Pre-Service Teachers’ Attitudes towards English Courses and Their Critical Thinking Skills

Abstract

The aim of the current research is to reveal the relationship between pre-service teachers’ attitudes towards
compulsory English courses and their critical thinking skills. The study also investigates the effect of the participants’
age, gender and department on their attitudes towards compulsory English courses and their critical thinking skills.
California Critical Thinking Disposition Inventory (CCTDI) and Attitude Scale towards English Classes (ASTEC)
were used as data collection instruments. 159 pre-service teachers from different departments of a public university’s
faculty of education. The results showed that there is no significant relationship between the participants’ age, gender
and department and their CCTDI and ASTEC scores. According to the correlational analyses, it is found that there is
no correlation between CCTDI and ASTEC scores of the participants. The results have been discussed under the light
of relevant literature and implications are presented for further research and pedagogy.