A cross-cultural study: Teachers' self-efficacy beliefs for teaching thinking skills

Abstract

The primary aim of the study was to explore how teachers' self-efficacy belief for teaching thinking change with respect to their countries, genders, teaching fields, professional seniority. To achieve this aim, Teachers' Self-Efficacy Towards Teaching Thinking Skills Scale was used in the study. The scale was translated into English, Romanian, Spanish, Italian, German, and Polish from the original Turkish form of the scale. Data were collected from 653 teachers from six different countries. MANOVA was conducted to observe the effect of country, gender, teaching field, professional seniority on the dimensions of the scale, Academic Competence, Practice and Design. Furthermore, the mutual effect of gender and teaching field, gender and professional seniority, country and teaching field, country and gender on teachers' self-efficacy belief for teaching thinking were analysed. The findings indicate that teachers' self-efficacy belief for teaching thinking changes depending on teachers' country, gender, teaching field and professional seniority. Except the mutual effect of gender and professional seniority, mutual effect of country and gender, gender and teaching field were found significant. Teachers' self-efficacy belief for teaching thinking were found high in all countries.