DOI: 10.36347/sjahss.2015.v03i01.037

Pages: 269-283

It is mentioned by scientists so many times that there are serious differences between individuals who have gained critical thinking skill in using knowledge, expressing themselves and being successful in life and those who couldn’t gain this skill. The purpose of this study is putting forward the effects of socio-economic and cultural factors on critical thinking skills of secondary school students. In this research, it is referred to descriptive research method. A critical thinking skill scale created by the authors is used as a data collection tool in this study. All secondary school students in the Centrum of Siirt province have constituted the population of the research. 6,000 students in total who have been reached by random sampling method have composed the sample of the research. Obtained data are examined by SPSS 21 package program and alpha reliability coefficient of the questionnaire is found as .71. By the analysis results, it is determined that there is no meaningful difference between the opinions of the students on critical thinking competences according to gender, working status of the parents, number of books read, factor of being an extend or elementary family and the literacy of their mothers. It is observed that critical thinking competence of students coming from families with high level of income and having literate fathers is higher.