The Research On Pre-school Teachers Critical Thinking Disposition

Critical thinking disposition is a kind of psychological states, willingness and a tendency when individual consciously use critical thinking to dispose the different information. It is the dynamics factor for critical thinking, and also the basic and foundation to generating creativity. By the aggravation of information-based society with the complexity and diversification of the world background, which has shifted researchers’ perspective of teachers’ critical thinking, teachers’ critical thinking included teachers’ critical thinking disposition is becoming an important research topic in pedagogy, especially in psychology of teachers. This just adapts to the objective needs to lay emphasis on teachers’ positive mental quality in occupation while shifting from normal education to teacher education in China. Critical thinking disposition is significant to preschool teachers’ self-directed professional development. The question what is the particular characteristic between preschool teachers’ critical thinking disposition and critical thinking disposition is an important issue in this study.The main steps of this study is as follows: from theoretical construction to tool development, and then characteristic analysis. Firstly, basing on the similar researches conducted in China and other countries, combining the results of interviewing materials,and then construct a theoretical model matches to the structure of preschool teachers’ critical thinking disposition. Secondly, make out a initial questionnaire for the preschool teachers’ critical thinking disposition according to the structure model and apply it to the investigation in order to obtain the empirical structure of the preschool teachers’ critical thinking disposition, and form the formal questionnaire. Lastly, through issuing the questionnaires to 318 preschool teachers from Chongqing, Sichuan, Gansu, Henan,Hainan and other provinces, to examine the developmental characteristics of preschool teachers’ critical thinking disposition.This study found that the critical thinking disposition of preschool teachers is a structure of multi-components, including six components: susceptibility, self-confidence,maturity, analyticity, querying consciousness and openness. In general, the level ofpreschool teachers’ critical thinking disposition now in our country is just in the middle.The characteristics of preschool teachers’ critical thinking disposition have unbalanced development and exist great differences. Through further analysis, the researchers found that the problems of preschool teachers’ critical thinking disposition are mainly as follows: teachers are lack of confidence and courage in the process of reasoning, lack of reasonable doubt and profound self-examination, and show flexuous on their own conclusions and so on. Why teachers have the above problems except personal reasons,interpersonal relationship around, education mode, management system and culture atmosphere etc. are also closely related to these problems.Therefore, researchers thought that, in order to improving preschool teachers’ critical thinking disposition and optimize the quality of thinking, we should improve from three aspects: teachers their own, teacher education and training institutions and the management of preschool. Preschool teachers should establish the concept of self reform, strengthen self reflection, deepen cooperation and reflection in teaching practice;Preschool teacher education training institutions should set the cultivation of teachers’ critical thinking as an important goal, and open relative courses, optimize the training mode and training content; Preschool managers should strengthen the open manage-culture, and improve the management system and the teacher evaluation system.By these ways, kindergarten’s reflective culture can be adjust and deepened constantly,thus to improve teachers’ critical thinking disposition, and realized the group symbiosis between individuals and groups at same time.In general, there are two creative points of this study: The first is that the components of preschool teachers’ critical thinking disposition have been revealed by conceiving in theory and carrying out experiments. The second is that preschool school teachers’ critical thinking disposition questionnaire has been made out according to the psychometrics’ demands. However, since the limitation of objective conditions and the researcher’s ability, the questionnaire need to be further improved.