Investigating Iranian Professors' Roles and Their Critical Thinking Abilities

In any instructional program, the most influential factor influencing the students’ level of achievement is the teacher (Rama, 2011). This study aimed at examining whether there is a significant difference among the critical thinking mean scores of the professors who adopt the animator, author, or principal role. Goffman (1981) stated that an animator is someone who reads aloud from a text; an author is someone who paraphrases the statements, and a principal is someone who expresses his/her own ideas. To achieve the study goal, a group of 30 professors teaching English was selected, and their students (N=328) were given metaphor checklist in order to choose the metaphors that best characterized the role of each professor. Furthermore, the professors’ critical thinking abilities were measured through Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal test. This was done to find out whether the professors taking on the animator, author, or principal role differ significantly regarding their critical thinking skills. The result of one-way ANOVA indicated that the critical thinking mean score of the professors taking on the principal role is significantly higher than those adopting the animator or author role. The results offer implications and suggestions for the pedagogical consideration within the university context.