An Examination of Geography Teachers’ Reflective Thinking Tendencies

Abstract

This study is a descriptive research study executed using a scanning model with the purpose of examining geography teachers’ tendencies towards reflective thinking according to different variables. The study group consisted of 218 geography teachers serving in schools under the Ministry of National Education in the 2016/2017 education period. For data collection, a personal information form was developed by the researcher, and a “Reflective Thinking Tendency Scale” was used. Mean, standard deviation, t-test, and one-way variance analysis were used in the analysis of the data obtained. Generally, geography teachers have a high degree of reflective thinking; female geography teachers have higher degrees of reflective thinking tendencies than male geography teachers. Professional seniority, place of duty, and faculty of graduation do not affect the tendency of reflective thinking of geography teachers. Although geography teachers serving in “other” high schools (fine arts high school, science high school, social sciences high school, private high schools) scored significantly higher in the sub-dimension critical and effective teaching than teachers in Anatolian high schools and vocational high schools, there is no significant difference in total scores or other sub-dimensions when the effect of duty school is analyzed.