Critical thinking skills are essential skills for life, work, and function effectively in all other aspects of life. The purpose of this study was to identify some of the important correlates of critical thinking skills, in terms of environment, quality teaching, and motivation among undergraduates early childhood education (ECE) in public tertiary institutions. This study employed correlation design. A total of 226 respondents’ early childhood education in public tertiary institutions gets involved. The data analyzed using descriptive statistics, correlation and multiple regressions by using software Statistical Package for the Social Science (SPSS) version 21.0. Descriptive analysis was done to obtain mean and standard deviation value for each variable. Descriptive analysis showed the respondents have moderate level of critical thinking skills 50.60%. There is a significant and positive relationship between environment and critical thinking skills (r = .575, p=0.000), quality teaching and critical thinking skills (r=.454, p=0.000), motivation and critical thinking skills (r=.425, p=0.000) among undergraduates early childhood education in public tertiary institutions. Preliminary analyses were performed to ensure no violation of the assumptions of normality, linearity and homoscedasticity. The outcome showed the multiple regression analyses indicated that the set variables predicted 43.10% of the factors influencing and the best predictors of factors influencing was environment. This study is expected to be form of assessing the factors influencing critical thinking skills of the undergraduates early childhood education in the implementation of effective teaching pedagogy as well as contribute to effectiveness of the education system, particularly the field of early childhood education.
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In-Text Citation: (Fook, Mustafa, & Teck, 2018)
To Cite this Article: Fook, P. T., Mustafa, M. C., & Teck, W. K. (2018). The Relationships between Influencing Factors and Critical Thinking Skills among Undergraduates of Early Childhood Education in Public Tertiary Institutions. International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 8(2), 599–611.
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