Investigation of lifelong learning tendencies and epistemological beliefs of social studies teacher candidates

The purpose of this study is to examine the lifelong learning tendencies and epistemological beliefs of social studies teacher candidates. The research was carried out in accordance with the descriptive survey model. The sample of the research consists of 226 social studies teacher candidates studying at Afyon Kocatepe University Faculty of Education in the 2020-2021 academic year. The convenience sampling method, which is one of the non-random sampling methods, was used to determine the sample in the study. In the research, "Epistemological Beliefs Scale" and "Lifelong Learning Scale" were used as data collection tools. The obtained data were analyzed with the statistical package program. In the data analysis process, descriptive statistics, T-test for independent groups and One-Way analysis of variance (ANOVA) were used. As a result of the study, it was determined that teacher candidate's epistemological beliefs and lifelong learning levels were high. It was observed that the lifelong learning levels of social studies teacher candidates did not differ significantly in terms of gender, grade level, parental education status and tendency to do postgraduate education. It has been revealed that the lifelong learning tendency levels of social studies teacher candidates differ significantly according to the academic performance (grade point) variable. In terms of epistemological beliefs, it was seen that there was no significant difference in terms of gender, class level, educational status of parents, academic performance and tendency to to do postgraduate education.