The Predictive Role of Professional Concern and Quality of University Life on Attitudes Toward Teaching Profession

Accepted: 19.12.2020 The current study was carried out to determine the role of professional concern and university life quality of prospective teachers in explaining their attitudes towards the profession of teaching. The working group of the research was made up of 580 prospective teachers attending a faculty of education at a state university. As a data collection tool, “The Attitude Scale towards the Profession of Teaching”, “Occupational Anxiety Scale for Prospective Teachers” and “The Scale of Quality of Life in University” were used. The research was carried out through relational research method, a quantitative research method. At the end of the research, it was found that the professional attitudes of the prospective teachers were positive, their concern levels were low, they experienced “Appointment Centred Concern” and “Adaptation Centred Concern” the most, their satisfaction regarding university life quality was at medium level and that they were content with “Social Facilities” the least. It was found that there was a significant relation between the attitude towards profession and professional concern in a negative way and that as the professional concern decreased, positive professional attitude increased. It was also found that there was a significant relation between the attitude towards profession and university life quality in a positive way and that as the satisfaction of university life quality increased so did positive professional attitude. It was determined that there was a significant relation between the professional concern and university life quality in a negative way and that as the university life quality increased, professional concern decreased. It was determined that professional concern of the prospective teachers and their satisfaction regarding university life quality predicted the attitude towards the profession of teaching at 13.9% rate. In line with the results of the research, various recommendations were made.

The current study was carried out to determine the role of professional concern and university life quality of prospective teachers in explaining their attitudes towards the profession of teaching. The working group of the research was made up of 580 prospective teachers attending a faculty of education at a state university. As a data collection tool, "The Attitude Scale towards the Profession of Teaching", "Occupational Anxiety Scale for Prospective Teachers" and "The Scale of Quality of Life in University" were used. The research was carried out through relational research method, a quantitative research method. At the end of the research, it was found that the professional attitudes of the prospective teachers were positive, their concern levels were low, they experienced "Appointment Centred Concern" and "Adaptation Centred Concern" the most, their satisfaction regarding university life quality was at medium level and that they were content with "Social Facilities" the least. It was found that there was a significant relation between the attitude towards profession and professional concern in a negative way and that as the professional concern decreased, positive professional attitude increased. It was also found that there was a significant relation between the attitude towards profession and university life quality in a positive way and that as the satisfaction of university life quality increased so did positive professional attitude. It was determined that there was a significant relation between the professional concern and university life quality in a negative way and that as the university life quality increased, professional concern decreased. It was determined that professional concern of the prospective teachers and their satisfaction regarding university life quality predicted the attitude towards the profession of teaching at 13.9% rate. In line with the results of the research, various recommendations were made.

Introduction
The development level of a country is perceived by means of the importance given to education by that country and through the quality of education. Creating communities with productive, healthy, happy individuals aware of their responsibilities, being beneficial to themselves and others is no doubt realized with the improvement of education. The most significant component of the system of education is teachers. For the sake of meeting the needs of the developing and changing world, increasing the quality at education, determining likely problems and making suggestions for solutions and investigating the teacher training models, a great many studies have been carried out from the past to the current time (Akinbote, 2007;Albareda Tiana et al., 2019;de la Harpe & Radloff, 1999;Himmat, 2017;König et al., 2017;Kumar & Azad, 2016;Ries et al., 2016;Sahan, 2016;Stephens et al., 2004;Sykes et al., 2010;Tiwari, 2016).
Profession of teaching is a way of life beyond a profession that could not be performed without love, requiring self-sacrifice, patience and hard working. For that reason, it is essential that teachers have a positive professional attitude as well as professional knowledge and skills. Attitude is a mental, emotional and behavioural reaction and predisposition which an individual develops based on his experience, knowledge, feeling and motives (İnceoğlu, 2010). Upon the review of research conducted in order to determine how predisposition regarding the profession of teaching is, it was found that parents have a negative perspective for the profession of teaching (Audu & Egharevba, 2016). Prospective teachers are aware of the importance of the profession of teaching and the competencies that they must attain; however, their motivation towards profession decreases since they do not regard the future of their profession positive (Karataş et al., 2017). It was pointed out that the esteem of teachers in the community is at "medium" level and it is the esteem of teachers are affected by the low salary, by some misbehaviours of some teachers and negative news in the media (Atmaca, 2020; Erzen & Epçapan, 2018). It was also indicated that the expectations of a great majority of the prospective teachers regarding the profession are not met at a desired level and that they have a concern for the future and the profession of teaching is not as an esteemed profession compared to the past (Karamustafaoğlu & Özmen, 2004). The fact that the running of teacher training institution, value overrun and the structure of the programs are thought to be the major problems in teacher training (Chand, 2015). Regarding the undergoing changes in social, cultural and economic circles, it is thought that there is a need for a fundamental change in teacher education in order that teachers could increase their standards with the changing needs of the community (Singh & Shakir, 2019). For all these reasons, it is of great importance to train teachers who love their profession, trying to do their best to perform their professions, having a positive professional attitude.
In the achievement of social development and improvement, teachers have various tasks and responsibilities for the institutions they work for, for families and the community other than their task of education and teaching. The profession of teaching is changing its shell with a sociological, cultural, technological and economic change and the roles and responsibilities of teachers are getting increased (Ansari & Malik, 2013;Mazmishvili et al., 2019;Mullai, 2017;Ujlakyné Szucs, 2009). The idea of not being able to fulfil these responsibilities, to meet the expectations and a great many reasons could lead prospective teachers to experience professional concern. Fuller (1969) classified this concern of the prospective teachers in three groups as "Self-centred concerns", "Task-centred concerns" and "Student-centred concerns" and pointed out that these concerns intensify on some fields in certain times. It is essential to control this concern that is experienced by prospective teachers and decrease it to the minimum level.
Universities have great tasks and responsibilities in training teachers with a positive professional attitude being able to deal with their concerns. Upon the investigation of the research carried out into university life quality comprising the academic and social experiences, and factors regarding university, expressing positive experiences and satisfaction levels of students with regard to their university life (Eriş & Anıl, 2016;Kangal, 2012;Sirgy et al., 2007) is observed and it is likely to see the importance of studentteacher communication (Cotten & Wilson, 2006;Hagenauer et al., 2016;Hagenauer & Volet, 2014;Hu et al., 2015), the relation between the teaching styles of the lecturers and the academic responsibilities of students (Shaari et al., 2014), the effect of social and academic interaction on learning (Cleveland Innes & Emes, 2005), social facilities and extra-curricular activities, club and other organizations (Claudia, 2014;Foubert & Grainger, 2006;Göktaş Kulualp & Erol, 2018), friendship relations (Picton et al.,2017).
Depending on all the aforementioned issues, the current study is necessary and of importance in terms of determining the professional attitude and professional concern levels and their satisfaction levels regarding the university life quality of the prospective teachers, specifying the relation between professional attitude, professional concern and university life quality, determining the effect of professional concern and university life quality in explaining professional attitude, and of making necessary arrangements in line with the results obtained.

The Purpose of the Research
The current study was carried out to determine the role of professional concern and university life quality of prospective teachers in explaining their attitudes towards the profession of teaching and in this sense the following questions were tried to be answered: (4) Is there a significant relation between professional attitude, professional concern and university life quality? (5) What is the role of professional concern and university life quality in explaining the attitudes of the prospective teachers towards the profession of teaching?

Method
The Model of the Study As the current study was conducted to investigate the role of professional concern and university life quality in explaining the attitudes of the prospective teachers toward the profession of teaching, relational research method, a quantitative method, was used (Büyüköztürk et al., 2008;Cohen et al., 2007;Walliman, 2017).

Working Group
The working group was made up of 580 prospective teachers attending to a faculty of education at a state university. The demographic information of the prospective teachers comprising the working group is given in Table 1 and Table 2.

Table 1. The Distribution of The Participant Prospective Teachers Based on their Departments
As is seen in Table 1, prospective teachers comprising the working group of the research was made up of elementary mathematics teaching at a rate of 35.5%, of science teaching at a rate of 19.8%, of preschool teaching at a rate of 16.4%, of English language teaching at a rate of 12.6%, of classroom teaching at a rate of 11.4% and of Turkish language teaching at a rate of 4.3%. As is given in Table 2, 44.5% of the prospective teachers comprising the working group of the study was 1 st grade students, 26.7% was 2 nd grade students, 14.1% was 3 rd grade students and 14.7% was 4 th grade students.

Data Collection Tool
As a data collection tool, "The Attitude Scale towards the Profession of Teaching" developed by Üstüner (2006), "Occupational Anxiety Scale for Prospective Teachers" developed by Cabı and Yalçınalp (2013) and "The Scale of Quality of Life in University" developed by Doğanay and Sarı (2006) were used.
The Attitude Scale towards the Profession of Teaching "The Attitude Scale towards the Profession of Teaching" was developed by Üstüner (2006) in order to determine the attitudes of students studying at a teaching program towards the profession of teaching. The scale is a one dimension, Likert type attitude scale made up of 34 items. The factor loading of the scale varies between .74 and .41 and explains 30% of factor total variance. Item test correlation values vary between .74 and .42. The criterion scale validity of the scale is .89. Reliability coefficient is .72. Cronbach Alpha coefficient of consistency is .93.

Occupational Anxiety Scale for Prospective Teachers
"Occupational Anxiety Scale for Prospective Teachers" is a Likert type scale developed by Cabı and Yalçınalp (2013) to assess the professional concerns of the prospective teachers. It is made up of 8 sub-dimensions as "Task Centred Concern", "Economic-Social Centred Concern", "Student-Communication Centred Concern", "Colleague and Parent Centred Concern", "Personal Development Centred Concern", "Appointment Centred Concern", "Adaptation Centred Concern" and "School Administration Centred Concern" and of 45 items in total. Corrected item total score correlations of the factors vary between 0.23 and 0.73 while Cronbach Alpha coefficient varies between 0.94 and 0.67.

The Scale of Quality of Life in University
"The Scale of Quality of Life in University" is a Likert type scale developed by Doğanay and Sarı (2006) in order to determine the quality of life in university for students. It is made up of 7 sub-dimensions as "Lecturer-Student Communication", "Identity", "Social Facilities", "Involvement in Decisions Making", "Student-Student Communication", "Future" and "Classroom Environment" and of 33 items in total. Cronbach alpha internal consistency coefficient of the scale varies between .73 and .84. Cronbach alpha internal consistency coefficient of the scale in total is .85.

Statistical Analysis of the Data
The data obtained through "The Attitude Scale towards the Profession of Teaching", "Occupational Anxiety Scale for Prospective Teachers" and "The Scale of Quality of Life in University" was analysed by means of the package program of SPSS 21. Within the content of the descriptive analyses regarding the data, frequency and mean distributions were determined and the relation between the scales was studied through correlation analysis. The predictive power of professional concern and university life quality on attitudes toward the profession of teaching was realized through multiple regression analysis. Significance level was taken as 0.05.

Findings
In this part, the findings concerning the statistical analyses realized in line with the aims of the research are given. As is given in Table 3, professional attitude mean score of the prospective teachers is 3.79. As is given Table 4, professional concern mean scores of the prospective teachers are 3.44 and they have "Colleague and Parent Centred Concern" (x̄ = 3.76) the least, "Appointment Centred Concern" (x̄= 2.63) and "Adaptation Centred Concern" (x̄= 2.63) the most. As is shown in Table 5, the mean scores of the prospective teachers regarding their university life quality satisfaction are 2.85 and the dimension they are least satisfied is at "Social Facilities" (x̄ = 2.36).
As is given in Table 6, it was found that there was a significant negative relation at low level between "Task Centred Concern" and "Lecturer -Student Communication" sub-dimension (r= -.178), a significant negative relation at low level between "Identity" sub-dimension (r= -.185), a significant negative relation at low level between "Student -Student Communication" subdimension (r= -.092), a significant negative relation at low level between "Future" subdimension (r= -.097), a significant negative relation at low level between "Classroom Environment" subdimension (r= -.091), a significant negative relation at low level between "University Life Quality" (r= -.155) and a significant negative relation at medium level between "Attitude towards the Profession of Teaching" (r= -.332).
It was found that there was a significant negative relation at low level between "Economicsocial Centred Concern" and "Lecturer -Student Communication" sub-dimension (r= -,169), a significant negative relation at low level between "Identity" sub-dimension (r= -.254), a significant negative relation at low level between "Social Facilities" subdimension (r= -.094), a significant negative relation at low level between "Student -Student Communication" subdimension (r= -.098), a significant negative relation at low level between "Future" subdimension (r= -.149), a significant negative relation at low level between "University Life Quality" (r= -.223) and a significant negative relation at low level between "Attitude towards the Profession of Teaching" (r= -.269).
It was found that there was a significant negative relation at low level between "Student -Communication Centred Concern" and "Lecturer -Student Communication" sub-dimension (r= -.128), a significant negative relation at low level between "Identity" sub-dimension (r= -.152), a significant negative relation at low level between "Future" subdimension (r= -.098), a significant negative relation at low level between "University Life Quality" (r= -.128) and a significant negative relation at low level between "Attitude towards the Profession of Teaching" (r= -.213).
It was found that there was a significant negative relation at low level between "Colleague -Parent Centred Concern" and "Lecturer -Student Communication" sub-dimension (r= -.159), a significant negative relation at low level between "Identity" sub-dimension (r= -.094), a significant negative relation at low level between "Social Facilities" subdimension (r= -.103), a significant negative relation at low level between "University Life Quality" (r= -.093) and a significant negative relation at low level between "Attitude towards the Profession of Teaching" (r= -.192).
It was found that there was a significant negative relation at low level between "Personal Development Centred Concern" and "Lecturer -Student Communication" sub-dimension (r= -.154), a significant negative relation at low level between "Identity" sub-dimension (r= -.182), a significant negative relation at low level between "University Life Quality" (r= -.141) and a significant negative relation at low level between "Attitude towards the Profession of Teaching" (r= -.239).
It was found that there was a significant negative relation at low level between "Appointment Centred Concern" and "Lecturer -Student Communication" sub-dimension (r= -.093), a significant negative relation at low level between "Identity" sub-dimension (r= -.149), a significant negative relation at low level between "Future" sub-dimension (r= -.093) and a significant negative relation at low level between "University Life Quality" (r= -.125).
It was found that there was a significant negative relation at low level between "Adaptation Centred Concern" and "Lecturer -Student Communication" sub-dimension (r= -.182), a significant negative relation at low level between "Identity" sub-dimension (r= -.286), a significant negative relation at low level between "Involvement in Decisions" subdimension (r= -.092), a significant negative relation at low level between "Student -Student Communication" subdimension (r= -.101), a significant negative relation at low level between "Future" subdimension (r= -.159), a significant negative relation at low level between "Classroom Environment" subdimension (r= -.100), a significant negative relation at low level between "University Life Quality" (r= -.240) and a significant negative relation at medium level between "Attitude towards the Profession of Teaching" (r= -.405).
It was found that there was a significant negative relation at low level between "School Administration Centred Concern" and "Lecturer -Student Communication" sub-dimension (r= -.173), a significant negative relation at low level between "Student -Student Communication" sub-dimension (r= -.096), a significant negative relation at low level between "University Life Quality" (r= -.140), and a significant negative relation at low level between "Attitude towards the Profession of Teaching" (r= -.084).
It was found that there was a significant negative relation at low level between "Total Professional Concern" and "Lecturer -Student Communication" sub-dimension (r= -.199), a significant negative relation at low level between "Identity" sub-dimension (r= -.224), a significant negative relation at low level between "Student -Student Communication" subdimension (r= -.102), a significant negative relation at low level between "Future" subdimension (r= -.130), a significant negative relation at low level between "Classroom Environment" sub-dimension (r= -.097), a significant negative relation at low level between "University Life Quality" (r= -.197), and a significant negative relation at medium level between "Attitude towards the Profession of Teaching" (r= -.311).
It was found that there was a significant positive relation at low level between "Attitude towards the Profession of Teaching" and "Lecturer -Student Communication" sub-dimension (r= .185), a significant positive relation at medium level between "Identity" sub-dimension (r= .310), a significant positive relation at low level between "Involvement in Decisions" sub-dimension (r= .095), a significant positive relation at low level between "Student -Student Communication" sub-dimension (r= .139), a significant positive relation at low level between "Future" sub-dimension (r= .151), a significant positive relation at low level between "Classroom Environment" subdimension (r= .162) and a significant positive relation at low level between "University Life Quality" (r= .262).  As is given Table 7, professional concern and university life quality on explains 13.9% of the attitude toward the profession of teaching (R Square = 0.139).

Discussion
It was determined that prospective teachers had a positive professional attitude. The results obtained in their studies by Doğan and Çoban (2009) and Lasek and Wiesenbergová (2007) support this finding. In a study conducted by Kee and Aye (2020), it was found that prospective teachers are willing towards the profession of teaching and they have a strong commitment to the profession of teaching, and they also believe that teaching profession is a noble profession and that it will lead to an esteemed place in the community. Based on these results, it is likely to say that despite all inconveniences mentioned in the introduction, the attitudes of prospective teachers in different countries all over the world towards the profession of teaching are positive.
It was found out that the concern levels of the prospective teachers were low. A study carried out by Sadıkoğlu et al. (2018) determined that the professional concerns of the prospective teachers were low. It was also observed that the prospective teachers had "Appointment Centred Concern" and "Adaptation Centred Concern" the most. In another study carried out by Dilmaç and Topal (2017), it was figured out that a great majority of the prospective teachers (92%) had appointment concern. A study by Pamuk et al. (2014), pinpointed that prospective teachers had some concerns regarding not being able to find a job, not being able to be appointed, not being able to be successful at public personal selection exam and about family-environment expectations.
It was determined that the satisfaction of the prospective teachers regarding university life quality was at medium level and the dimension they were satisfied at the least level was "Social Facilities". As the research was carried out at a newly founded university, it is thought that the satisfaction levels of the prospective teachers regarding university life quality were at medium level and that they were least satisfied with social facilities. In a study by Kılınç et al. (2017), it was found that physical facilities and socio-cultural and academic activities are among the problems the academic lecturers pointed out regarding the newly founded universities.
It was found that there was a significant positive relation between the attitudes of the prospective teachers towards the profession and the satisfaction level of university life quality and that as the satisfaction level of university life quality increased, so did positive professional attitude. Prospective teachers come from different socio-cultural and socio-economic structures and they choose their profession sometimes on purpose and sometimes unwillingly, consciously or unconsciously; for that reason, they could have different attitudes regarding the profession of teaching. However, it is likely that university life quality increases life satisfaction and level of happiness for the prospective teachers starting their university life and so does positive attitude. In the studies carried out by Siming et al. (2015) and Sirgy et al. (2007), the importance of quality and facilities at higher education was emphasized. In another study carried out by Butt and Rehman (2010), it was found that teacher expertise, recommended courses, learning environment and classroom facilities are of role in student satisfaction at higher education institutions. In a study by Akyüz et al. (2017), it was determined that as the life quality of university students increased, their happiness level also increased. In another study conducted by Çatı and Kethüda (2017), it was found that campus life quality affects student satisfaction to a great extent. It was determined that the alienation from faculty is effective on the professional attitudes of the prospective teachers (Erimez & Gizir, 2013).
It was found that there was a significant negative relation between the professional concerns of the prospective teachers and university life quality and that as the satisfaction level of university life quality increased, professional concern decreased. It is thought that university life quality has an effect upon academic success and professional development positively and accordingly professional concern decreases. It was put an emphasis on the importance of the interaction characteristics of the lecturer, communication style, classroom rules, in-class applications and the applications regarding assessment (Gündoğdu & Yaşar, 2016), on the effect of facilities upon academic success (Ramli & Zain, 2018), and on the role of the communication skills of educations upon the academic successes of students (Khan et al., 2017) in the formation of success perception by the students. It was found in another study by Çöğmen and Köksal (2014) that among the cases that the prospective teachers regard it as a handicap for the professional development is insufficiency of university in terms of physical facilities. It was also determined in another study carried out by Topçu and Uzundumlu (2012) that among the factors having an effect on the academic unsuccess at higher education are future concern, insufficiency of physical facilities at the faculty, wrong assessment techniques, insufficiency of application in the field courses and insufficiency in cognitive and behaviours communication.
It was determined that there is a significant negative relation between the professional attitudes of the prospective teachers and their professional concerns and that as the professional concern decreases, positive professional attitude increases. It is thought that the attitude increases in a positive way with the decrease in the distressful feeling felt by the idea of uncertainty, not being able to succeed or experiencing bad events. In a study carried out by Serin (2015), a medium level relation was found between the concern levels of prospective teachers towards the profession of teaching and their attitudes towards the profession of teaching in a negative way. In a study by Doğan and Çoban (2009) carried out with prospective teachers, it was found that there was a significant negative relation at low level between attitude and concern. In another study conducted by Yetişensoy and Şahin (2019), it was found that there were significant negative relations between all sub-dimensions of unemployment concern and the attitude towards the profession of teaching and that there was a significant negative relation at medium level between general unemployment concern of prospective teachers and their attitudes towards the profession of teaching. In a study by Gerçek (2018), it was found that the increase in the concern regarding the profession of teaching decreased the belief in finding a job in the future, being able to overcome the problems to be encountered in career development and being able to adapt to unexpected changes.
It was determined that professional concern and university life quality explains 13.9% of the attitude toward the profession of teaching. It is likely to say that, professional concern and university life quality predicts attitude toward the profession of teaching at 13.9% rate based on the fact that there is a negative relation at medium level between professional attitude and professional concern and that there is a significant positive relation at low level between professional attitude and university life quality. In a study carried out by Kalemoğlu et al. (2014), it was found that the variables comprising the sub-dimension of professional concern explained the attitude toward teaching profession significantly. No study was found regarding the predictive power of the attitude of university life quality towards the profession of teaching, but in a study carried out by Peker Ünal (2017), it was found that the behaviours of lecturers were effective on the attitudes of prospective teachers towards the profession of teaching. In another study by Shaheen et al. (2016), no significant difference was found in the attitude in terms of program of prospective teachers while there was a difference campus wise. It is thought that a great many variables such as the values of prospective teachers (Kaur, 2017;Parlar & Cansoy, 2016), their living purposes and psychological well-being levels (İkiz et al., 2018), the sources of self-efficacy beliefs (Arslan & Çolakoğlu, 2019), self-efficacy perceptions (Ataş Akdemir, 2018;Elaldı & Yerliyurt, 2016;Kaleli, 2020;Karakuş, 2017), working values (Arastaman & Demirkasımoğlu, 2017), genders (Kee & Aye, 2020;Polat, 2019) and thinking styles (Ozan, 2019) affect the attitude towards the profession of teaching. Besides carrying out studies into reducing the professional concerns of the prospective teachers and increasing their university life qualities will affect the professional attitudes of the prospective teachers in a positive way.

Conclusion and Recommendations
In the current study that was carried out to determine the attitudes of prospective teachers towards the profession of teaching, professional concern and satisfaction level of university life quality, the role of their professional concern and university life quality in explaining their attitudes towards the profession of teaching, it was found that the professional attitudes of the prospective teachers were positive, their professional concern levels were low, they experienced "Appointment Centred Concern" and "Adaptation Centred Concern" the most, their satisfaction regarding university life quality was at medium level and the dimension they were satisfied the least was "Social Facilities".
It was found that there was a significant positive relation between the attitudes of the prospective teachers towards the profession of teaching and the satisfaction level of university life quality and that as the satisfaction level of university life quality increased, so did the positive professional attitude. It was also found that there was a significant negative relation between the professional concerns of the prospective teachers and the satisfaction level of university life quality and that as the satisfaction level of university life quality increased, professional concern decreased. It was concluded that there was a significant negative relation between the attitudes of the prospective teachers towards the profession and their professional concerns and that as the professional concern decreased, positive professional attitude increased. It was determined that professional concern of the prospective teachers and their satisfaction regarding university life quality predicted the attitude towards the profession of teaching at 13.9% rate.
 It is recommended that various social activities be arranged and some seminars could be given at universities in order to reduce the appointment centres concerns of the prospective teachers to minimum and supports should be given by "Student Guidance and Psychological Consultancy Centres" with regard to the students with a high level of concern.  In order to reduce the adaptation centred concern levels of the prospective teachers, some elective courses should be opened. It can be of use to carry out interviews between prospective teachers and teacher with the support of Ministry of Education.  Life qualities of university students should be increased, particularly at newly founded universities, some social domains where prospective teachers could develop themselves academically, personally and socially should be formed and social facilities should be increased.  Other factors (especially media) affecting the attitude towards the profession of teaching could be studied.  It is recommended to carry out research into determining the expectations of the prospective teachers.  It is recommended to carry out a similar study with a higher number of sampling and discuss the findings in this regard.  University life quality could be investigated in different universities, faculties and colleges and the results could be discussed in this direction.  The current study was carried out in a state university. An alternative approach can be to investigate in the situation with a private university and the results could be compared.