Investigating the Effect of the Centralized Planning System on Developing the Critical Thinking in Junior School Students

The aim of the present research is to investigate the effect of the centralized planning system on developing the critical thinking among junior school students. This research is an applied one. The statistical population of this research includes third grade junior school students of the Kurdistan province (9372 girls and 11521 boys). The selected sample in this research, in accordance with the nature of the research population and its characteristics that was selected through the multi stage cluster and classified sampling includes 220 junior school students. The Watson and Glaser critical thinking questionnaire was used for measuring the critical thinking and for analyzing the data; the Z test and Levine test were used. Results indicated that the centralized planning system will decrease critical thinking among junior school students. The centralized planning system will reduce the inference ability, deduction ability, interpretation ability, and the evaluative ability of logical arguments while it increases the ability to identify assumptions among junior school students.