Investigation of the fourth class teacher candidates 'attitudes towards the teaching profession

This research aims examining, the fourth grade Science and Mathematics teacher candidates' attitudes towards teaching profession and relation to various variables (gender, age range, department of education, department preference order, the type of high school they graduated, whether they have someone is a teacher in their family or social group, someone from family studied at university/ still studying, the environment where he/she lives, the residential unit where the family lives and the monthly expenditure) weekly course hours (KPSS)). General screening model was used as the method in the research. The population of the research consists of all the fourth grade prospective teachers studying at Akdeniz University Faculty of Education in the spring semester of 2017-2018 academic year. The sample of the study consisted of 180 prospective teachers who are studying in Science Education and Mathematics Education Department. The teacher candidates who participated in the study were interviewed by the "Personal Information Form" prepared by the researcher and the interview's name is Attitudes Scale Towards Teaching Profession (Üstüner, 2006). The data obtained provide the normal distribution condition and descriptive analysis was performed. Independent t test analysis, variance analysis (ANOVA), clustering analysis, chi-square analysis, Sidak dual comparison test and correlation analysis techniques were used to analyze the data. In addition, in order to investigate the reliability levels of the question groups, explanatory factor analysis (AFA) was applied in order to determine the reliability and factor structure. The level of significance was accepted as 0,05. Findings show, that science and mathematics teacher candidates generally have a positive attitude towards teaching profession. In addition; there is no significant difference between attitudes towards teaching profession and gender, age range, department of education, department of choice, order support (KPSS), weekly course hours (KPSS), type of high school, whether there is a teacher in the family and in the vicinity, studied in university/still studying and no significant difference according to whether there is a living place, the environment where the family lives, and the monthly spending amount of the family. But it was found that the weekly working hours of the participants were effective on the attitude groups towards the teaching profession. Key Words: Education, Teaching Profession, Science, Mathematics Teaching, Teacher Candidates, Attitude, Attitude Towards Teaching Profession