International Journal of Humanities and Social Science Vol. 1 No. 7 [Special Issue –June 2011] 73 What does Critical Thinking mean? A statistical data analysis of pre-service teachers’ defining statements Sofia D. Anastasiadou (Corresponding Author) University of Western Macedonia 3o km Florinas Nikis, 53100, Florina, Greece E-mail: sanastasiadou@uowm.gr, Phone: 00302310416056 Aikaterini Dimitriadou University of Western Macedonia 3o km Florinas Nikis, 53100, Florina, Greece E-mail: adimitriadou@uowm.gr, Phone: 00302385055015 Abstract Critical thinking development is an essential part of undergraduate education, but are we certain that pre- service teachers can define the concept of CT in order to pursue it later in the classroom? Based on the conviction that CT can be learned, developed and improved, this paper refers to an empirical research aiming to determine the way in which 88 third semester student teachers of the University of Western Macedonia, Greece, conceive the notion of CT. The participants‟ defining statements of the term are mainly concerned with metacognition, approach and utilization of knowledge as well as cognitive processes based on logic, thus forming categories in approximate analogy to those of Sternberg‟s model of human intelligence; however, the implementation of implicative statistical analysis reveals a differentiation from this model. The results of the study have implications for the pedagogy of CT and the pre-service teachers‟ epistemological development. Key words: critical thinking, pedagogy of critical thinking, teacher education, implicative statistics Introduction The human ability to respond to the needs constantly arising in modern world is an imperative concerning all parts of the universe. These needs follow not only the acceleration of the pace of change but also the intensification of complexity and interdependence, thus resulting to the need for thinking critically as a major agenda in education across the world (Hamers & Overtoom, 1999; Frangoudaki, 2004; Ahmad Assaf, 2009). The critical thinking CT movement was generated in the late 1970s and early 1980s (Lipman, 1991: 101-113) in order to help students improve their reasoning about problems encountered in every day life. Drawing on Aristotle‟s psychology (Robinson, 1989: 62-111), the movement has been constantly expanded to cover more and more areas of thought in order to correspond to the dramatic technological, economic and social changes of our times (Dimitriadou, 2008). Research driven intervention studies and reforms across the curriculum aiming at the development of CT are usually oriented to the applicability to instruction, which has to include cognitive apprenticeship, powerful learning environments and conditions of transfer (Resnick, 1987; McGuinness & Nisbet, 1991: 182). Attention focuses on learning, thinking and instruction within subject areas (Csapó, 1999), while metacognition or self regulation seems to be a key factor for the development of teaching CT (McGuinness & Nisbet, 1991; Efklides, 2006). The value of CT is established not only for students, but also for educators, especially when they take initiatives which allow the complexities of their profession to be visible; such a condition exists, for example, in the case of action research, which gives teachers the opportunity to build their capacity for a better understanding of their teaching (Carr & Kemmis, 1986; Dana & Silva, 2003). Detailed definitions of the term CT are of major significance so much for teachers as in the minds of educators, administrative members of education and policy makers. Aim and structure of the study Our study aims to the understanding of how pre-service teachers define CT. More precisely, it focuses on the conceptions student teachers of the University of Western Macedonia hold about the term CT. The University of Western Macedonia is a new Institution and its course syllabus is still under development. Within the existing program of practicum towards undergraduate students‟ degree, they have to be engaged in instructional procedures developed in primary schools of Western Macedonia for a period of six semesters. Given the above framework, the educational outcome of this study seems to be useful towards three directions: to the promotion of student teachers‟ beliefs about knowledge and teaching processes, to the reform of the structure and content of the syllabus, as well as to the development of the student‟s internship programme in schools.