Saudi Teachers’ Knowledge of Critical Thinking Skills and Their Attitudes towards Improving Saudi Students’ Critical Thinking Skills

Abstract

This study aimed at identifying the knowledge of Saudi teachers regarding critical thinking skills and exploring their attitudes towards improving Saudi students’ critical thinking skills. To achieve these two objectives, the quantitative approach was used employing a three-part questionnaire as the study’s instrument. The first part gathered the demographic information of the participants focusing on three variables: “specialization,” “years of experience,” and “gender.” The second part targeted the first objective of the study, i.e. to measure the participants’ knowledge of critical thinking skills. The third part tackled the second objective which was to determine the participants’ attitudes about improving students’ critical thinking skills. The sample of the study consisted of (408) teachers (male and female) who were teaching at secondary school level in Hail City, Saudi Arabia during the academic year 2020-2021. The results revealed that the level of Saudi Teachers’ knowledge of critical thinking skills was high and that their attitudes towards improving students’ critical thinking skills were positive. Statistically, there were significant differences in favor of the “sciences specialization” versus the “humanities specialization” in the questionnaire’s two objectives. On the other hand, there were no statistically significant differences in the “gender” and “years of experience” variables.