Enhancing the Critical Thinking Skills and Dispositions of Pre-Service Teachers

Enhancing the Critical Thinking Skills and Dispositions of Pre-Service Teachers

This paper discusses various ways to enhance critical thinking skills and dispositions of pre-service teachers in Singapore using a thinking module based on the DASK model for preparing teachers to teach thinking skills. The study involved 109 pre-service teachers reading Diploma in Education. Half of the participants (N=56) went through the intervention module designed for preparing pre-service teachers to teach thinking skills in their classroom instruction. The other half (N=53) was the control group. Results showed that pre-service teachers in the intervention module improved their critical thinking sub-skill of 'recognition of assumptions'. Critical thinking skills and dispositions were measured by Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal (Watson & Glaser, 1980) and California Critical Thinking Disposition Inventory (Facione, Facione, & Giancarlo, 2000) respect-tively. Implications of the study are discussed.