The analysis of life long learning tendencies of classroom teacher candidates in terms of different variables

The purpose of this study is to examine the lifelong learning tendencies of classroom teacher candidates in terms of different variables. A general survey model – one of the descriptive research designs- was adopted in the study. The research population includes the 1, 2, 3 and 4th grade classroom teacher candidates studying at Erzincan Binali Yıldırım University Faculty of Education in the academic year of 2017-2018. The sample of the study consists of 240 pre-service teachers selected according to simple random sampling technique. A 27-item "Lifelong Learning Tendencies Scale (LLLTS)" as develeped by Coşkun (2009) was administered to measure lifelong learning knowledge levels of prospective classroom teachers. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the quantitative data obtained as a result of the study. Since the experimental data in this paper were normally-distributed, parametric tests were administered. Data analysis was accomplished using t-test for pairwise comparisions whilst one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) technique for comparisions between three or more units. Tukey multiple comparision test was proceeded to determine which groups had significant differences as a result of ANOVA. The study concluded that teacher candidates have a high level of lifelong learning tendencies. Examining the subdimensions of "Lifelong Learning Tendencies Scale", it was found out that the highest average was scored in "motivation" while the lowest evarage was in "lack of curiosity". According to the findings of the study, lifelong learning tendencies of the teacher candidates differ significantly in terms of gender, class level, willingness to graduate education, participation in activities that would contribute to their professional and personal development, and the frequency of reading books. However, it was observed that there was no significant difference on lifelong learning tendencies of teacher candidates in terms of high school, mother's education, father's education, family economic status, family residence, foreign language level and participation in club activities. Key Words: Lifelong learning, classroom teacher candidates.