Examining the relationship between individual innovation and resistance to change in pre-service teachers

This study aims to examine the relationship between pre-service teachers' individual innovativeness characteristics and their resistance to change. The research was conducted using the relational survey model, and the study group consisted of volunteer pre-service teachers studying at the faculty of education of a university located in the Central Anatolia Region during the 2023–2024 academic year. Data were collected through the Individual Innovativeness Scale, the Resistance to Change Scale, and a personal information form developed by the researcher. The data obtained were analyzed using the SPSS software package, and all hypotheses were tested at a 95% confidence level. Descriptive statistics were used to determine individual innovativeness characteristics, while t-tests and one-way ANOVA were used to analyze differences based on various variables. The relationship between the two main variables was examined using the chi-square test and simple correlation analysis. According to the findings, 4.4% of the pre-service teachers were identified as innovators, 30.1% as early adopters, 52.6% as early majority, 11.3% as late majority, and 1.7% as laggards. While no significant differences were found in individual innovativeness scores based on gender, academic program, or grade level, significant differences emerged according to whether they had repeated courses and their daily internet usage time. For resistance to change scores, no significant differences were found in terms of gender or internet usage time, whereas statistically significant differences were observed based on academic program and grade level. Finally, the results revealed a moderate, negative, and statistically significant relationship between individual innovativeness and resistance to change.