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Alberta Journal of Educational Research, Vol. 58, No. 3, Fall 2012, 381-403 © 2

Alberta Journal of Educational Research, Vol. 58, No. 3, Fall 2012, 381-403 © 2012 The Governors of the University of Alberta 381 Teacher Candidates’ Attitudes Towards the Teaching Profession in Turkey Türkay Nuri Tok Pamukkale University, Turkey This study examined the attitudes of teacher candidates in Turkey towards the teaching profession. Descriptive surveys were used and the research data was obtained from Pamukkale University Classroom Teaching students. During data analysis, the arithmetic means and standard deviations of the groups were calculated and a t-test and One-Way ANOVA were used. The attitudes of teacher candidates towards the teaching profession don’t vary in terms of “gender”, “type of teaching”, “type of high schools they graduate from” and in order of their preferences to be a teacher. More than half of the candidates choose the Classroom Teaching Program willingly and about all of them want to perform this profession, but their attitudes towards the teaching profession were not well developed. The majority of the participants were not satisfied with the University and faculty administrations and reopted that they don’t show enough effort required to develop themselves for the profession. It is found that the attitudes of students expressing their discontent are at a lower level. It is necessary to provide the teacher candidates not only with knowledge and skills, but also to help them develop the beliefs and positive attitudes related to the profession. Cette étude a porté sur les attitudes qu’ont des étudiants au programme de formation à l’enseignement en Turquie envers la profession enseignante. Nous avons effectué des sondages descriptifs auprès d’étudiants au programme de formation à l’enseignement d’enseignement en classe de la Pamukkale University. Pendant l’analyse des données, on a calculé les moyennes arithmétiques et les écarts types des groupes en appliquant un test t et une ANOVA unidirectionnelle. Les attitudes qu’ont les étudiants au programme de formation à l’enseignement envers la profession enseignante ne varient pas en fonction des critères suivants : « genre », « type d’enseignement », « type d’école secondaire fréquentée » et « désir de devenir enseignant ». Plus de la moitié des candidats choisissent de leur plein gré l’enseignement en classe et à peu près tous veulent poursuivre cette profession; pourtant leurs attitudes envers la profession enseignante n’étaient pas bien développées. La majorité des participants n’étaient pas satisfaits de l’université, ni de l’administration et ils ont signalé qu’ils ne démontraient pas suffisamment d’efforts nécessaires pour se développer comme enseignants. On a trouvé que les attitudes des étudiants qui exprimaient leur mécontentement étaient plus négatives. Il est nécessaire de non seulement transmettre aux étudiants au programme de formation à l’enseignement des connaissances et des compétences, mais aussi de les aider à développer des croyances et des attitudes positives par rapport à leur profession. Teachers are pillars of society. The importance of teachers in the life of a nation cannot be overlooked. The teacher influences the minds of youth, moulding young minds into various forms. The future of the nation is built through the process of education. A nation which tries to march ahead on the road to progress must do so with the help of able teachers. A nation cannot T. N. Tok 382 afford to leave its future in the hands of incompetent teachers. According to Singh (2009, p. 32), "The world of tomorrow will be born from the schools of today." Thus teachers are very significant as the builders of a nation. In addition, teachers play a major role in serving society via manpower training, providing a peace of mind and social peace in society, the socialization and being prepared for social life of individuals, culture and values of society to be transferred to young generations (Özden, 1999). In developing and changing world, the importance of the teaching profession hasn’t decreased, despite all technological developments and their reflections in education. There has been the suggestion that the teaching profession, unlike other professions, includes knowledge, skills and behaviour in more than one field (Gürbüztürk & Genç, 2004). Teaching is a working area in professional status which has the dimensions of education, social, cultural, economic, scientific and technological fields and having a special expertise with the knowledge of personal and teaching skills in the field that requires academic study and vocational formation (Erden, 2004, p. 34; Gürkan, 2000, p. 30). Shulman (1987) says that teaching is the profession of people who have pedagogical content knowledge. In order for individuals who are to embark on a teaching career to fulfill the requirements of the profession effectively, having a positive attitude towards the profession is essential (Üstüner, 2006). Teachers’ attitudes towards their profession is an important factor in determining teacher effectiveness (Shaw, Stratil, & Reynolds, 1973). Various studies have shown a positive correlation between teacher attitudes and teacher effectiveness (Stronge, 2007) and productivity and success in the profession (Arıcak, 1999, p. 94; Çakır, 2005). Teacher attitudes also directly affect school climate (Woolfolk-Hoy & Hoy, 2003, cited in Stronge, Tucker, & Hindman, 2004). Employees with positive attitudes towards their profession have higher job satisfaction and are more committed to their profession (Holdaway, 1978; Robbins, 1994; Schackmuth, 1979; Weaver, 1977). Attitude towards the teaching profession is a pivotal quality that determines a teacher’s willingness to develop and grow as a professional. The more positive and enthusiastic teachers are about teaching, the more likely their students will be enthusiastic about learning (Edmonton Public Schools, 1993, as cited in Stronge et. al., 2004). The Report on Teacher Quality (Blackboard, 2008) suggests that “high quality teachers are the most important factor in a child’s education” (p. 3). This same report notes that teachers are the single most important factor in student achievement. Lower achieving students are most likely to benefit from improvements in teacher effectiveness. In addition, good teachers can make a difference of one grade-level equivalent in annual achievement gains. Teacher quality continues to rank as the most reliable predictor of student achievement (Blackboard, 2008). It has been further suggested that the attitudes of teachers are directly related to teaching behavior and students’ achievements (Marchant, 1992). Attitudes: An Overview Papanastasiou (2002) defines attitude as an individual’s positive or negative emotional tendency towards people, objects, events, and ideas. Anastasi (1957) defines attitude as a tendency to react in a certain way towards a designated class of stimuli. According to Allport (1938), “an attitude is a mental and neural set of readiness, exerting a directive dynamics influence upon the individuals response to all objects and situation with which it is related” (p. 28). In other words, attitude means mental readiness towards a person or an object (Hussain, 2004). People have attitudes towards all objects, which may be positive, negative, or Teacher Candidates’ Attitudes towards the Teaching Profession in Turkey 383 neutral (Fishbain, 1967 as cited in Hussain, 2004). Attitudes express how people feel about something (Robbins, 1994) and are part of an individual’s personality traits. It has been suggested that, like other acquired personality traits, attitudes are learned later in life through classical and operant conditioning models or through observation and imitation (Morgan, 1991, p. 363). They are not static (Koballa, 1988; Shrigley, Koballa, & Simpson, 1988); they change with the passage of time as person gains experience in life (Hussain, 2004). Attitudes have the following features: Attitudes, (a) are related to a psychological object, (b) they are ready to react, (c) have the power to motivate, (d) can be static for periods of time, (e) include evaluation, and (f) are not, directly, observable features but tendencies attributed to an individual by means of making inferences from the observable behavior of him/her (Kağıtçıbaşı, 1999; Sakallı, 2001). Parents, peers, mass media, and the individual’s personal experience with the attitude object are important factors in the formation of attitudes. These factors play an important role in changes to existing attitudes and the formation of new ones (Myers, 1996, as cited in Uzunöz, 2002). Luthans (1993) suggests that a professional attitude is valuable in many ways, and knowing about these attitudes can also be very useful. People’s attitudes towards their profession have an effect on their performance. These perspectives are also valid for the teaching profession (Sparks, 1979). Teacher training is of great significance as the attitudes of teachers towards their profession is learned like all attitudes (Can, 1987). The main goal of teacher education is to educate student teachers to become qualified teachers (Koster, Dengerink, Korthagen, & Lunenberg, 2008). The training received during teacher candidates’ undergraduate studies is of particularly great importance since teachers obtain most of their qualifications regarding their profession in this period. During their undergraduate studies, candidate teachers develop values and attitudes related to the profession along with field information (Lašek & Wiesenbergova, 2007). That is why teacher training programs should equip candidate teachers with the knowledge, skills, abilities, and attitudes necessary for them to become better teachers, and give priority to the development of these attitudes (Carkhuffs, 1982, as cited in Hussain, 2004). For teachers to possess these qualities and carry out their profession lovingly and willingly, the selection of prospective uploads/Litterature/ teacher-candidates-x27-attitudes-towards-the-teaching-profession-in-turkey 3 .pdf