Multilevel analysis on students’ critical thinking at students, classroom and school levels and provide practical implementation to developing critical thinkingng

The aim of this study was to analyze multilevel of student, classroom, and school factors on students' critical thinking. 974 students of high school of Tehran participated in research. The variables selected from three levels of students (basic psychological needs and the need for cognition) of the class (support for autonomy, perceived structure) and school (school culture). A hierarchical linear model was used to analyses data. The results showed that there was a significant relationship at the student level, the variables required for autonomy, need for competence, need for communication and the need for cognition and At the level of the class, perceived structure and support for perceived autonomy had a significant relationship with the components of analysis, curiosity and truth-seeking, tend to be critical thinking. At the school level, teacher-student relationships had a significant relationship with the analytic, curiosity and student relationships with each other and normative expectations. In sum, the findings emphasized the role of student-level factors (basic psychological needs and the need for cognition), the level of class (support for autonomy, perceived structure) and the level of school (school culture) in influencing critical thinking of students.