CRITICAL AND CREATIVE THINKING OF TEACHER TRAINEES

The paper offers an initial theoretical insight into critical and creative thinking constructs (tools), as well as it provides the theoretical and empirical evidence of the relationship between mentioned variables and their level in specific populations. The main objective is to verify differences in critical and creative thinking of teacher trainees within the region schools, considering their fields of study. Critical thinking has been mapped by W-GSTA questionnaire and for creative thinking has been applied Test for Creative Thinking - Drawing Production (TCT-DP). The sample consisted of 317 teacher trainees studying single-subject study programmes (humanities or natural sciences) or two-subject study in combination. Statistical analyses have revealed the significant difference in the rate of critical and creative thinking. Particularly, teacher trainees of two-subject study in combination have achieved significantly higher results in a critical thinking in comparison with teacher trainees studying humanities. On the other hand, teacher trainees of natural sciences have achieved higher results in a creative thinking in comparison with students of humanities.