Attitudes of Students Enrolled in the Pedagogical Formation Programs towards the Teaching Profession

Abstract

This study was conducted to examine the attitudes of students enrolled in the pedagogical formation programs in order to become teachers towards the teaching profession. The students either graduated from faculties other than the education faculty or they were still enrolled in undergraduate programs of faculties other than the education faculty. The study group is made up of randomly selected 491 students enrolled in the pedagogical formation programs of Kafkas University and Ömer Halisdemir University during the 2016-2017 academic year between 6 and 15 January, 2017. To collect the study data, “Attitude Scale towards Teaching Profession” was used. Arithmetic mean, independent t-test, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and LSD post hoc tests were conducted in the analysis and interpretation of data. In the study, it was determined that as the ages of students enrolled in the pedagogical formation programs increase, they showed more positive attitudes towards the teaching profession. Females had more positive attitudes than males, graduates more than students, Ömer Halisdemir University students more than Kafkas University students, and students who lived mostly in urban areas more than students who live in rural areas. Furthermore, according to the study results, teaching profession attitudes of students enrolled in pedagogical formation programs differ according to their faculty, mother and father’s education and monthly family income.