SAUDI TEACHERS’ KNOWLEDGE OF CRITICAL THINKING SKILLS AND THEIR ATTITUDES TOWARDS IMPROVING SAUDI STUDENTS’ CRITICAL THINKING SKILLS

Abstract

Saudi teachers are unsure how to include critical thinking into their classrooms.This study aimed at identifying the knowledge of Saudi teachers regarding critical thinking skills and exploring their attitudes towards improving Saudi students’ critical thinking skills. To identify if there are statistically significant differences at the level of significance (0.05) between the response averages of the study sample members about the degree of assessment of Saudi teachers about their knowledge of self-critical thinking skills due to the variables (specialization, experience, and gender), the quantitative approach was used employing a three-part questionnaire as the study’s instrument to achieve objectives. The first part gathered the demographic information of the participants focusing on three variables: “specialization,” “years of experience,” and “gender. The second part was designed to assess the participants' critical thinking abilities. The third part was to determine the participants’ attitudes about improving students’ critical thinking skills. The sample of the study consisted of (408) teachers (male and female) who were teaching at secondary school level in Hail City, Saudi Arabia during the academic year 2020-2021. The results revealed that the level of Saudi Teachers’ knowledge of critical thinking skills was high and that their attitudes towards improving students’ critical thinking skills were positive. Statistically, there were significant differences in favor of the “sciences specialization” versus the “humanities specialization” in the questionnaire’s two objectives. On the other hand, there were no statistically significant differences in the “gender” and “years of experience” variables. For future research, there is still a need to further examine Saudi teachers’ critical thinking skills and their attitudes towards improving Saudi students’ critical thinking skills. Its relevance to e-learning and adaptable settings is also discussed. Future research could look into the many interactions between different learning methods and strategies utilized in the development of camel thinking. Keywords: attitudes towards critical thinking, Critical Thinking (CT), Critical Thinking Skills (CTS), Saudi Teachers (ST)