Evaluation of teacher candidates’ life skills in terms of departments and grade levels

Year 2021, , 200 - 221, 10.06.2021

Dilek Erduran Avcı , Fikret Korur Sümeyye Turgut

https://doi.org/10.21449/ijate.749534

Cited By: 3

Abstract

The purposes of this research were (i) testing the factor and model structure of the life-skills scale (LSS) on teacher candidates and (ii) inspecting the life skills of teacher candidates according to their departments and grade levels. The participants consisted of 518 teacher candidates, all of whom were students in their sophomore or senior years in the education faculty of a state university. The data were collected through the LSS, which has 83 items. The confirmatory factor analysis of LSS verified the ten-factor structure for the teacher candidates (aged between 18 and 25). There were no statistically significant differences in the mean value of teacher candidates’ life skills according to the grade variable. On the contrary, there were statistically significant differences in the dependent variables according to the department. Future directions of research regarding the educational outcomes of life skills were discussed.

Keywords

Life skills scale, teacher candidates, department, grade level, Comfirmatory factor analysis

References

• Adkins, W.R. (1984). Life skills education: A video-based counselling/learning delivery system. In D. Larson (Ed.), Teaching Psychological Skills: Models for giving psychology away (pp.44-68). Brooks/Cole.
• Allen, P., & Bennett, K. (2008). SPSS for the Health and Behavioural Sciences. Thomson Learning.
• Allen, B.S., & Lohman, B.J. (2016). Positive youth development life skills gained at the Iowa 4 H Youth Conference. Journal of Youth Development, 11(1), 62 76. https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Positive Youth Development Life Skills Gained at Allen Lohman/15a78d98314f59ad9966bfe44c2008b67db17204
• Amutha, S., & Ramganesh, E. (2013). Efficiency of teacher educators through life skill building. International Journal of Management and Development Studies, 2(3), 13-18. http://www.indianjournals.com/ijor.aspx?target=ijor:ijmds1&volume=2&issue=3&article=002
• Bailey, S.J., & Deen, M.Y. (2002). Development of a web-based evaluation system: A tool for measuring life skills in youth and family programs. Future Relations, 51(2), 138-147. https://www.jstor.org/stable/3700199?seq=1
• Balaman, F., Bolat, Y., & Baş, M. (2018). A comparison of life skill levels between students of education faculty and students of pedagogical formation: The case of Mustafa Kemal University, Turkey. European Journal of Education Studies, 4(5), 75 91. https://oapub.org/edu/index.php/ejes/article/view/1582/4214
• Bentler, P. M., & Chou, C. P. (1987). Practical issues in structural modeling. Sociological Methods & Research, 16, 78–117. https://doi.org/10.1177/0049124187016001004
• Bhardwaj, S. (2013). Teaching skills, study skills and life skills among student teachers in relation to their sex and stream of study at graduation level [Unpublished Doctoral Dissertation]. Himachal Pradesh University.
• Bolat, Y., & Balaman, F. (2017). Life skills scale: validity and reliability study. Journal of the Human and Social Science Researches, 6(4), 22 39. http://www.itobiad.com/tr/download/article-file/336258
• Brown, T. A., (2012). Confirmatory factor analysis for applied research. The Guilford Press.
• Byrne, B. M. (2010). Multivariate applications series. Structural equation modeling with AMOS: Basic concepts, applications, and programming (2nd ed.). Routledge/Taylor & Francis Group.
• Can, S., & Can, Ş. (2011). Kamu personeli seçme sınavı öncesinde öğretmen adaylarının stress düzeyleri [Stress levels of students before KPSS (Public Personnel Choosing Exam)]. Kastamonu Education Journal, 19(3), 765 778. https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/download/article-file/817384
• Cassidy, K., Franco, Y., & Meo, E. (2018). Preparation for adulthood: A teacher inquiry study for facilitating life skills in secondary education in the United States. Journal of Educational Issues, 4(1), 33-46. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1172806.pdf
• Chauhan, S. (2016). Effectiveness of a life skills programme on teacher trainees. International Multidisciplinary e Journal, 5(4), 90 98. http://www.shreeprakashan.com/Documents/20160430142939588.13.Sarika%20Chauhan.pdf
• Chien, N., Harbin, V., Goldhagen, S., Lippman, L., & Walker, K.E. (2012). Encouraging the development of key life skills in elementary school-age children: a literature review and recommendations to the tauck family foundation. Child Trends, 28, 1-11. https://www.childtrends.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/2012-28KeyLifeSkills.pdf
• Child, D. (1990). The essentials of factor analysis, (2nd ed.). Cassel Educational Limited.
• Cohen, J. (1988). Statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences (2nd ed.). Lawrence Earlbaum Associates.
• Cronin, L.D., & Allen, J. (2017). Development and initial validation of the Life Skills Scale for Sport. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 28, 105 119. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.psychsport.2016.11.001
• Cronin, L., Allen, J., Ellison, P., Marchant, D., Levy, A., & Harwood, C. (2019). Development and initial validation of the life skills ability scale for higher education students. Studies in Higher Education. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2019.1672641
• Çardak, M. (2013). Fiziksel gelişim [Physical development]. In Ş. Işık-Terzi (Ed.), Eğitim psikolojisi (pp. 48-71). Pegem Akademi.
• DanielSoper (n.d.) Statistics calculators. https://www.danielsoper.com/statcalc/calculator .aspx? id = 89
• Doğramacıoğlu, B. (2016). Comparison of creativity levels of students in fine arts high school and other high school types [Unpublished Master Thesis]. Marmara University.
• Erawen, P. (2010). Developing life skills scale for high school students through mixed methods research. European Journal of Scientific Research, 47(2), 169 186. https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/f25a/954616d717592158165bea1142f36af8f416.pdf
• Erduran Avcı, D., & Kamer, D. (2018). Views of teachers regarding the life skills provided in science curriculum. Eurasian Journal of Educational Research, 77, 1 18. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1192961.pdf
• Erduran Avcı, D., & Korur, F. (2019, June). Bir ölçek geliştirme çalışması: Yaşam becerileri ölçeği [A scale development study: Life skills scale]. VIth International Eurasian Educational Research Congress (EJER), Ankara University.
• Eryılmaz, A., & Mutlu, T. (2017). Career development and health from the perspective of life-span development approach. Current Approaches in Psychiatry, 9(2), 227-249. https://dergipark.org.tr/en/download/article-file/268979
• European Commission/EACEA/Eurydice (2012). Developing key competences at school in Europe: Challenges and opportunities for policy. Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union. https://eacea.ec.europa.eu/national policies/eurydice/content/developing-key-competences-school-europe-challenges-and-opportunities-policy_en
• Evin Gencel, İ. (2013). Prospective teachers’ perceptions towards lifelong learning competencies. Education and Science, 38(170), 237 252. http://egitimvebilim.ted.org.tr/index.php/EB/article/viewFile/1847/558
• Field, A. (2009). Discovering statistics using SPSS (3rd ed.). Sage Publications.
• Fitzpatrick, S., Twohig, M., & Morgan, M. (2014). Priorities for primary education? From subjects to life- skills and children's social and emotional development. Irish Educational Studies, 33(3), 269-286. https://doi.org/10.1080/03323315.2014.923183
• Fox, J., Schroeder, D., & Lodl, K. (2003). Life skill development through 4-H clubs: The perspective of 4 H alumni. Journal of Extension, 41(6). https://www.joe.org/joe/2003december/rb2.php#:~:text=The%20mission%20of%204%2DH,people%20(Cox%2C%201996).&text=His%20research%20showed%20that%204,service%20ethic%2C%20and%20social%20skills.
• Fraenkel, J. R., Wallen, N. E., & Hyun, H. H. (2011). How to design and evaluate research in education. McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages.
• Garst, B.A., Gagnon, R., & Whittington, A. (2016). A closer look at the camp experience: Examining relationships between life skills, elements of positive youth development, and antecedents of change among camp alumni. Journal of Outdoor Recreation, Education, and Leadership, 8(2), 180-199. https://doi.org/10.18666/JOREL-2016-V8-I2-7694
• Ginter, E. J. (1999). David K. Brooks' contribution to the developmentally based life-skills approach. Journal of Mental Health Counseling, 21(3), 191 202. https://search.proquest.com/docview/198716822?pq-origsite=gscholar&fromopenview=true
• Göksun, D.O., & Kurt, A.A. (2017). The relationship between pre-service teachers' use of 21st century learner skills and 21st century teacher skills. Education and Science, 42(190), 107-130. http://dx.doi.org/10.15390/EB.2017.7089
• Green, H.A. (2008). Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow: The development of a life skills scale [Unpublished Master thesis]. Miami University.
• Güneş, F. (2016). Problems of divergence of skills in Turkish teaching and recommendations for solution. Bartın University Journal of Faculty of Education, 5(2), 205-222. https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/download/article-file/224463
• Güneş, F., & Uygun, T. (2016). Skill discrepancy in teacher education. Ahi Evran Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü Dergisi, 2(3), 1-14. https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/download/article-file/263737
• Hair, Jr., J. F., Black, W. C., Babin, B. J., Anderson, R. E., &Tatham, R. L. (2006). Multivariate data analysis (6th ed.). Pearson Prentice Hall.
• Hu, L. T. & Bentler, P. M. (1999). Cutoff criteria for fit indexes in covariance structure analysis: Conventional criteria versus new alternatives. Structural Equation Modeling, 6(1), 1-55. https://doi.org/10.1080/10705519909540118
• IGI Global (n.d.). What is pre service teachers. https://www.igi global.com/dictionary/investigating-the-factors influencing-pre-service-teachers-acceptance-to-use-mobile-devices-for-learning/23201
• Indian National Council of Educational Research and Training. (2005). India National Curriculum.http://www.ncert.nic.in/rightside/links/pdf/framework/english/nf2005.pdf
• Jacobs Foundation. (2011). Monitoring and evaluating life skills for youth development (Volume 2: The Toolkit). https://jacobsfoundation.org/app/uploads/2017/08/Monitoring-and-Evaluating_The-Toolkit.pdf
• Kadish, T.E., Glaser, B.A., Calhoun, G.B., & Ginter, E.J. (2001). Identifying the developmental strengths of juvenile offenders: Assessing four life-skills dimensions. Journal of Addictions & Offender Counseling, 21, 85 95. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/j.2161-1874.2001.tb00154.x
• Kaufman, K.J. (2013). 21 Ways to 21st century skills: Why students need them and ideas for practical implementation. Kappa Delta Pi Record, 49(2), 78 83. https://doi.org/10.1080/00228958.2013.786594
• Kayahan, Z., & Çakmakoğlu Kuru, A. (2017). Türkiye’deki görsel iletişim tasarımı bölümlerine öğrenci alımında uygulanan sınavlar hakkında öğretim elemanı görüşleri [Opinions of academicians regarding the examinations applied in student admission to departments of visual communication design in Turkey]. Sanat ve Tasarım Dergisi, 19, 75-87. https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/download/article-file/317170
• Khatoon, S. (2018). Developing life skills approach in the teaching-learning process based on Johari Window Model: Dealing with change. The Research Journal of Social Sciences, 9(6), 65-75. www.aensi.in/
• Koyuncu, B. (2018). The effect of pre-service teachers’ life skills on teacher self-efficacy. Journal of Education and Learning, 7(5), 188-200. https://doi.org/10.5539/jel.v7n5p188
• Kozikoğlu, İ., & Altunova, N. (2018). The predictive power of prospective teachers’ self-efficacy perceptions of 21st century skills for their lifelong learning tendencies. The Journal of Higher Education and Science, 8(3), 522 531. https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/b414/4ab36c3e160fe6da12373e31672f50cbbb22.pdf?_ga=2.126820109.1836896345.1612253960-2067958555.1612253960
• Kurtdede-Fidan, N., & Aydogdu, B. (2018). Life skills from the perspectives of classroom and science teachers. International Journal of Progressive Education, 14(1), 32-55. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1169814.pdf
• Milli, M. S., & Yağcı, U. (2017). Research on communication skills of pre-service teachers. Bolu Abant İzzet Baysal University Journal of Education Faculty, 17(1), 286-298. https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/download/article-file/292008
• Ministry of Education, Singapore. (2016). Primary School Education Booklet. https://www.moe.gov.sg/education/primary/primary-schooleducation-booklet
• O'Rourke, M., Hammond, S., O'Sullivan, D., Staunton, C., & O'Brien, S. (2016). The LifeMatters programme for developing life-skills in children: An evaluation. International Journal of Mentoring and Coaching in Education, 5(2), 144-157. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJMCE-10-2015-0031
• Otacıoğlu, A. S. G. (2007). Comparison of problem solving skill levels of students who are trained in different branches of education faculties. Eurasian Journal of Educational Research, 29, 73-83. https://app.trdizin.gov.tr/makale/TnpBeE9UWTI/egitim-fakultelerinin-farkli-branslarinda-egitim-alan-ogrencilerin-problem-cozme-beceri-duzeylerinin-karsilastirilmasi
• Pal, S., & Chandra, S. (2019). A study of life skills of pupil – teachers. International Journal of Science and Research, 8(8), 2201 2205. https://www.ijsr.net/search_index_results_paperid.php?id=ART2020796
• Prasad, J. (2018). Awareness of life skills among senior secondary school students of east and south districts of Sikkim [Unpublished Master thesis]. Sikkim University.
• Sardoğan, M.E., & Ağaoğlu, S.A. (2005). The comparison between university students who enters the university with special ability examination and general ability examination in terms of the empathic abilities. Gazi Journal of Physical Education and Sport Sciences, 4, 33-40. https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/download/article-file/292439
• Schurer, S. (2017). Does education strengthen the life skills of adolescents? IZA World of Labor, 366, 1-11. https://doi.org/10.15185/izawol.366
• Schermelleh-Engel, K., Moosbrugger, H., & Müller, H. (2003). Evaluating the fit of structural equation models: Tests of significance and descriptive goodness-of-fit measures. Methods of Psychological Research, 8(2), 23–74. https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2003-08119-003
• Simona, G. (2015). Teacher training for embedding life skills into vocational teaching. Procedia Social and Behavioral Sciences, 180, 814 819. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.02.215
• Super, D.E. (1990). A life span, life-space approach to career development. In D Brown & L Brooks (Eds.), Career choice and development (pp.197-261). Jossey–Bass.
• Tabachnick, B.G., & Fidell, L.S. (2007). Using multivariate statistics (5th ed.). Pearson Education.
• Tan, S. (2018). Life skills education: Teachers’ perceptions in primary school classrooms in Finland and Singapore [Unpublished Master thesis]. University of Jyväskylä.
• T.C. Kalkınma Bakanlığı. (2013). Onuncu kalkınma planı (2014-2018) [The tenth development plan]. Kalkınma Bakanlığı. http://www.sbb.gov.tr/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Onuncu-Kalk%C4%B1nma-Plan%C4%B1-2014-2018.pdf
• The European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training (CEDEFOP) (2018). Insights into skill shortages and skill mismatch. http://www.cedefop.europa.eu
• The Turkish Ministry of National Education (TMNE) (2017). Öğretmenlik mesleğinin genel yeterlikleri [General competencies of the teaching profession]. Öğretmen Yetiştirme ve Geliştirme Genel Müdürlüğü. http://oygm.meb.gov.tr/meb_iys_dosyalar/2017_12/11115355_YYRETMENLYK_MESLEYY_GENEL_YETERLYKLERY.pdf
• The Turkish Ministry of National Education (TMNE) (2018). Fen bilimleri dersi öğretim program [Science course curriculum]. T.C. Milli Eğitim Bakanlığı. https://mufredat.meb.gov.tr/ProgramDetay.aspx?PID=325
• The Turkish Ministry of National Education (TMNE) (2018b). Hayat bilgisi dersi öğretim programı [Life sciences course curriculum]. T.C. Milli Eğitim Bakanlığı. https://mufredat.meb.gov.tr/ProgramDetay.aspx?PID=326
• The Turkish Ministry of National Education (TMNE) (2018c). Sosyal bilgiler dersi öğretim programı [Scocial sciences course curriculum]. T.C. Milli Eğitim Bakanlığı. https://mufredat.meb.gov.tr/ProgramDetay.aspx?PID=354
• The Turkish Qualifications Framework (TQF) (2015). Türkiye yeterlilikler çercevesi [Turkish Qualifications framework]. Ankara: Mesleki Yeterlilik Kurumu. https://www.myk.gov.tr/index.php/tr/turkiye-yeterlilikler-cercevesi
• Trilling, B., & Fadel, C. (2009). 21st century skills: Learning for life in our times. John Wiley & Sons.
• United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) (2012). Global evaluation of life skills education programmes: Final report. UNICEF. https://www.eccnetwork.net/sites/default/files/media/file/GLSEE_Booklet_Web.pdf
• World Health Organization (WHO) (1997). Life skills education for children and adolescents in schools. Programme on mental health world health organization. https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/63552/WHO_MNH_PSF_93.7A_Rev.2.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y
• World Health Organization (WHO) (2004). Skills for health: Skills-based health education including life skills. Information series on school health, Document 9. The World Health Organization’s information series on school health. https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/42818/924159103X.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y
• Vranda, M.N. (2009). Development and standardization of life skills scale. Indian Journal of Social Psychiatry, 25(1-2), 17 - 28. http://iasp.org.in/IJSP/IJSP_2009_(1-2).pdf#page=19
• Zorlu, D.Y., Zorlu, F., & Dinç, S. (2019). Investigation of relationships between the preservice science teachers’ life skills and metacognitive awareness. Necatibey Faculty of Education Electronic Journal of Science and Mathematics Education, 13(1), 302-327. https://doi.org/10.17522/balikesirnef.511546