The effect of the instructional principles and methods course structured according to learning styles on teacher candidates' epistemological beliefs, metacognitive thinking skills, academic self-efficacy and academic achievement

The aim of this research is to examine the effect of the teaching principles and methods course structured according to learning styles on the pre-service teachers' epistemological beliefs, metacognition thinking skills, academic self-efficacy and academic achievement. Pretest-Posttest Control Group Model, which is one of the experimental research methods, was used in the study. While teaching in the experimental group based on pre-service teachers' dominant learning styles, the control group was taught by using methods and techniques appropriate to the content of the course. The study group of the research consists of 109 students in the Department of Turkish Language Teaching and Science Education in the 2018-2019 fall semester of Fırat University Faculty of Education. In the research, Grasha - Reichmann Learning Styles Scale was used to determine the dominant learning styles of pre-service teachers. In addition, the "Metacognition Thinking Skills Scale" developed by Tuncer and Kaysi to measure the metacognitive thinking skills of the pre-service teachers, "Academic Self-Efficacy Scale" adapted to Turkish by Ekici and "Epistemological Beliefs Scale" adapted to Turkish by Deryakulu and Büyüköztürk to determine their epistemological beliefs were used. Besides, in order to determine the academic achievement of pre-service teachers regarding the teaching principles and methods course, the "Teaching Principles and Methods Achievement Test", was used and its reliability and validity were tested by the researcher. When the findings of the study were examined, it was determined that the teaching conducted according to the dominant learning styles had a strong effect on academic achievement in both departments. It was determined that pre-service teachers' metacognition thinking skills in the experimental group where teaching was made according to the dominant learning style increased significantly compared to the pre-service teachers in control group. Therefore, it can be said that the teaching performed according to the dominant learning styles improves the metacognition thinking skill. Therefore, it can be said that the teaching performed according to the dominant learning styles improves the metacognition thinking skill. On the other hand, teaching according to dominant learning styles is not an effective variable on academic self-efficacy and epistemological belief. In the research, it was determined that the structural equation model established between learning styles and academic success was not confirmed. In addition, it has been observed that the model established on the mediating effect of epistemological belief and metacognition thinking skills in the relationship between learning styles and academic success is acceptable. The results of this research showed that the dominant learning styles should be taken into consideration in the teaching processes for pre-service teachers. In addition, considering the positive contribution of teaching structured according to dominant learning styles on metacognition thinking skills, it will be beneficial to consider learning styles in activities to be conducted for metacognition thinking skills.