The Impact of Critical, Creative, Metacognitive, and Empathic Thinking Skills on High and Low Academic Achievements of Pre-Service Teachers

This study aims to determine how higher-order thinking skills-namely creative thinking, critical thinking, metacognitive thinking, and empathic thinking-impact the academic achievement of pre-service teachers at both low and high levels. The study was conducted using the predictive model. The case sampling method, a purposive sampling method, was used in the study. The study participants included 196 volunteer pre-service teachers attending Artvin Coruh University, Faculty of Education. The study data were analyzed using binomial logistic regression analysis. The analysis revealed that the academic achievement of the pre-service teachers varied significantly based on other higher-order thinking skills, except for empathy. Furthermore, the contributions of these variables to academic achievement were ranked based on Exp(β) (odds/likelihood). The findings demonstrated that all variables affected academic achievement, while creative thinking skills contributed most significantly, followed by critical thinking and metacognitive thinking skills. It was also determined that the contribution of empathy skills was not statistically significant (<i>p</i> > 0.05). It was observed that the increase in higher-order thinking skills led to greater academic achievement. Similarly, low higher-order thinking skills significantly led to a decrease in achievement. Thus, it could be recommended that learning activities be revised, and the number of activities aimed at improving thinking skills should be increased for the active acquisition of higher-order thinking skills in higher teacher training institutions.