The study aims to reveal reflective thinking tendencies of pre-service social studies teachers and whether these tendencies change according to the grade level, gender, studied university, parents' education levels, family income level and number of siblings. For this purpose, the research was conducted within the scope of descriptive survey model. The study group consists of 252 pre-service social studies teachers who were studying at their 1st and 4th years selected by purposive sampling from random sampling methods from different regions of Turkey. In the research, the “Reflective Thinking Tendency Scale (RTTS) for Teacher and Pre-service Teachers" was used to determine the reflective thinking tendencies of pre-service teachers. Mann Whitney U test and Kruskal Wallis-H Test were used in the data analysis process. According to the results there was a statistically significant difference in favor of females in terms of the sub-dimensions of “Open-mindedness”, “Questioning and Effective Teaching” and “Responsibility of Teaching and Scientificness”, and “Investigative.” Considering the variable of mother’s educational status, it was found a significant difference in favor of higher education level in the sub-dimensions of “Teaching Responsibility and Scientificness” and “View to the Profession” of the scale. Considering the mother’s education level variable, a significant difference was found in favor of higher education level in the sub-dimensions of “Responsibility of Teaching and Scientificness” and “View to the Profession” of the scale. According to the studied university variable, it was found a significant difference between Mediterranean University A University and Marmara Region B and C University against Mediterranean Region A University in terms of the “Constant and Purposeful Thinking” sub-dimension. According to the results of the “Questioning and Effective Teaching” sub-dimension, a significant difference was found between Marmara University C University and Marmara Region A and B University in favor of Marmara Region C University. According to the results of the study, no significant difference was found in other independent variables.
Reflective Thinking, Pre-service Teacher, Reflective Learning, Grade Level