Investigation of lifelong learning tendencies, cognitive flexibilities and computational thinking skills of candidate teachers

In this quantitative relational survey model, it was aimed to determine the lifelong learning tendencies, cognitive flexibility and computational thinking skills of pre-service teachers, the relationship between these variables and the predictors of these relationships. A total of 1118 students, including 675 students studying in the first and fourth grades of Aydın Adnan Menderes University Education Faculty, and 443 students receiving Pedagogical Formation education in this faculty, formed the sample of this research. As data collection tool in the research, "Lifelong Learning Tendency Scale" developed by Diker (2009), "Cognitive Flexibility Inventory" developed by Dennis and Vander-Wal (2010) and adapted into Turkish by Sapmaz and Doğan (2013) confirmatory factor analysis, The "Computer Thinking Skills Scale" developed by Korkmaz, Çakır and Özden (2017) was used. SPSS 23.0 data analysis program was used for data analysis, Kruskal Wallis H and Mann Whitney U tests were performed. According to the findings, prospective teachers' lifelong learning tendencies, cognitive flexibility, and computational thinking skills; show significant differences according to gender, class and type of high school they graduated from. While women's tendencies towards lifelong learning were higher than male teacher candidates, a significant difference was observed in favour of men in their cognitive flexibility levels. In addition, the lifelong learning tendencies and cognitive flexibility of the students who receive pedagogical formation education are at a higher level compared to the prospective teachers studying at the faculty of education. From the sub-dimensions of computational thinking skills, critical thinking and algorithmic thinking are higher in favour of male pre-service teachers, and in the creativity sub-dimension in favour of female pre- service teachers. As the class levels of pre-service teachers increase, their lifelong learning tendencies, cognitive flexibility and computational thinking skills also increase.