Investigating the Relationship Between Professors' Quality of Teaching and Critical Thinking of Geography Students at the University of Kurdistan

The quality of teaching is one of the most important issues in universities and educational centers which has been emphasized in recent years. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between the quality of teaching of professors in the tendency of geography students to critical thinking at the University of Kurdistan. The present research used an applied method in terms of purpose and descriptive-survey in terms of nature and method. The statistical population included all students in the field of geography at the University of Kurdistan (undergraduate, graduate and doctoral) and in the academic year 2021/2022, who completed a questionnaire. To determine the sample size, Cochran's formula was used and a sample size of 244 people was estimated by simple random sampling. The face validity and reliability of the questionnaire were confirmed by the professors at the departments of Educational Sciences and Geography, respectively. Cronbach's alpha coefficients ranged from 0.7 to 0.95. Data analysis was performed using SPSS 26 software and SmartPLS3 structural equation model was used to fit the model measurement. The results revealed that there was a positive and significant relationship between the quality of teaching in the tendency of geography students to critical thinking.