Investigation of the relationship between pre-school teachers' attitudes to socio-scientific issues and levels of cognitive flexibility and tendencies to critical thinking

Socioscientific issues are the topics that are discussed in today's life that people constantly have to face. Socioscientific issues are an important part of science education. The aim of this study is to examine the relationship between preschool teachers' attitudes towards socioscientific issues, their cognitive flexibility levels and critical thinking dispositions. The relational survey model, one of the general survey models, which is one of the quantitative research approaches, was used in the research. The sample of the research is 457 preschool teachers working in Adana province Çukurova, Seyhan, Sarıçam and Yüreğir districts. Personal Information Form, Cognitive Flexibility Inventory, Critical Thinking Tendency Scale and Attitudes towards Socioscientific Issues Scale were used to collect data in the study. The data obtained from the research were analyzed using the SPSS 22.0 program. Correlation and regression analyzes were performed. As a result of the research, a positive and significant relationship was determined between the attitudes of preschool teachers towards socioscientific issues and their cognitive flexibility levels. A positive and significant relationship was found between preschool teachers' attitudes towards socioscientific issues and their critical thinking dispositions. A positive and significant relationship was found between teachers' cognitive flexibility levels and their critical thinking dispositions. In addition, it has been determined that preschool teachers' cognitive flexibility and critical thinking dispositions together predict attitudes towards socioscientific issues. Keywords: Preschool teachers, socioscientific issues, cognitive flexibility, critical thinking disposition