Cognitive flexibility and grit during times of crisis for Turkish EFL teachers

Abstract

Due to the COVID‐19 pandemic, the abrupt transition to virtual learning environments based on Emergency Remote Teaching (ERT) has posed significant challenges for teachers at all levels of education. The challenges of the pandemic revealed the significance of cognitive flexibility as a cognitive skill and grit as a noncognitive skill for teachers to adapt to the ERT conditions and to sustain their passion and perseverance. This study investigated whether the cognitive flexibility and grit levels of Turkish EFL (English as a Foreign Language) teachers significantly differed based on demographic variables and also explored how cognitive flexibility as a cognitive skill and grit as a noncognitive skill were associated with each other. Using a sequential, exploratory, mixed‐method design, qualitative, and quantitative data were collected from 589 Turkish EFL teachers during the school closures. The collected data were analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively, and structural equation modeling was used to determine the relationship between cognitive flexibility and grit. The findings showed that cognitive flexibility and grit differed more in terms of profession‐related variables (teaching experience and school type) than personal demographic variables (age and gender). Also, structural equation modeling showed that both cognitive flexibility and grit significantly correlated with each other as a novel finding contributing to the literature. The qualitative findings showed that teachers used cognitive flexibility and grit‐based strategies to overcome the difficulties caused by the pandemic.