PERSPECTIVES OF UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS ABOUT POSTGRADUATE EDUCATION

Year 2016, Volume: 4 , 499 - 507, 01.09.2016

Cemalettin Yıldız Resul Göl

Abstract

Nowadays, demand for postgraduate education
is increasing so the necessity to determine undergraduate students’
perspectives to postgraduate education is revealed. Thus, the aim of this study
is to determine the perspectives of 4^th grade mathematics students
studying at faculty of arts and sciences and faculty of education about
postgraduate education. In the study, qualitative research design was used. 129 undergraduate students participated in
the study on fall term of 2015-2016 academic year. 69 students of them were
from a faculty of arts and sciences and 60 of them were from a faculty of
education. A form including open-ended questions was used to gather the data in
the study. Data obtained were analyzed by descriptive and content analysis techniques.
At the end of the study, it was found that 50.4% of the students did not want
to get a postgraduate education, 41.1% of them wanted to get a postgraduate
education, and 8.5% of them did not have an idea about this subject.  Also, it was found that students wanted to
get a postgraduate education to have much salary, to specialize in the fields,
to make academic career, to improve oneself, and since they thought that being
appointed as a teacher was more difficult. In addition, the most important reasons
for some students who did not have an ambition or attempt to get a postgraduate
education were found as they want to be a teacher, they thought they wouldn’t
have enough time to get postgraduate education, and they would have financial
problems. Lastly, it was determined that students were offered to get a
postgraduate education by their relatives, friends, and educators and they got
information about postgraduate education mostly from their educators, friends,
and internet.

Keywords

Mathematics education, postgraduate education, teaching profession, academic career

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