The effect of critical thinking dispositions and democratic values of pre-service EFL teachers on their multicultural self-efficacy: A structural equation modeling approach

Abstract

The present research aims to investigate the effect of English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers’ critical thinking dispositions and democratic values on their multicultural self-efficacy. Data were collected with 275 pre-service EFL teachers at different universities in several cities of Turkey. Participants’ selection was based on convenience sampling and participants voluntarily took part in the study. Three types of data collection instruments were used: a critical thinking dispositions scale, teacher democratic values scale and a multicultural self-efficacy scale. In this study, the correlational survey method was used, and a model was designed to determine the effect of critical thinking dispositions and democratic values of pre-service EFL teachers on their multicultural self-efficacy. The model was tested by AMOS. The fit indices were at the acceptable level and it was determined that the model explains approximately 57% of multicultural self-efficacy. In order to analyze the data, Structural equation modeling (SEM) was performed. The findings revealed that both critical thinking dispositions and democratic values are the significant predictors of multicultural self-efficacy and they affect pre-service EFL teachers’ multicultural self-efficacy in a positive way.