former, children use logical thinking during problem solving, while in the latter, children achieve the level of adults in terms of logical thinking development (Selçuk, C