ABSTRACT:
The
present study was carried out to reveal biology preservice teachers’ views
about the teaching profession. The study was conducted with 10 senior preservice
teachers (five female, five male) attending the department of Biology Teaching
at the education faculty of a university located in Marmara Region of Turkey in
the Spring Term of the academic year of 2014-2015. The study group was
determined using the convenient sampling method. In the study, the qualitative
research method was applied. The research data were collected using
“Semi-Structured Interview Form for Biology Preservice Teachers’ Views about
the Teaching Profession” developed by the researcher. The semi-structured
interviews lasted about 20 minutes. In the process of the development of the
interview form, two academicians from the fields of Educational Sciences and
Biology Teaching were asked for their views. For the analysis of the
qualitative data, content analysis was conducted using the package software of
ATLAS-ti 7.5. In relation to the content analysis, the data were coded
separately by the researcher and by another academician. The similarity
percentage calculated for the reliability of the coded data was found to be %89. The
results revealed that most of the biology preservice teachers regarded the
teaching profession as a holy job and perceived it as providing guidance for
students. It was also found that interest in the profession of teaching, family
and teachers were among the most common factors influential on the
participants’ preferences of the teaching profession. The biology preservice
teachers reported that teachers should be self-sacrificing, competent in
self-expression and especially open to social communication. In addition, the
biology preservice teachers pointed out that teachers should be knowledgeable
about teaching and highly motivated for this profession. It was also revealed
that the profession of teaching address most of their characteristics such as
leadership, love of human and children, patience and idealism. In addition, the
research results demonstrated that almost all the
preservice teachers had positive feelings about the profession of teaching and that most of
them thought they lacked the necessary knowledge and skills required by the
teaching profession, though. Based on these results, in order to develop
biology preservice teachers’ professional competencies and their positive
attitudes towards the profession of teaching, the content of pedagogical
courses given at education faculties could be reorganized in line with current
expectations. Also, the trainings to be given to biology preservice teachers
could focus on certain characteristics of preservice teachers such as communication skills, tolerance, self-sacrificing, being good-humored
and self-expression.
Subjects | Studies on Education |
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Journal Section | Makaleler |
Authors | |
Publication Date | December 28, 2017 |
Published in Issue | Year 2017 Volume: 5 Issue: 2 |
ASIAN JOURNAL OF INSTRUCTION
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.