The role of creative thinking, analytical thinking and critical thinking in predicting the academic achievement of secondary school students

The main objective of this study was to determine the contribution of creative thinking, analytical thinking and critical thinking to predict the academic achievement changes of secondary school students. This study is a descriptive-correlational research. The population used for this study consist of 1681 secondary school students in theoretical branch in the sity of Sonqor in the year 2016. The sample consisted of 530 students selected through stratified random sampling and Krejcy and Morgan tables (1970) was used to estimate sample size. The instruments used in this study were: Rickets's critical thinking scale (2003) and Peter Honey's Creative Thinking and analytical thinking translated by Yousefi and et al (1384). The instruments were validated by experts and the reliability of the instruments was confirmed by Cronbach's alpha. Data were analyzed using Pearson Correlation Coefficient, the comparisons of independent sample t-test and multiple regression analysis.Findings revealed that there is a significant positive relationship between the critical thinking and creative thinking with academic achievement, and there is a significant negative relationship between the analytic thinking and academic achievement. Critical thinking and creative thinking with = 0.531 and = 0.272, respectively, were the positive and signficant predictors of academic achievement. There was a statistically significant difference between critical thinking, creative thinking and analytical thinking of male and female students.