Determination of in-service training needs of classroomteachers regarding vocational general competencies

The aim of this research is to determine on which areas and subjects and to which extent the currentin service needs of the primary school teachers working at primary schools affiliated to the Ministry of National Education are concentrated in the context of general competencies for teaching profession. At the research, whether the pinpointed needs display difference depending on the teachers' gender, age and seniority at the dimensions of knowledge, professional skills and attitudes and values is searched and if there exists any differerence, it is attempted to determine how and at what rate the difference shows up. Through the data obtained, it is intended to form up in-service training proposals to boost thegeneral professional competencies for classroom teachers. The population of the research, where quantitative and qualitative screening methods are applied, consists of the first, second, third and fourth grade class teachers and school administrators (principals and assistant principals) working in the central districts of Sakarya. The sample is composed of 322 classroom teachers and 9 school administrators working in central districts and determined by theeasily-accessible casesampling method, which is one of the non-random sampling methods. The data of the research were collected with the application of the Questionnaire of General Vocational Competencies developed by the researcher to the classroom teachers and prior to the analysis of the obtained data, normality test was performed. Mann-Whitney U, Kruskal-Wallis tests were used to analyze the obtained data. In order to obtain the data from school administrators, with the use of the interview form developed by the researcher, the content analysis of the qualitative survey model was used for the the analysis of the data According to the ouctomes of the analyses of the the Questionnaire of General Vocational Competencies applied to classroom teachers; it was found that teachers consider themselves "sufficient" at the subdimensions of content knowledge, pedagogical content knowledge, knowledge on legislation in the dimension of "professional knowledge", and at the subdimensions of planning education and teaching, creating learning environments, managing the process of learning and teaching, assessment and evaluation in the dimension of "professional skill", and again at the subdimensions of national, moral and universal values, approach to the student, communication and cooperation, personal and professional development in the dimension of "attitude and values". No significant difference between the teachers' opinions in terms of their competencies for professional knowledge, professional skills, professional attitudes and values according to their "gender" was found, but a significant difference was found about the teachers' opinions in terms of their competencies for professional knowledge, professional skills, professional attitudes and values according to their "age". It was found that, as the age level of the teachers increases, they think that they need less education. While there was no significant difference found between their opinions regarding their educational needs in the fields of professional knowledge, professional skills according to their "seniority", a significant difference in favor of senior teachers was found about their opinions regarding their competencies in the dimensions of their professional attitudes and values. According to the results of the interviews with school administrators, it has been found that the classroom teachers have "inadequacies" in the fields of knowledge, adaptation to changing educational programs, knowledge on legislation, national, moral and universal values, self-evaluation, and personal and professional development, and they are found to be 'partially sufficient in teaching planning, creating learning and teaching environments. It has been found that they are 'sufficient' in the fields of managing the learning-teaching process, assessment and evaluation, approach to students and supporting their development, establishing relationships and collaboration with students, colleagues, family and other stakeholders of the education. In conclusion; classroom teachers'in-service training needs that the teachers need in terms of general professional competencies should be determined in accordance with the requirements of the current era and teachers' in-service trainings should be implemented accordingly. The qualified in-service trainings improved in cooperation with the Ministry of National Education and relevant departments of universities according to the needs of the era should be applied to the teachers within regular programs.