4.2.6 Contribution of Parental Style on Critical Thinking and Motivation

Critical thinking and motivation have been considered as two important factors contributing to learning. Although there is a considerable body of research addressed motivation and critical thinking, there is very little amount of research conducted to investigate the relationship between the two. Having this in mind, Nemlioğlu and Davasligil conducted a research in 2017 called “Contributions of Critical Thinking to Motivation”, but found no significant correlation between the two. This result showed the possibility of existence of another variable. Since the parents who show acceptance to their children and allow them to have psychological autonomy, may give their children more opportunities for thinking and decision making, parental style was added to the research. Purpose The purpose of this research is to determine the predictive power of parental style on critical thinking and motivation in 5th grade Turkish gifted students in Istanbul, Turkey.

The following questions are raised; 1. Is there a correlation between Parental Style, Critical Thinking Components and Academic Self Regulation Styles? 2. Does the Parental Style have predictive power on critical thinking components and motivation styles? Significance of the Study Although there is a considerable body of research addressed parental style. motivation and critical thinking, there is little amount of research conducted to investigate the relationship between the three. Also, there is little amount of research conducted on critical thinking of lower grade students like 4th and 5th grade. Therefore, this research will contribute benefit to the field. Limitations of the study This research is limited with 5th grade gifted students attending 7 different Centers for Science and Art and 6 schools in Istanbul. Method Research Model This is a descriptive research, investigating the existing situation. The investigation of the effect of critical thinking on motivation is carried out by using relational survey model.

Study Group The study group is 100 5th grade gifted students attending 7 different Centers for Science and Art and 6 private schools in Istanbul, Turkey.

Instruments Instruments used in this study are Parenting Style Scale (dimensions: acceptance/involvement, Psychological Autonomy, Strictness/Supervision) by Lamborn et al. 1991 , Cornell Critical Thinking Test Level X (Components: Induction, Deduction, Credibility, Identification of Assumptions) by Ennis and Millman, 2005 and Academic Self-Regulation Questionnaire (Styles: External, Introjected, Identified, Intrinsic motivation) by Ryan and Connell, 1989. Results and Discussion The calculation results of arithmetic average, standard deviations, the correlations and the results of regression analysis will be shared and discussed.

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