An application of gaining professional values of teaching in an introduction to education course

This research aimed to determine the effect of the activities carried out for the values of the teaching profession on the pre-service teachers' awareness of professional values and their attitudes towards the profession. In this direction, the research was organized according to the nested pattern, one of the mixed research method designs. The quantitative dimension of the research was designed in accordance with the weak experimental pre-test-post-test model. The participants of the research consist of first- year teacher candidates who took the Introduction to Education course in Anadolu University Education Faculty Preschool (55) and Primary School Teaching (70) programs in the 2019-2020 academic year. While scale and questionnaire were used in the quantitative dimension of the research as data collection tools, open-ended questions, semi-structured interviews and observation were used for qualitative data. While nonparametric t tests were applied to quantitative data with SPSS 11.5 program, inductive and descriptive analysis was applied to qualitative data with Nvivo 11 program. As a result of the research, it was determined that the practices carried out for the teaching profession values in the experimental group had a positive significant effect on the attitudes of the teacher candidates towards the profession. There was no change in the attitudes of the teacher candidates in the control group towards the profession. As a result of the research, it was supported by the results of both qualitative and quantitative findings that the pre-service teachers in the experimental group became aware of their teaching professional values.