Investigation of Pedagogical Formation Certification Program Students’ Attitudes Towards Teaching Profession in Terms Of Some Variables

The aim of the current study is to determine the attitudes of students who have training on pedagogical formation in order to be assigned as a teacher towards teaching profession. Within the scope of this general aim the following question is sought an answer: Do pedagogical formation certification program students’ attitudes towards teaching profession change significantly in terms of (1) gender, (2) level of education (grade or graduation) (3) department (studying or graduated), (4) faculty/ high school (studying or graduated) variables? The present study has the characteristics of descriptive survey model. The participants include 644 students who take pedagogical formation at 2010- 2011 Academic year Spring term at Sakarya University’s Faculty of Education and who are studying at or graduated from Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Faculty of Fine Arts, Faculty of Theology, School of Physical Education and Sports, Health High School, and School of State Conservatory. Attitude Scale towards Teaching Profession (ASTP), developed by Üstüner (2006), is used as a data collection tool. In order to determine whether total scores obtained from data collection tools differ in terms of variables or not T test, analysis of variance, Mann Whitney U Test and Kruskal Wallis H-test are conducted. According to results, the attitudes of students, taking pedagogical formation, towards teaching profession show significant differences in the sense of faculty/ high school variable and do not show a significant difference with regard to gender and level of education variables. Moreover, attitude scores of students differ in accordance with Faculty of Arts and Sciences and Health High School and do not differ with regards to other departments in other faculties or high schools.