A study of the perceptions of prospective teachers regarding their metacognitive awareness, self-efficacy for the teaching profession and problem solving skills

This research is done for the purpose of examining the perceptions of prospective teachers regarding their metacognitive awareness, self-efficacy for the teaching profession and problem solving skills. The research has been carried out with the relational survey model. The population of the research consists of senior students of Dicle University, Ziya Gökalp Faculty of Education in the spring semester of 2014-2015 school year and the prospective teachers who were the participants of the pedagogical formation program in the same semester. The sample of the research consists of 1475 prospective teachers selected randomly from the ones who were the participants of the pedagogical formation program and senior students of Ziya Gökalp Faculty of Education in the spring semester of 2014-2015 school year. In the research, "personal information form", "metacognitive awareness inventory", "teacher self-efficacy scale" and "problem solving inventory" were used as the data collection tools. In order to determine the metacognitive awareness levels of the prospective teachers, the "metacognitive awareness inventory" originally developed by Schraw and Dennison (1994) was used. This inventory consists of 52 items and it was adapted to Turkish by Akın, Abacı and Çetin (2007). The scale used for determining the self-efficacy perceptions regarding the teaching profession was developed by the researcher. In order to determine the perceptions of prospective teachers regarding their problem solving skills, the "problem solving inventory" developed by Heppner and Petersen (1982) and adapted to Turkish by Şahin, Şahin and Heppner (1993) was used. In the research, the metacognitive awareness of prospective teachers, the self-efficacy of them for the teaching profession and also the perception levels of them regarding their problem solving skills were determined to be "high". It was stated that the metacognitive awareness of prospective teachers predicted the self-efficacy perception of them regarding the teaching profession significantly. Furthermore, that there is a moderate positive relationship between the perception regarding the metacognitive awareness level and the perception level regarding the teaching profession was determined. It was concluded that the metacognitive awareness of prospective teachers predicted the perception levels of them regarding their problem solving skills and the perception level of problem solving skill increased when the metacognitive awareness increased. It was determined that the perceptions of prospective teachers regarding their problem solving skills predicted the perception levels of them regarding the teaching profession significantly. The research reveals the fact that the gender variable did not lead to a significant difference on general metacognitive awareness, but it led to a significant difference on general problem solving skills and the general self-efficacy perception regarding the teaching profession. According to branches of prospective teachers, their metacognitive awareness, self-efficacy perception regarding the teaching profession and problem solving skills differed significantly in the overall dimensions of the scales. It was concluded that the frequency of prospective teachers' reading book except textbooks generally increased their metacognitive awareness, self-efficacy perceptions regarding the teaching profession and perceptions regarding their problem solving skills. In accordance with the results of the research, some of the suggestions which have been put forward are those; activities developing metacognitive awareness should be included in the teacher training programs and in this way the metacognitive awareness of prospective teachers should be developed further so that they are provided to comprehend the importance of metacognitive awareness. Instructors should use methods and techniques which will improve the metacognitive awareness of prospective teachers in their courses. prospective teachers should be given the opportunity to perform teaching applications at more than one school and gain a richer experience rather than performing applications at the same school during a semester. Keywords: Metacognition, self-efficacy, problem solving, prospective teacher.