Examining beliefs of preservice teachers about self-competency and lifelong learning competency via canonical correlation analysis

Abstract

This study investigates the canonical correlation between preservice teachers’ lifelong learning beliefs and self-competency beliefs. Canonical correlation analysis is a sophisticated tool which has the capacity to explain the relationships between two sets of variables. For this aim, lifelong learning and self-competency beliefs of 1,242 preservice teachers in Turkey from four different departments, i.e., i) Turkish education, ii) social sciences education, iii) primary education and iv) science education were determined. The data were analyzed using the SPSS 22 program. The findings of the study demonstrated that there is a significant canonical correlation between self-competency beliefs and lifelong learning competency beliefs with an effect size of 44%. In conclusion, self-competency beliefs predict lifelong learning competency beliefs. All dimensions of self-competency beliefs are powerful predictors of lifelong learning competency beliefs.