The effect of pre-service teachers' inquiry and critical thinking skills on teacher self efficacy levels

The aim of this study is to determine the pre-service teachers? inquiry and critical thinking skills, teacher self-efficacies; what extend inquiry and critical thinking skills to predict self-efficacy and pre-service teachers? views related to inquiry and critical thinking skills. The study is figured in descriptive survey model. Qualitative and quantitative data collection methods are used in this study. Sample for quantitative data and study group for qualitative data are chosen at two stages. Fourth grade pre-service teachers who studied at Science, Elementary and Social Sciences Education undergraduate programmes at faculties of education constitute quantitative sample of the study. A total of 747 pre-service teachers chosen by using cluster sampling method constitute the sample of the study. 24 volunteer pre-service teachers who had low-high teacher self-efficacy are chosen among a total of 126 pre-service teachers studied at Science, Elementary and Social Sciences Education undergraduate programmes at Adnan Menderes University.Within this study for quantitative data collection, ?Pre-service Teacher Inquiry Skill Scale?, developed by the researcher, ?Critical Thinking Skill Scale? developed by Özdemir (2005), ?Teacher Self-efficacy Scale? adapted by Çapa, Çakıroğlu, Sarıkaya (2005) and ?Personal Information Form? for demographic variables are used. Semi-structured interview form developed by the researcher is used for the determination of pre-service teachers? views related to inquiry and critical thinking skills.SPSS-Windows 18 and LISREL 8. 54 are used for the analysis of quantitative data. Descriptive statistics such as t-test, ANOVA, Mann Whitney-U, Kruskal Wallis-H and path analysis are used for the research aims. According to the findings, pre-service teachers? inquiry and critical thinking skills are above the average and teacher?s self-efficacy is at the average. Pre-service teachers? inquiry skills don?t differ significantly in terms of gender, undergraduate programme and mother educational status. Pre-service teachers? inquiry skills don?t differ significantly in terms of father educational status except for ?self-confidence?.While pre-service teachers? critical thinking skills do not differ significantly in terms of gender and undergraduate programme, they differ significantly in terms of parental educational status. Pre-service teachers? self-efficacies differ significantly in terms of gender and undergraduate programme and do not differ significantly in terms of parental educational status. Pre-service teachers? inquiry and critical thinking skills have a weak effect on teacher self-efficacies. According to pre-service teachers? views related to inquiry and critical thinking skills, it is determined that they are accessible to inquiry and critical thinking. Pre-service teachers aim for overcoming the obstacles in the inquiry and critical thinking process. KEYWORDS: Inquiry Skill, Critical Thinking Skill, Teacher Self-efficacy, Preservice Teacher