Investigation of the relationships between prospective teachers' meta-cognitive thinking skills and their self-efficacy perceptions of scientific research

The aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between prospective teachers' metacognitive thinking skills and their self-efficacy of scientific research. In line with this general purpose, it has been investigated whether there is a significant difference between teacher candidates' metacognitive thinking skills and their opinions about scientific research self-efficacy according to their gender, departments, their grade level and the status of taking scientific research methods course or not. In addition, the extent of relationship between prospective teachers' metacognitive thinking skills and scientific research self-efficacy was investigated. The population of this research, which was conducted according to the relational survey method, consists of third and fourth grade prospective teachers studying at Fırat University Faculty of Education. The aim of the research is to reach the whole population. However, the whole universe could not be reached due to absences during the data collection process and lack of necessary permissions; therefore, totally 440 prospective teachers consist of the sample of the study. Within the scope of the research, two different scales were used: metacognition thinking skills perception scale and scientific research self-efficacy scale. The scientific research self-efficacy scale used in the study was developed by Tuncer and Özeren (2012). Metacognitive thinking skills perception scale, which is the other data collection tool of the study, was developed by Tuncer and Kaysi (2013). In the analysis of the data, Independent Groups T Test and One Way Analysis of Variance were used depending on the homogeneity of the distribution, and Kruskall Wallis H test was used in cases where the distribution was not homogeneous. Pearson Correlation Coefficient and Multiple Regression Analysis were used for the relational context between dependent variables and their sub-scales. Therefore, calculations of kurtosis, skewness, and VIF were also used to provide preliminary assumptions of Multiple Regression Analysis. In addition, in cases where dependent variables differ significantly in terms of independent variables, effect size was calculated to interpret these differences better. As a result of the study, it was determined that the opinions about metacognition thinking (MCT) and scientific research self-efficacy (SRS) differed significantly in terms of gender, grade, the status of taking scientific research methods, and department. Significant opinion differences were determined to be in favor of female prospective teachers in Problem Solving, Decision Making sub-scales and Whole Scale of MCT. Significant opinion differences were determined in terms of grade level (third and fourth grade) in favor of the fourth grade students in Literature sub-scale and whole scale of SRS. In the comparisons made according to the status of taking the Scientific Research Methods course, it was determined that there was a significant opinion difference in favor of those who took this course in terms of all sub-dimensions and whole scale of SRS; on the other hand, there is a significant difference in terms of Thinking sub-scale of MCT only in favor of those who took this course. It was found that the opinions about SRS and MCT scales and their sub-dimensions differ significantly in terms of the department and there are positive significant relationships between the averages of whole scales and sub-scales. Finally, it was found that the scientific research self-efficacy sub-scales explain 25% of the variance of self-efficacy perception towards metacognitive thinking skills. The findings of the research show that scientific research self-efficacy and metacognitive thinking skills are related to a certain level. Hence, it is thought that these two variables can be handled together in training processes and that with the help of one variable, some knowledge can be obtained about the other variables. Gender, grade level, the status of taking scientific research methods and the department were important variables in terms of perception of scientific research and metacognition thinking. For this reason, in organizing classroom activities, it is recommended to take into consideration the gender, grade level, the status of taking the scientific research methods course regarding scientific research or metacognitive thinking in the educational processes.