Investigation of the Relationship Between Pre-service Teachers' Lateral Thinking Levels and Problem Solving Skills

The purpose of this study is to determine what extent problem solving skill contributes the prediction lateral thinking. group research consisted 357 girls (75.2%) and 118 boys (24.8%), totally 475 university students, who are attending Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University Faculty Education. Problem Solving Inventory developed by Heppner Peterson (1982) Lateral Thinking Scale Semerci (2016) were used in collect data. Descriptive statistics (frequency, percentage, arithmetic mean standard deviation) multiple regression analysis analyze data obtained study. According findings study, thinking levels teacher candidates high their problem-solving skills at a positive medium level. While candidates' confidence ability approach-avoidance scores positively affect level, personal control negatively them. In addition, pre-service teachers' total significantly predicted scores.