Investigating Critical Thinking in Prospective Teachers: Metacognitive Skills, Problem Solving Skills and Academic Self-Efficacy

Abstract

The aim of this study is to determine the extent to which prospective teachers' metacognitive skills, problem solving skills and academic self-efficacy explain their critical thinking tendencies. This study, designed as correlational survey method, was conducted with 229 prospective teachers studying at Van Yüzüncü Yıl University, Faculty of Education. “Critical Thinking Disposition Scale”, “Metacognitive Skills Scale”, “Problem Solving Inventory” and “Academic Self-efficacy Scale” were used for data collection. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, Pearson Product-Moment Correlation Coefficient and stepwise regression analysis. As a result of the study, a positive, moderate level and significant relationship was found between prospective teachers’ critical thinking tendencies and metacognitive skills, problem solving skills, academic self-efficacy perceptions. This study concluded that prospective teachers' metacognitive skills, problem solving skills and academic self-efficacy perceptions together can explain about half of the variance (39.5%) in their critical thinking tendencies. However, this study revealed that problem solving skills doesn't make a meaningful contribution to the total variance and cannot explain prospective teachers' critical thinking tendencies to a significant extent.