Yaratıcı Drama Eğitiminin Aday Beden Eğitimi Öğretmenlerinin Eleştirel Düşünme Becerileri Ve Eğiliml

Abstract

The first purpose of this study was to examine whether creative drama (CD) education has an effect on critical thinking (CT) skills and dispositions of pre-service physical education teachers. The second purpose was to seek evidence of critical thinking dispositions and skills among pre-service physical education teachers enrolled in creative drama classes. The third purpose was to seek changes in critical thinking skills and dispositions among pre-service physical education teachers. Participants comprised of 64 (treatment group n = 34; comparison group n = 30) pre-service physical education teachers attending the Physical Education Teacher Education (PETE) program over the fall semester of the 2010-2011 academic year at Hacettepe University’s School of Sport Sciences and Technology in Ankara. The embedded mixed methods research design was used in the study. The treatment group received a 30-hour creative drama education, while the comparison group did not. A Turkish version of the “California Critical Thinking Skills Test-(CCTST) Form 2000” and the “California Critical Thinking Dispositions Inventory” (CCTDI) were used to collect quantitative data. Qualitative data sources included reflective student journals and semi-structured interviews. Cronbach’s Alpha coefficient was calculated, descriptive statistics, analysis of variance (ANOVA), analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) and paired sampled t-tests were used for the quantitative data analysis. Content analysis was used to examine all qualitative data sources. The results from ANCOVA indicated that there were significant differences among the total and subscale post-test scores in critical thinking skills and dispositions of groups (p<.05; p<.001), but in the evaluation subscale there were no significant differences found. At the same time, the paired sampled t-test showed that the treatment group had a significant improvement (p<.05; p<.001) on critical thinking skills and dispositions components over the course of 10 weeks, however the evaluation subscale did not. By contrast, the comparison group showed significant decline from pretest to posttest in evaluation subscale as well as in total critical thinking skill scores (p<.05). Content analysis revealed six main themes, including categories and subcategories that prove the existence of critical thinking dispositions and skills in preservice physical education teachers who took creative drama education. Themes of critical challenges, intellectual resources, reasonable responses and learning outcomes emerged from reflective student journals. The other two emergent themes from semi-structured interviews were the utilization of critical thinking process and critical thinking dynamics involved in creative drama. Although early semester responses recorded the place of critical thinking in critical challenges and reasonable responses, students’ reflections shifted to group work in the middle of the semester. It should be noted that critical thinking was used as an intellectual resource during the whole semester. As a result, it can be said that some evidence of and changes in critical thinking strengthened the idea that a 30-hour creative drama education has a positive effect on critical thinking skills and dispositions for preservice physical education teachers.