The relationship of preservice teachers\u27 and faculty members\u27 perceptions of critical thinking and their epistemological beliefs

The term critical thinking has recently been used in the Ethiopian educational policy documents as well as in its teacher education curricula. Even though the concept has been given a central importance by being the central goal of education at all levels, a well established understanding and practice of nurturing critical thinking at school level, as well as at teacher education and training curriculum has not been achieved yet. From the personal experience both as pre-service teacher and then as teacher educator in Bahir Dar university, one of the teacher education institutions in the country, I have observed, especially during pre-service teachers\u27 practical training, that the very lack of scientific understanding about what critical thinking refers to and the misconceptions associated with it play great role in how they ineffectively grasp the how of organizing learning experiences, prepare lesson plans and execute them. This study is designed to investigate what pre-service teachers as well as teacher educators in the Department of Pedagogical Sciences believe critical thinking is. One hypothesis investigated in the proposed study is that critical thinking is related to epistemological beliefs. Therefore, participants\u27 epistemological beliefs will be measured by Schraw, Bendixen, and Dunkle\u27s (2004) Epistemological Belief Inventory (EBI) and analyzed in relation to their beliefs about critical thinking. Emphasis will also be given in assessing the difference among the different levels of pre-service teachers and their instructors to see if there are any similarities and differences with respect to both the idea of critical thinking and the what and how of knowledge