RATIONAL AND INTUITIVE THINKING OF TEACHERS AND FUTURE TEACHERS

The main aim of the study was to examine the reliance on intuition and rational thinking in in-service teachers and future teachers. of the study also examined consistency of self-reported preferred thinking style and performance in cognitive task. Intuition and rational thinking was measured by Cognitive reflection test (CRT) as a performance task and through two self-reported scales - Rational-experiential inventory (REI) and Type of intuition scale (TIntS). Participants were 90 in-service teachers with various teaching approbations (age: M=34.69, SD=9.55) and 275 future teachers students of the Pedagogical faculty at The Constantine the Philosopher University (Nitra, Slovakia; age: M=20.20, SD=1.48). Participants were mostly first grade students with various teaching approbations attending courses of general and ontogenetic psychology. In-service teachers and future teachers were compared in their thinking styles, cognitive reflection, and intuition. In-service teachers were significantly more successful in CRT (M=3.70, SD=1.66; for students M=1.95, SD=1.90), and they preferred more affective intuition (in TIntS affective intuition is defined as feeling of certainty) and rational thinking style in REI. In addition, students' answers in CRT were significantly more intuitive than teachers' answers. Results support our previous findings that preference for rationality has tendency to increase with increasing age, and also Baylor's U-shape model for development of intuition.