The relationship between critical thinking dispositions of prospective English language teachers and their levels of new media literacy

Öz The teaching profession, by its very nature, requires teachers to develop themselves continuously, to keep up with the innovations emerging over time, to acquire the competencies they require, and hence keep themselves updated. In our time, in which the developments have gained an enormous pace, particularly in technology, this requirement has become vital for teachers whose contributions to shape societies are immense. With the recent advances in technology, it has become of great importance for teachers to learn the emerging new media culture and use them effectively in their lessons. On the other hand, as a result of these rapid developments, the acquisition of critical thinking, which dates back to ancient times as a concept, by teachers as a skill has become more important than ever before. At this point, there are evaluations made regarding the importance of these two skills primarily in teacher training programs. In line with these evaluations, this study examined the relationship between the critical thinking dispositions (CTD) and their new media literacy levels (NML) of pre-service English teachers studying at the education faculties of two foundation universities. Results showed that the candidates participating in the research have high level critical thinking and new media literacy skills, and there is a moderate positive relationship between these two skills.

___

Arke, E. (2005). Media Literacy and Critical Thinking: Is There a Connection? (Doctoral dissertation). Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Aybek, B. (2016). The relationship between prospective teachers’ media and television literacy and their critical thinking dispositions. Eurasian Journal of Educational Research, 63, 261-278. Doi: http://dx.doi.org/ 10.14689/ejer.2016.63.15

Azar, A. (2010). The effect of critical thinking dispositions on students achievement in selection and placement exam for university in turkey. Journal of Turkish Science Education, 7(1), 62-73.

Buckingham, D., Banaji, S., Burn, A., & Carr, D. (2005). The media literacy of children and young people: a review of the research literature on behalf of ofcom. Project Report. London: OFCOM, 2005.

Chen, G. M. (2007). Media (literacy) education in the United States. China Media Research, 3(3), 87–103.

Ennis, R. H. (1985). A logical basis for measuring critical thinking skills. Educational Leadership, 43(2), 44-48.

Erdem, C., & Erişti, B. (2018). The Relationship Between Prospective Teachers’ Levels Of Media Literacy Skills And Critical Thinking Dispositions. Electronic Journal of Social Sciences, 17(67), 1234-1251. Doi: 10.17755/esosder.395275.

Facione, P. A., Facione, N. C. (1992). California Critical Thinking Disposition Inventory: CCTDI Inventory Manual. Millbrae, CA, California Academic Press.

Feuerstein, M. (1999). Media literacy in support of critical thinking. Journal of Educational Media, 24(1), 43-54. Doi: 10.1080/1358165990240104

Halpern, D. F. (2003). Thought and Knowledge (5th ed.). New York, NY: Psychology Press.

Halvorsen, A. (2005). Incorporating Critical Thinking Skills Development into ESL/EFLCourses(TESL/TEFL). The Internet TESL Journal, 11(3), 1-5. Retrieved from http://iteslj.org/Techniques/Halvorsen-CriticalThinking.html

Huguet, A., Kavanagh, J., Baker, G., Blumental, M. (2019) Exploring Media Literacy Education as a Tool for Mitigating Truth Decay. Santa Monica, Los Angeles, CA: RAND Corporation.

Jenkins, H., Clinton, K., Purushotma, R., Robison, A. J., & Weigel, M. (2006). Confronting the challenges of participatory culture: Media education for the 21st century. MacArthur Foundation. Retrieved from https://www.macfound.org/media/article_pdfs/JENKINS_WHITE_PAPER.PDF

Kanık, F. (2010). An assessment of teachers’ conceptions of critical thinking and practices for critical thinking development at seventh grade level (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey.

Kellner, D., & Share, J. (2005). Toward critical media literacy: Core concepts, debates, organizations, and policy. Discourse: studies in the cultural politics of education, (26)3, 369-386. Doi: 10.1080/01596300500200169

Kökdemir, D. (2003). Belirsizlik Durumlarında Karar Verme Ve Problem Çözme (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). Ankara University, Ankara, Turkey

Lipman, M. (1988). Critical thinking: What can it be? Educational Leadership. Vol 1. 38-43.

Literat, I. (2014). Measuring New Media Literacies: Towards the Development of a Comprehensive Assessment Tool. The National Association for Media Literacy Education’s Journal of Media Literacy Education, 6(1), 15-27. Retrieved from https://digitalcommons.uri.edu/jmle/

Nickerson, R. S. (1988). Chapter 1: On Improving Thinking Through Instruction. Review of Research in Education, 15(1), 3–57. Doi: 10.3102/0091732x015001003

Patton, M. Q. (2005). Qualitative Research. Encyclopedia of Statistics in Behavioral Science, 2005(3). Doi:10.1002/0470013192.bsa514

Paul, R. W., & Elder, L. (2014). Critical thinking: tools for taking charge of your professional and personal life (second edition). United States of America: Pearson Education/Prentice Hall.

Scheibe, C., & Rogow, F. (2008). 12 basic ways to integrate media literacy and critical thinking into any curriculum. Third Edition, Ithaca, Project Look Sharp.

Semerci, N. (2016). The Development Of Critical Thinking Disposition Scale (Cthd): Study On The Revision Of Validity And Reliability. International Periodical for the Languages, Literature and History of Turkish or Turkic, 11(9), 725-740. Doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.7827/TurkishStudies.9573

Wade, W. P. (2014). Bridging critical thinking and media literacy through integrated courses. CDTL Brief, 17(2), 2-5.

Willis, J., Weiser, B., & Kirkwood, D. (2014). Bridging the gap: Meeting the needs of early childhood students by integrating technology and environmental education. International Journal of Early Childhood Environmental Education, 2(1), 140-155.

Yavuz, K. (2018). Investigation Of University Students’ New Media Literacy Levels (Unpublished Master’s Thesis). Yeditepe University, İstanbul.