Effects of Perceived Faculty Behaviors on Student Teachers' Thinking Predispositions towards Creative, Critical, and Routine Patterns of Thinking: Towards a Suggested Paradigm

Abstract

This study aimed to recognize the effects of perceived faculty behaviors on student teachers' thinking predispositions that were conducive to stimulating and enhancing specific thinking patterns, namely the creative, critical, and routine patterns of thinking. The researcher put forth an Educational Development Model of Thinking based on a theory of perceived faculty behaviors resultant from thinking predispositions in students. This theory was tested by structural equation modeling, a model testing design and method of statistical analysis. The researcher used four scales to collect data for path analysis, namely the Perceived Faculty Behavior Scale Questionnaire, the California Critical Thinking Skills Test, the California Measure of Mental Motivation, and the Brief Demonstrator Torrance Test of Creative Thinking. The instruments were administered to a sample of student teachers )N=137( in the College of Education, King Khalid University. Path analysis results revealed statistically significant positive effects of perceived faculty behaviors on tolerance-for-approximation and the combined wish-for-preciseness. Results also showed a statistically significant effect for wish-for-preciseness on creative and routine thinking as well as for combined wish-for-preciseness and tolerance-for-approximation creative and routine thinking patterns as well as critical thinking skills. These findings prove the validity of the proposed thinking development model and the concomitant theory. The study concluded with some pedagogical implications and suggestions for further research.