A RESEARCH ON THE ATTITUDES OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHER CANDIDATES IN TERMS OF DEMOGRAPHIC VARIABLES AND PUBLIC PERSONNEL SELECTION EXAM

Abstract

Noticing and defining the various factors that affect the candidate teachers’ attitudes toward teaching profession may give a great deal of contribution to finding effective solutions to quality and quantity problems in teacher education process.This study investigated the candidate teachers’ attitudes toward teaching profession in terms of demographic variables and Public Personnel Selection Examination (PPSE). The study group consisted of third and fourth year students of the Department of English Language Teaching, Faculty of Education at Mersin University. The candidate teachers were given a questionnaire prepared by the researcher and the attitude scale developed by Üstüner in 2006. The data gathered was statistically analysed and the findings revealed a statistically significant correlation between the candidates’ academic achievement and their attitudes toward teaching whereas no statistically significant correlation was found between their attitudes and other demographic variables and PPSE.