The assessment on the transformation of technical education faculties into faculties of technology according to the delphi technique

The main aim of this study is to assess the transformation of Technical Education Faculties into Faculties of Technology according to the Delphi technique. In addition to the analysis of the opinions of teaching staff their faculty, title and university have also been compared. In paralel with the main purpose; answers for the following questions have been sought. -What are the opinions of the teaching staff in terms of the 10 dimensions of this practice? -Is there a significant difference between their opinions in terms of the parameters of faculty, title and university? The research is descriptive and is in the model of scanning. The universe of the research comprises the teaching staff working at the faculties of Technical Education and Technology on the scale of Turkey. The sample of the research consists of the teaching staff working at the Faculties of Technology which have recently established and accepted students at seven universities(Fırat, Marmara, Gazi, Afyon Kocatepe, Karabük, Süleyman Demirel and Sakarya Universities) in 2012 and the faculties of technology at the same universities. In the face-to-face interviews, the academicians were informed about the purpose of the research and how and why the data were being collected and the experts were asked if they would like to take part in this research. The round I of the research was finalized by giving interview forms containing 10 open-ended questions to the 122 volunteer academicians.At the round II of the research, the opinions from the round I were examined, grouped and listed. In order to realize the round II of Delphi, the online 76-item survey form that were compiled from the opinions in the round I and contained the same 10 dimensions and the percentages of the data from the round I was sent as the data collecting tool to the e-mail addresses of all the teaching staff who participated in the round I and their responses were expected. At this round, the academicians were asked to state how far they defended or rejected the opinions that emerged at the round I. They were also asked to write their opinions in the section provided at each dimension. 5 point likert was used for the round II that was compiled from the round I. The round III was the final survey form that was formed by analysing the data from the rounds I and II. Since this round would be the final one, efforts were made to do the interviews face-to-face. Due to the fact that official questionnaire from the universities of Fırat and Marmara were impossible to be obtained for the round I, the same interview(survey) form was also prepared online and sent to the academicians who were able to participate in the research at the round II. The teaching staff from the universities of Gazi, Afyon Kocatepe, Süleyman Demirel, Sakarya and Karabük who took part at the round II of the research were given the final survey form after the face-to-face interviews and collected again after a period of reasonable time. The form was sent to the academicians who participated in the round II but failed to be presented at the faculty on the day the survey was conducted. Data was collected and content analysis was used to analyse the data for the delphi technique, independent groups t test, one-way anova, Kruskall Wallis H test, Mann Whitney U test and LSD to determine differences of opinions. Some of the findings obtained from the data can be summed up as following:Academicians think that vocational high schools will be affected negatively from this practice especially in way of teachers. They think that faculties of technology will be beneficial in the future although they may cause some problems in the beginning, and they also think that faculties of technical education should continue to exist. In this case, we can say that academicians approve of the fact that at least a few of them should go on functioning. They also think that people from vocational high schools with practical experience should be employed in faculties of technology. They are of the same opinion that the problems with the transfer of personnel diminishes their enthusiasmAccording to the academicians, standards should be established for the success of technology faculties, the extent of practical dimension should be increased, work should be undertaken to improve the personal benefits of the graduates in the market and state institutions, and their status and limits should be identified and explained. According to the academicians, the criteria for the admission of graduate students should be established fairly and the graduates of technical education faculties must not be treated unfairly. Besides, department names should not be the same as those of engineering faculties.Since the research was mostly conducted face-to-face, both the academicians and literature lack information on such issues as the aims and visions of technology faculties and the status the graduates acquire, and this causes confusion. This confusion should be removed urgently. Key words: Technology Faculties, Technical Education Faculty, Delphi Technique, Professional Training, Program Evaluation