A case study on primary school science teachers appointed to public schools from private teaching institutions

This research was carried out with the aim of revealing the cases that science teachers, which were assigned to the Ministry of National Education from private teaching institutions, encountered in the process of adaptation. In this context, teachers' teaching profession competency perceptions and activities/attitudes they performed for competency, the education they received for personal and professional development, sources of information (written sources, colleagues, etc.) they benefit from and trainings they need in the process of adaptation were tried to be determined. In addition, in the process of adaptation, it has been tried to find out the factors that facilitate the change of the teachers, the aspects that they perceive as strong, the situations they see as opportunities and succeed easily, the difficulties they face, their strategies to cope with difficulties, their worries, the aspects they perceive as weak or inadequate, the cases that they have difficulty in achieving or they fail to achieve. The research was designed according to the case study, which is one of the qualitative research designs. The study group of the research was formed by the six science teachers who served in public secondary schools in Kahramanmaraş in the 2015-2016 school year. In the research, in which the criterion sampling method among the purposeful sampling methods is used, there were two criteria; being a science teacher and to have worked in a private teaching institution before being appointed to the public schools by the Ministry of National Education. Observation, interview, and document review methods were used in obtaining research data. In this context, data were collected by using self-assessment forms, semi-structured interview forms, unstructured interviews, unstructured observations, written sources, anecdotes, checklist and SWOT form. As a result of the research, it has been found out that the teaching profession general competency perceptions level of science teachers, who were assigned to MoNE when they were working in the private teaching institutions, are high. The teachers stated that their perception level of program and content knowledge is very high but the perception level of knowledge of legislation is very low. Even though the teachers stated that they encountered with much more differences after switching to the MoNE, it has been determined that the teachers did not follow the principles and approach of the science curriculum and that they taught exam-focused lessons and conducted exam-focused activities, guided the students about exams and motivated them in accordance. The teachers, who consider the pre-service and in-service training that they received inadequate, emphasized that they need training related to the learning and teaching processes, measurement and evaluation, educating the students who need special education, personal problems and changes in legislations. It has been found out that teachers are trying to build their personal and professional development from many sources of information and the two most important of these are colleagues and information technology & information networks. According to the obtained results of the study, the school management, the school environment and characteristics of parents are among the top factors that facilitate the adaptation of teachers after they moved to their new schools. The teachers also stated that their personal characteristics are important as well. The aspects that teachers perceived as strong and the cases that they easily succeeded are communication, question-solving, and lecturing. It was also found that the teachers regard the characteristics they gained in the private teaching institutions as an opportunity.The difficulties faced by the teachers are usually originating from the management, the environment, the physical infrastructure of the school, and the students. The teachers usually seek help from the school administration, other teachers, their relatives and school counsellor when they cope with the difficulties they encounter but they do research about it and do interviews, too. The teachers indicate that they are having difficulties to teach, integrate students and address to them according to constructivist approach. By the way, these teachers' anxieties about the future are diverse. The results of the study showed that teachers do not participate in scientific, social and cultural activities for personal development and professional development. Keywords: Teacher education, proficiency, science, change, adaptation, private teaching institutions