The relationship between the reading habits and cognitive flexibility levels of faculty of education students

This quantitative study aimed to determine the relationship between the book reading habits and cognitive flexibility levels of Education Faculty students and the relationship of these factors with some demographic variables. This research is a relational screening model study. The research population consisted of students in education faculties of state universities in the 2024-2025 Academic Year, and the sample consisted of students selected from the aforementioned population using the convenience sampling method. The "Cognitive Flexibility Inventory" was used to measure the cognitive flexibility levels of Education Faculty students, and the "Book Reading Habit Attitude Scale" was used to measure their book reading habits. Data analysis was conducted using SPSS 26.0. Kurtosis and skewness analyses were conducted to determine whether the data obtained in the study had a normal distribution. These data were found to have a normal distribution, and parametric tests were applied. Differences in measurements based on variables between two groups were analyzed using the t-test, and differences across three or more groups were analyzed using the ANOVA test. In cases of differences in the ANOVA test, multiple comparisons were analyzed using the Tukey test. The relationship between scale scores was analyzed using the Pearson correlation test. The following results were obtained: A weak positive correlation was identified between the book reading habits and cognitive flexibility levels of Education Faculty students. A significant difference was examined between the book reading habits and cognitive flexibility levels of Education Faculty students and the variables of gender, age, grade, and department. The study found that female students had higher reading habits than male students, while male students had higher cognitive flexibility levels than female students. It was observed that reading habits improved with increasing age and grade. According to the department variable, Science Education students had the highest reading habits and cognitive flexibility levels among Education Faculty students. The findings were discussed alongside other studies in the literature, and various recommendations were presented based on the results. Keywords: Cognitive flexibility, Faculty of Education students, book reading habits.