Turkish primary school teachers' constructive thinking styles

Reading Improvement, Summer, 2009 by Nuri Baloglu, Engin Karadag

Teachers' thinking styles can play an important role in teaching and learning. The purpose of this study was to define Turkish primary teachers' constructive thinking (CT) styles and to compare them with regard to variables of professional work experience and age. A relational model was designed to determine CT styles. The study group consisted of 376 primary school teachers working at the primary schools in Kadikoy/Istanbul in 2008. Cluster sampling method was used to define the working group of the research. Constructive Thinking Inventory, originally developed Epstein (1993) and adapted into Turkish by Tosun & Karadag (2008), was used to collect the data. T-test and Pearson Product-Moment Correlation Coefficient techniques were used to analyze the data. The findings showed that there were statistical meaningful relations and differences between teachers' constructive thinking styles and other variables they had. Findings were discussed on the base of relevant literature.

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Thinking styles have been the subject of hundreds of research projects studying the links between personality type and different aspects of life. According to Sternberg (1997) a thinking style is not an aptitude, but rather the way one chooses to use his/her aptitudes. Thinking style refers to what a person prefers to do, and how they like to do it.

Observing that IQ tests tend to be the poor predictors of an individuals' capacity to solve everyday practical problems or his/her successful negotiation of major life events, Epstein & Meier (1989) began to explore a nonintellective form of intelligence that was unrelated to IQ (Epstein & Meier, 1989, p.333). They identified a nonintellective cognitive ability which they termed constructive thinking (CT). CT is defined as a person's ability to think in a manner that solves everyday problems in living at a minimal cost in stress (Katz & Epstein, 1991, p. 789). More specifically, CT is a form of experiential intelligence common sense information that is acquired through experience--that reflects the ability to deal with problems effectively through the use of different thinking styles and behavioral and emotional coping strategies (Epstein & Meier, 1989).

Epstein and his colleagues view constructive thinking as an aspect of practical intelligence and general coping ability (Epstein, 1992; Epstein & Meier, 1989) that, while distinct from measures of neuroticism (Katz & Epstein, 1991), is predictive of how productive persons become while managing stress in their lives (Epstein & Katz, 1992).

CT has successfully predicted success in varied life-domains (e.g. school, work, and interpersonal relationships) and could help to explain both SWB and the relationship between personality and SWB (Epstein & Meier, 1989). Compared to other measures of personality and coping, CT as measured by the CT Inventory (CTI) has demonstrated a stronger relationship with life satisfaction and sense of coherence (Wissing & Du Toit, 1994).

Researchers have found that thinking styles have implications for teaching and learning (see: Grigorenko & Sternberg, 1997; Sternberg, 1997; Zhang & Sternberg, 2001). To deal with the teacher stress more specifically, we can put forward specifically with teacher stress, the definition that is widely used: stress is the experience by a teacher of unpleasant, negative emotions, such as anger, anxiety, tension, frustration, or depression, resulting from some aspect of their work as a teacher (Kyriacou, 2001, p.28). It is known that there are many coping strategies used by teachers. But, there is not much research the explores what the situation for Turkish teachers in constructive thinking is and whether there are any relations between constructive thinking styles and their gender, or professional work experience. Based on this short literature review, the aim of this study was to determine the constructive thinking styles of Turkish teachers.

Methodology

A relational model was used to define and compare Turkish primary school teachers' constructive thinking styles and some variables they had was designed for this study.

Sampling Group

The universe of this research consisted of primary school teachers who had been working throughout the 2007-2008 academic year at the primary schools in Kadikoy/Istanbul. Sampling group was defined by cluster sampling method. In this scope, first, 3 different income categories (low, mid and high level) were randomly chosen and then, each of the three primary schools from every category (total 9) was again randomly defined (McMillan & Schumacher, 2006). 393 Primary school teachers who worked in these primary schools took part in sampling group. As 17 participants were taken out of the research as a result of wrong coding, the final sampling group consisted of 376 people. Participants were 236 female (62.8%) and 122 (32.4%) male teachers. 18 teachers did not state their sexes. 234 of them were married (62.2%) and 142 were single. Their ages were between 20 and 60 (x=33.61, MEDIAN=31, SD=8.50) and their professional work experiences were between 1 and 38 years (x=11.36, MEDIAN=9, SD=8.71).