Metacognitive Awareness and Critical Thinking Disposition of Pre-Service Teachers: A Structural Equation Modeling

Abstract

Metacognition supports pre-service teachers' critical thinking (CT) processes because higher levels of metacognitive awareness of pre-service teachers increase their disposition to CT. This research aims to examine pre-service teachers' metacognitive awareness in terms of self-, organizational, and judgmental dimensions, to measure their CT disposition in engagement, cognitive maturity, and innovativeness, and to qualify the relationship between metacognitive awareness and disposition to CT of pre-service teachers. In the quantitatively designed study, the “Metacognitive Awareness Scale” and the adapted version of the “Critical Thinking Disposition Scale” were conducted on 305 pre-service teachers studying in the faculty of education in different universities in Turkiye. According to the results of descriptive analyses, the overall level of the pre-service teachers’ self-perceived metacognitive awareness was found high; the organizational awareness of the pre-service teachers was at the highest level whereas their level of judgmental awareness was the lowest, and the overall level of their self-perceived disposition to CT was calculated as high. The results of structural equation modeling analyses indicated that as the level of metacognitive awareness of pre-service teachers increases, their disposition to CT increases. Self- and organizational awareness exerted no significant influence on engagement, cognitive maturity, or innovativeness, while judgmental awareness had a significant positive effect on engagement but not on cognitive maturity or innovativeness.