Critical Reading Self-Efficacy Perceptions of Turkish Language Teacher Candidates

Abstract

Critical reading is a reading method that requires questioning the text and doubting what we read. In order to perform critical reading, we must first have critical thinking skills. Critical thinking skills are among the 21st century skills that individuals must acquire. In this century, where data sources are diversified, having critical reading skills is important in terms of deriving accurate and deep meanings from what we read. The aim of this study is to determine the general critical reading self-efficacy perceptions of Turkish teacher candidates studying in a Turkish language teaching program at a state university in Turkey and to reveal whether this perception changes according to the variables of gender and whether or not they have taken a critical reading course. The study was designed in a quantitative research model. The research was conducted with the correlational survey method. The universe of the study consists of all Turkish teacher candidates studying in the program in question, and the sample consists of a total of 52 Turkish teacher candidates, 26 female and 26 male, who are in the 3rd grade and selected with the purposeful sampling method. The fact that both the reading education course and the critical reading course are given in the 3rd grade in the Turkish language teaching program has been effective in determining the sample. The critical reading self-efficacy perception scale was used in the collection of data. Independent t-test was used in the analysis of the data, which was found to be normally distributed as a result of the normality distribution test. As a result of the analyses, it was concluded that the general critical reading self-efficacy perceptions of the Turkish teacher candidates were high. In addition, it was seen that the variables of gender and whether or not they took a critical reading course did not have a significant effect on the general critical reading self-efficacy perceptions of the Turkish teacher candidates.