The Relationship Between Teacher Candidates' Educational Beliefs and Curriculum Literacies

Introduction

The 21st century, marked by technological advancements, has brought about profound changes in various fields, including education. One of these changes is the transformation of roles for teacher candidates and learners. A review of the literature reveals numerous studies attempting to identify and classify evolving roles and new skills (Binkley et al., 2012; Lai & Viering, 2012; Kennedy & Odell, 2014; Soland et al., 2013; Williams et al., 2013). Additionally, significant organizations such as OECD, EU, ISTE, NRC, AACU, ATCS, ASIA, NCREL, and Iowa educational units have categorized 21st-century skills in various ways (Cansoy, 2018; Çelebi, 2019).

In the 21st century, individuals are emphasized to possess core skills such as adaptability to change, responsiveness, technological literacy, the ability to discern accurate information from the abundance of knowledge, analytical skills, the capability to apply this knowledge to real-life situations, and the competence to produce tangible outcomes (Anagün et al., 2016). This study focuses on intellectual thinking, a skill that encompasses critical analysis abilities and deep understanding, and is considered essential for teacher candidates. The research aims to investigate the relationship between teacher candidates' 21st-century learner skills and their tendencies towards intellectual thinking.

Method

This study, structured within the relational survey design, utilizes a sample of teacher candidates enrolled in two different Education faculties in the Aegean region during the 2022/2023 academic year. A total of 425 students from the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th years voluntarily participated in the study, selected through convenience sampling.

Data was collected using the 21st-century learner skills scale (Orhan Göksün, 2016) and the intellectual thinking tendency scale (Yoldaş & Merç, 2018).

Descriptive statistics were employed for data analysis. Reliability coefficients of the scales were computed, and data were analyzed using parametric tests in accordance with the research sub-goals and normality test results.

Results/Expected Outcomes

The results indicate a moderate relationship between intellectual thinking tendencies and 21st-century learner skills scores. Specifically, a high correlation is observed between the cognitive skills dimension of learner skills and intellectual thinking tendencies, while a low level of relationship is identified between autonomous skills, collaboration, flexibility, and innovation skills. This is contrary to the expectation of a strong association between cognitive skills, described as critical thinking, systematic thinking, and solving unusual problems by NRC (as cited in Çiftçi et al., 2021), and intellectual thinking tendencies, as defined by Yoldaş and Merç (2018) as a problem-solving strategy. The analysis process is ongoing, and the complete study will be presented at the conference.

Keywords: Intellectual thinking, 21st-century skills, thinking skills.