Relationship between individual innovation levels of Turkish as a foreign language teachers and their 21st century teaching skills

The aim of this study is to examine the relationship between the individual innovativeness levels of instructors teaching Turkish as a foreign language and their 21st-century teaching skills. Conducted within the framework of the relational survey model, a quantitative research design, the study included 254 instructors working in various institutions, selected through purposive sampling. The data, based on the Individual Innovativeness Scale developed by Kılıçer and Odabaşı (2010) and the 21st Century Teaching Skills Usage Scale developed by Göksün (2016), were analyzed using the SPSS software. During the analysis process, parametric tests including independent samples t-test, one-way ANOVA, correlation, and regression analyses were employed. The findings revealed that the instructors' levels of individual innovativeness were at a moderate-to-high level, while their 21st-century teaching skills were at a high level. Furthermore, a positive and moderately significant relationship was found between individual innovativeness and 21st-century teaching skills (r=0.380; p<0.001). This result suggests that an increase in instructors' innovativeness may enhance their ability to implement contemporary teaching competencies. Based on these findings, it is recommended that teacher training processes emphasize practices that support innovativeness and adopt holistic educational approaches that foster the development of 21st-century skills.Keywords: Teaching Turkish to Foreigners, 21st Century Skills, Individual Innovation, Teacher Competence