ANALYSIS OF ATTITUDES OF PRESCHOOL PROSPECTIVE TEACHERS TOWARDS TEACHING PROFESSION AND THEIR PROFESSIONAL SELF-ESTEEM (KUTAHYA SAMPLE)

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1 Ozean Journal of Social Sciences 6(2), 2013 ISSN Ozean Publication ANALYSIS OF ATTITUDES OF PRESCHOOL PROSPECTIVE TEACHERS TOWARDS TEACHING PROFESSION AND THEIR PROFESSIONAL SELF-ESTEEM (KUTAHYA SAMPLE) MURAT BARTAN* AYNUR OKSAL**& LEVENT SEVI*** *Elementary Education Department, Faculty of Education, Dumlupinar University, Kutahya, Turkey **Elementary Education Department, Faculty of Education, Uludag University Bursa, Turkey ***Department of Foreign Languages, Dumlupinar University, Kutahya, Turkey * address for correspondence: Abstract: A profession is important for individuals in that, besides affecting one s lifestyle, social prestige, social and economic state, it also has a vital role in satisfying one s psycho-social needs. For this reason, as well as being furnished with general culture, domain and professional knowledge, teachers, preschool teachers in particular, whom a child first meets and stays with the whole day at school, are also expected to have positive attitudes towards their profession for professional success and satisfaction. In addition, another factor in a teacher s being successful and efficient in her/his profession is professional self-esteem, which is a prerequisite for professional harmony and satisfaction. This study, based on descriptive survey method, aims to determine the attitudes of prospective pre-school teachers towards teaching profession and their professional self-esteem using two scales: Scale of Attitude towards Teaching Profession and Scale of Professional Self-esteem. The findings show that prospective pre-school teachers have a positive attitude towards teaching profession in general and their attitudes towards teaching profession is related to their professional self-esteem. Accordingly, it is suggested that the students of preschool teaching department can be supported to develop a positive attitude towards teaching profession and to form a professional self-respect through more professional formation and drills. Key Words: Prospective preschool teachers, Attitude, Self-esteem INTRODUCTION A profession is important for individuals to carry on their life and for their happiness. As well as affecting one s lifestyle, social prestige, social and economic state, a profession also has a vital role in satisfying one s psychosocial needs. Those who have chosen such an influential profession shaping the whole society as teaching should by all means love their profession and possess the capacity to fulfil the profession s requirements (CamadanandDuysak 2010;Unal andsimsek 2008).Besides being furnished with general culture, domain and professional knowledge, teachers are also expected to have positive attitudes towards their profession for professional success and satisfaction (CamadanandDuysak, 2010). 35

2 Attitude is not behaviour; it is a tendency that forms an individual s thoughts, feelings and behaviours about a psychological object and it is stated that attitude forms and affects behaviour, plays a significant role in shaping behaviour (Aksoy, 2010). Attitudes of teachers towards their profession are pivotal in their fulfilling the requirements of the profession (Durmusogluet al, 2009),because attitudes to and perceptions about a profession affect perceptions of professional competence and professional success (TerziandTezci, 2007). According to Bloom, cognitive characteristics of an individual affect his/her success; therefore, it can be argued that positive attitude is directly proportional to a teacher s success (Demir, 2004). Besides attitude, another factor in a teacher s being successful and efficient in her/his profession is professional self-esteem which can be described shortly as the judgement of respectability an individual forms towards the profession s/hehas chosen(aricak, 1999). Professional self-esteem shows how important and respectable an individual considers her/his profession. It is a prerequisite for professional harmony and satisfaction (AricakandDilmac, 2003).Also, it is emphasized that would-be-teachers should choose teaching not for such concerns as easy employment, etc. but for the reasons that they really love and respect teaching and that they think that they will be proud of teaching (Sayın, 2003). A teacher takes on important roles in every stage of education; however, the qualifications of teachers especially in preschool education are more significantbecause those are the critical years of a child in terms of all her/his development aspects. Preschool education is vital for the best support for a child s development areas. Preschool education plays an important role in noticing the problems in a child s development earlier and sorting them out before primary school period, being a support and guide to parents, establishing appositive impact on the child s personality traits, boosting the child s adaptation to and success in primary school years and reducing the negative environmental effects (Oguzkanand Oral,1997;Yavuzer, 1998). Therefore, the teacher has as much importance as, even more importance than, the material and program in preschool education institutions.the teacher is the one whom a child first meets and stays with the whole day at school after s/he leaves her/his parents (Oktay, 1999:218). Preschool teachers are with children all day long and so their students trust in their teachers who are with them communicating and sharing their good and bad times. Therefore, preschool teachers should be able to develop good communication with children (Poyraz and Dere, 2001; Koksal Akyol and Kocer Ciftcibası, 2005). It should be known that children trained by preschool teachers see their teachers as role models, and therefore,it is important for preschool teaching, during which education is emphasized rather than teaching, that preschool teachers should have a positive attitude and positive professional self-esteem. Reviewing the studies on attitudes towards teaching profession in Turkey (Ustun, 2005; Ustun, Erkan and Akman, 2004; Aksoy,2010; Zembat and Bilgin, 1996; Capa and Cil, 2000; Bulut, 2009; Camadan and Duysak, 2010) and on professional self-esteem (Aricak and Dilmac, 2003; Aslan and Akyol,2006; Unal and Simsek, 2008; Capri and Celikkaleli, 2008; Girginet al. 2010), it stands out that most studies focus on the attitudes of prospective teachers towards teaching profession and on their professional self-esteem; however, the majority of these studies do not address the prospective pre-school teachers. This study aims to determine the attitudes of prospective pre-school teachers towards teaching profession and on their professional self-esteem. METHODOLOGY This research is based ondescriptive survey model. Survey model aims to indicate an existing case as it is (Karasar, 1994). Study Group The population of the research consists of prospective pre-school teachers at Dumlupinar University Education Faculty Pre-school Teaching Department during academic period. Since the whole population could be addressed, no sampling was chosen, so the research was conducted on 169 female and 54 male, total 203 prospective pre-school teachers. 36

3 Grade Gender Education Type Total 1 Female Daytime Evening Female Female Female Total Female Data Gathering Tools Scale of Attitude towards Teaching Profession In the research, a scale,called Scale of Attitude towards Teaching Profession developed by Cetin (2006) and published in Gazi University Journal of Industrial Arts Education Faculty in 2006 with its validity and reliability tests having been conducted,was used. The 5 likert-type scale, graded as Strongly Agree Agree Undecided Disagree Strongly Disagree,involved 35 items on three basic themes (love, value, harmony). The total alpha value of the scale was.95. Scale of Professional Self-esteem The scale was developed by Aricak (1999). It involved14 positive and 16 negative, total 30 items. Its Cronbach Alpha coefficient was.93 (n=152) andtest-retest reliability coefficient was 90 (n=92, p<01). The scale was graded as Strongly Agree 5, Agree 4, Undecided 3, Disagree 2, Strongly Disagree 1. Scoring was reversed in negative items. Max. score to be obtained from the scale was 150, while min. score being 30. The score showed whether the feature measured was high or low in the participant. Data Gathering After informing the prospective teachers about the aim of the research, the scales were conducted on the participants collectively in their classrooms at the end of spring term of academic period. Data Analysis This research is based on descriptive survey model. It aims to determine the relation between scores of prospective pre-school teachers in the scale of attitude towards teaching profession and the scale of professional self-esteem using Pearson s Correlation Method, the differentiation case of education type and whether there is a teacher among the family members using t-test, andthe differentiation case of grade levels using ANOVA. 37

4 RESULTS Table 1: T Test Results of the Scores of Scales of Attitude towards Teaching Profession and Professional Self-esteem According to Gender Gender N S sd t p Attitude towards Teaching Profession Professional Self-esteem Female Female Table 1 shows that there is a significant difference between the mean scores of prospective teachers in Scale of Attitude towards Teaching Profession according to gender (201)=3.24, p<.001. Accordingly, it is seen that the attitudes of female prospective teachers towards teaching profession ( =89.34) is higher than those of male ones ( =85.74). However, no difference is seen in the scores of Scale of Professional Self-esteem according to gender. Table 2: T Test Results of the Scores of Scales of Attitude towards Teaching Profession and Professional Self-esteem According to Education Type Education Type N S sd t p Attitude towards Teaching Profession Professional Self-esteem Daytime Evening Daytime Evening Table 2 shows that no difference is seen between the scores of Scale of Professional Self-esteem and Scale of Attitude towards Teaching Profession according toeducation type. Table 3: T Test Results of the Scores of Scales of Attitude towards Teaching Profession and Professional Selfesteem According to Whether There Is a Teacher among the Family Members N S sd t p Attitude towards Teaching Profession Professional Self-esteem Yes No Yes No Table 3 shows that having a teacher among the family members does not lead to a significant difference between the total scores of prospective teachers in both scales. 38

5 Variance Source Table 4: Anova Test Results of the Scores of Scale of Attitude towards Teaching Profession Sum of Squares According to Grades sd Sum of Square F p Significant difference Intergroup 654, ,294 4,484, ,4 Intragroup 9687, ,680 Total 10342, Table 4 shows a significant difference in the Attitudes towards Teaching Profession according to grades [F( 4-484)= 4.484, p<.05]. The Scheffe Test conducted to determine the direction of the differentiation shows thatthe attitudes of the participants in the 2 nd grade ( =85,5273)are lower than those in the 3 rd grade( = 90,1364) and 4 th grade ( =89,4884). Variance Source Table 5: Anova Test Results of the Scores of Professional Self-esteem Scale and Scale of Attitude Sum of Squares According to Grades sd Sum of Square Intergroup 65, ,840,446,721 F p Significant difference Intragroup 9752, ,007 Total 9817, Table 5 shows that there isn t any significant difference between Professional Self-esteem Scale and Scale of Attitude according to grades. [F(. 446) =.446, p>.05]. Another sub-problem of the research is to determine the relation between the scores of Scale of Professional Self-esteem and Scale of Attitude towards Teaching Profession. In order to determine the relation between the two variables, Pearson Correlation Analysis was conducted and the results showed that the relation between the total scores of both scales is at intermediate level (r=.399,p<.05). DISCUSSION The attitude and professional self-esteem mean scores of prospective teachers show that they have a positive attitude towards teaching profession in general. Differentiation of the attitudes towards teaching profession according to gender shows that female prospective teachers have a more positive attitude than male ones, which coincide with the findings of Capa and Cil (2000), Celikoz and Cetin (2004), Ustun, Erkan and Akman (2004), Akpınar et al. (2006),Gurbuz and Kısoglu (2007) Cicek and Saglam (2008), Dogan and Coban (2009) and Aksoy (2010). 39

6 The fact that the scores in both scales, attitude towards reaching profession and professional self-esteem, do not cause any differentiation according to education type also coincides with the findings of Aslan and Akyol (2006). Similarly, whether there is a teacher among the family members does not lead to any significant differentiation in the scores of both scales, which also coincides with the findings of Aslan and Akyol (2006). A significant differentiation stands out in the attitudes towards teaching profession according to grades; that is, the attitude scores of second grade students towards teaching profession are lower than those of third and fourth grades. Accordingly, as the grade level rises, the attitudes of the students towards teaching profession become more positive, which coincides with the findings of Akpinar et al. (2006). Analysing the relation between the scores of Scale of Attitude towards Teaching Profession and Scale of Professional-self-esteem, it is seen that the relation between the total scores is at intermediate level and that the attitudes towards teaching profession is related to professional self-esteem. SUGGESTIONS In the light of the results of the research, the following suggestions can be put forward; The students of preschool teaching department can be supported to develop a positive attitude towards teaching profession and to form a professional self-respect The students of preschool teaching department should be supported through more professional formation and drills Courses and activities that will prepare the prospective teachers for their profession should be increased in preschool teaching department In this research, the participants were the students of Dumlupınar University Education Faculty Elementary Teaching Department Preschool Teaching Branch. Similar further studies can be carried out on a bigger sampling and different variables. 40

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