The Evaluation of Critical Thinking Dispositions in High School Agriculture Teachers

Teachers are continually asked to develop students who are critical thinkers. Gaining an understanding of critical thinking and the capacity to think critically is essential for educators in agriculture. While critical thinking of secondary and postsecondary students has been widely studied, there is limited research that examines teachers’ critical thinking and its influence on students’ critical thinking. The purpose of this study was to develop a critical thinking disposition profile of high school agriculture teachers in [state], and examine their Engagement, Cognitive Maturity, and Innovativeness (EMI). In further pursuit of the following the conceptual model, agriculture teachers’ demographic information was collected to determine if relationships existed between age, gender, level of education, years of teaching experience, route to certification/licensure, and critical thinking dispositions. The results revealed that majority of the teachers had moderate critical thinking dispositions, and that no substantial relationships existed between critical thinking dispositions and independent demographic variables investigated.