Preservice Teachers’ Thinking Skills: The Relationship between Their Lateral Thinking and Cognitive Flexibility Skills

Abstract

Expressing the capacity of the individual to think consciously to achieve a goal is important for teachers to produce alternative solutions to the problems they face in their classroom. This research aims to examine the relationship between lateral thinking tendencies and cognitive flexibility skills of pre-service teachers enrolled in preschool and primary education programs. The data were collected through the Lateral Thinking Disposition Scale developed by Semerci (2016) and the Cognitive Flexibility Inventory adapted by Sapmaz and Doğan (2013). 457 pre-service teachers participated in the research. The data analysis indicated that there was no significant difference in the pre-service teachers’ lateral thinking dispositions regarding gender, department, class level, and education level of parents. However, there was a positive correlation between the pre-service teachers' lateral thinking dispositions and cognitive flexibility skills. In this context, it was determined that emphasizing lateral thinking in teacher education would support pre-service teachers to develop their cognitive flexibility skills and therefore help them use alternative solutions in different situations they encounter when they start their profession.