A Structural Equation Modelling of Factors Affecting the Prospective Teachers’ Innovativeness Level

Abstract

This study aims at investigating the factors affectıng the prospectıve teachers 'ınnovatıveness level by structural equatıon modelıng. For this purpose, the predictive relationships between gender, grade level, department, and risk-taking behaviors, and pre-service teachers' innovativeness levels were analyzed by path analysis. The correlational predictive design was used to investigate the relationship between variables in the study. The participants of the study consisted of 293 science, social studies, and prospective elementary teachers. The Innovativeness Scale and the Academic Risk Taking Scale (ART) were used to collect the data. The results of the study suggest that grade level is not a statistical predictor of both risk taking and innovativeness. However, gender has a significantly small effect on Academic Risk Taking. Furthermore, it was concluded that risk-taking behavior is an important predictor of the pre-service teachers' level of innovativeness. So it can be suggested that prospective teachers should be planned to increase their risk-taking behaviors during the teaching process.