Lise Öğrencilerinin Düşünme Stillerinin Çeşitli Değişkenler Acısından İncelenmesi

Review of literature at both national and international level shows that a number of qualitative and quantitative studies have investigated the relationship of thinking styles with several variables (gender, age, grade level, academic success, learning styles, and metacognition). For instance, Sünbül (2004) evaluated the Thinking Styles Questionnaire (TSQ) in terms of language equivalence, validity, and reliability and found the reliability co -efficiency in relation to internal consistency and score stableness to be at sufficient level. Sofo (2005) investigated Chinese leaders’ views on thinking processes, things they value in thinking styles, and their thinking preferences. Balgamış and Baloğlu (2010) analysed the thinking styles of education directors in the city of Tokat and searched how thinking styles change according to variables such as age, gender, years of experience, and school type. The study was conducted with 241 school directors who were recruited using convenience sampling method. Findings show that directors mostly preferred hierarchic, executive, and external thinking styles and the least preferred thinking styles were found to be conservative, oligarchic, and local thinking styles. Independent variable dimensions also demonstrated statistically significant differences. Tok and Sevinç (2010) investigated the effects of the thinking skills education program on pre-school prospective teachers’ perceptions concerning their critical thinking and problem solving skills. The thinking skills education program used in the study was based on Robert J. Sternberg’s Theory of Successful Intelligence. Results indicate that all post-test scores of the education group in the Critical Reasoning Power Scale, except for ‚commenting,‛ were higher than the scores in the pre-test. Post-test scores of the education group were found to be statistically higher than the post-test scores of both groups in the Critical Reasoning Power Scale total scores. Palut (2008) investigated the relationship between parent attitudes and thinking styles proposed in the framework of ‚Mental Self Government‛ by Sternberg (1995). Results show that there is a positive relationship between providing children with attitudes that enhance care/psychological autonomy and children’s critical, innovative, and hierarchical thinking styles. Çoşkuner, Gacar and Yanlıç (2011) investigated the relationship between thinking styles of physical education department prospective teachers and their coping behaviours in terms of various variables. Although thinking styles do not demonstrate significant differences in terms of gender and grade level, ‚fathers’ education level‛ indicates significant differences in terms of rational thinking; and, ‚time spent out of school‛ indicates significant differences in terms of intuitional thinking. Tok and Sevinç (2012) identified the effect of the thinking skills education program based on Sternberg’s Theory of Successful Intelligence on preschool prospective teachers’ creative thinking skills. Creative thinking post-test scores of the education group in variables such as verbal fluency, verbal flexibility, verbal originality, formal fluency, formal originality, abstractness of the titles, formal enrichment, emotional expressions, unusual visualisation, and the power of imagination were significantly higher than those of their pre-test. Studies in the field emphasise that individuals differ according to their thinking styles. Differences in these thinking styles preferences have prominent effects on individuals’ social relationships and academic success as well as on the use of thinking processes and skills. Besides, identification of high school students’ thinking styles would contribute to the efforts of designing curriculum that is appropriate to these thinking styles, and would become helpful for all shareholders in the learning and teaching processes. In this regard, the main purpose of this study is to investigate thinking styles of ninth, tenth, eleventh, and twelfth grade high school students in Kars in terms of various socio -demographical variables. In line with this purpose, the study was guided by the following questions: In terms of school type, gender, and grade level of ninth, tenth, eleventh, and twelfth grade normal and Anatolia high school students: 1. Are there any significant differences between the legislative, executive, and judical dimensions of the functions subscale of Thinking Styles Inventory? 2. Are there any significant differences between the monarchic, hierarchic, oligarchic, and anarchic aspects of forms subscale of the Thinking Styles Inventory? 3. Are there any significant differences between the global and local aspects of the levels subscale of the Thinking Styles Inventory? 4. Are there any significant differences between the internal and external aspects of the leanings subscale of the Thinking Styles Inventory? 5. Are there any significant differences between the liberal and conservative aspects of the scopes subscale of the Thinking Styles Inventory?