Teachers' opinions regarding the teacher training system in Azerbaijan

The overall objective of this research is intended to examine the historical development of the teacher training system applied in the Azerbaijan Republic and to determine its current status theoretically and by empirical studies made between teachers, who work in the secondary education system of the country. In the thesis methods of several scientific investigations have been used for purposes of the research. Especially during the period from the beginning of the XX century to the present time, in Azerbaijan, four different education system and four different models of teaching training have been used in the training of teaching staffs who need this system. Unique features of this model, determining the factors that define and affect these characterisics and the beneficial and detrimental aspects of the administration of the education system have been determined. Different research methods have been used for achieve these objectives in the collection and evaluation of required resources. The methods have been used as quantification ( to investigate of the quantitative aspects), the evaluation of the qualitative aspects of archival documents, review periodicals, historical research and comparison. The current status of Azerbaijan's education system, the teachers' opinions about the educational system and teacher training system have been realized using a combination of different methods of empirical research. Thesis covers the 1830-2016 years in chronological order. This period can be divided into for sub-periods in itself: Tsarist Era ( 1830-1918), the period of the Soviet Union ( 1920-1991) and a new era since 1991 declared Azerbaijan's independence to the present-day. These four periods are differ from one another due to not only a chronological perspective, but also perspective on matters forming the subject of research, purpose and method. The problem, the importance and the purpose of the research, the period covered by the research, the main definitions are taking place in the first part of the research. The main purpose of the thesis is to research the education system and teacher training models applied in Azerbaijan and to determine the status of modern education system of Azerbaijan in line with teachers' opinions. The theoretical framework and related researches form the second part of the thesis. In the first sub-heading of the second part of the thesis, after the disintegration of Azerbaijan between Russia and Iran (1828), the formation of the education system in the country, aspects of this system, a system applied by Tsarist regime for training teachers being in need of schools have been investigated. In this part the conclusion is to realize that education is inevitable for the training of staffs who in need of exploitation, for this purpose, to allow the opening of schools educated personnels in need africulture, industry and petrochemical sectors of Tsarist regime despite of its being indifferent to the development of education in Azerbaijan. In this process, awareness of the importance of education and the fact of various initiatives of Azerbaijani intellectuals and philanthropists for development of public education have been defined in this period. In the second sub-heading of the second part, the collapse of the Tsarist government in the First World War and the development of education in the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic founded by taking advantage of formed space, educational reforms, steps taken to meet the needs of teachers have been investigated. In this period the first university of Azerbaijan- Baku State University has been established and has began educated. In the third sub-heading of second part of the thesis, the establishment process of Soviet government in Azerbaijan in 1920 has been mentioned briefly and then reforms have been examined that provide significant development in the country's socio- political, economic and cultural life in a short period. Unique features, the pros and cons of Soviet education system resulting by turn of Azerbaijan people into educated total mass have been demonstrated taking into account the teacher training model. The fact, providing of Soviet education system one hundred percent success in achieving the community's literacy rate, causing its failure in the delivery of functional training due to give importance of the numerical majority, but not the quality , has been determined. In the fourth sub-title of the second part of the thesis, the overall situation of education system of Azerbaijan gained independence in 1991, was discussed. The status and different aspects from Soviet model of teacher training system which is part of this system have been investigated. As a result of researches, it has been determined that, the problems is still continued in understanding of the fact which the serious adversities are still experienced, the quality is more important than numerical indicators in addition to increase the success of education system of Azerbaijan trying to adapt to the world of education system. The method of research has been determined in the third part of the thesis. The model, the universe and samples of the research, data collection tools, data evaluation and methods on how to do the analysis have been presented in this section. Likert Scale has been used to determine the participants' perceptions about Azerbaijan's education system, the profession and teacher training system. In the fourth part of the thesis, teachers' opinions being in the third part about the education system and teacher training model of Azerbaijan have been consulted. In this part the methods as selecting, measuring, surveys etc. applied in the process of empirical research have been used. The fact was mainly detected in the investigated sources, that some negative aspects of Soviet Unions still continue in Azerbaijan's education system, but this results did not coincide with the ideas of teachers. This situation has been determined as a result of survey with 200 teachers identified with the simple random selection method among 2000 teachers working in 49 mixed schools (1-11th classes) located in Ganja. Teachers forming choosing the society, have been categorized taking into account characteristics suchs as gender, age and seniority, survey results have been defined by taking into account these properties. In fact, the result is indicated teachers' satisfaction from education system of country as well as teacher training models of their undergraduate universities. In the research work close,open and semi-open types of questions have been used.Teachers' perceptions have been combined and evaluated with the help of computer. In the thesis tables and figures have been benefited. At the conclusion of the thesis, the scientific result and suggestions achieved by the researcher have been demonstrated.Key words: Azerbaijan's education system, Soviet education system, teachers' opinions, Teacher training system, Likert Scale.