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European Journal of Education Studies ISSN: 2501 - 1111 ISSN-L: 2501 - 1111 Available on-line at: www.oapub.org/edu Volume 3 │Issue 6 │2017 doi: 10.5281/zenodo.803478 THE DEVELOPMENT OF CRITICAL THINKING ATTITUDES SCALE Serap Yılmaz Özelçi1i A. Seda Saracaloglu2 Associate Professor, Necmettin Erbakan University, 1 Eregli Education Faculty, Konya, Turkey Professor, Adnan Menderes University, 2 Faculty of Education, Aydın, Turkey Abstract: This research aims to develop an independent scale that measures the critical thinking attitudes of classroom teacher candidates. The research was designed in a screening model. The universe of the research was composed of 384 prospective teachers who are studying in the education faculties of a university in the western part of Turkey, in the sample classroom teacher and preschool teacher departments. Explanatory and confirmatory factor analysis was performed on the obtained data. According to research findings, "Critical Thinking Attitude Scale (CTAS)" is a valid and reliable measurement tool consisting of 19 items and 5 sub-dimensions (Information Acquisition Willingness, Reasoning, Discovery, Evidence-Based Decision Making, Self-Regulation). The validity of the construct obtained by confirmatory factor analysis with the data was tested. The maximum score that can be obtained from the scale is 95 and the minimum score is 19. The scale is suitable for use in the 17-25 age groups. Keywords: critical thinking attitude, teacher candidate, scale development, primary education For downloading the full article, please access the following link: http://oapub.org/edu/index.php/ejes/article/view/792 Copyright © The Author(s). All Rights Reserved. © 2015 – 2017 Open Access Publishing Group 691