A study was conducted to observe four elementary school teachers in an effort to determine the influence that their teaching styles and teaching approaches had on their students' ability to think more critically. After the teachers completed a questionnaire about their classroom situation and had a brief interview with the observer, each teacher was observed for approximately 3 hours over a period of 2 weeks. Following the observations, each teacher was associated with either one or a combination of two of the following descriptive teaching styles: expository mode, inquiry mode, demonstrative mode, and the integrated curriculum mode. Results indicated that the education and experience of the teachers made very little difference with regard to the attention that they directed to these skills; however, it did appear that instructional strategies, instructional materials, and teaching modes do affect to some extent how much critical thinking might be encouraged in the classroom. (Two tables of data are included.) (MG)