The investigation of teachers' professional ethical principles adaptation levels and the effective teacher characteristics and behaviors

In this study, which was conducted in order to examine the teachers' level of adoption of ethical principles and effective teacher characteristics and behaviors, it is a descriptive study in the survey model. The population of the study consists of teachers working in schools in the central districts of Mersin (Toroslar, Akdeniz, Yenişehir, Mezitli). Cluster sampling method was used to form the research sample and five schools were selected randomly from different educational levels (kindergarten, primary, secondary and high school) in each central district. A total of 413 volunteer teachers participated in the study. Professional Ethical Principles Scale, Effective Teacher Characteristics and Behaviors Scale and Personal Information Form were used for data collection and the data were collected in the spring semester of 2017-2018 academic year. SPSS 21 statistical program was used in the analysis of the research data, Mann Whitney U, Kruskal Wallis H and Spearman correlation tests were performed in addition to descriptive statistics (frequency, percentage, arithmetic mean and standard deviation). As a result of the research, it was determined that teachers fully adopted the principles of professional ethics for society, school, profession, colleagues, students, and parents. Having a child, working in a public or private school, the number of students in the classes lectured and the socio-economic level of the school in which the school is located did not make a significant difference in the teachers' adoption of professional ethical principles. The level of adoption of professional ethical principles for students by female and single teachers was higher. Ethical principles of preschool and classroom teachers towards society; It was seen that preschool teachers adopted the ethical principles towards their colleagues and students more than the teachers at other levels and branches. The results showed that the teachers who participated in the research had significant characteristics of effective teachers in terms of personal characteristics, teaching practices and interpersonal relations, and did not create significant differences in these perceptions according to the gender, the level of the class entered and the socio-economic level of the environment in which the school is located. The study showed that there is a moderate relationship between teachers' level of adoption of ethical principles towards society and profession and their status of having effective teacher characteristics. The relationship between teachers' level of adoption of ethical principles towards students and parents and having the characteristics of effective teacher in teaching practices were at low levels. Key Words: Ethics, professional ethics, professional ethics of teaching, effective teachers' characteristics