An evaluation of the vocational proficiency of the embroidery teachers who are originally the graduates of vocational education faculties, embrodery departments, as well as other embroidery teachers who work in the girls vocational high schools in

Embroidery teachers, who work in vocational and technicalsecondary education institutions, are trained in the vocational educationfaculties of universities in Turkey. These teachers undertake very significantassignments in issues such as raising the qualified middle workers requiredin industry and thus preparing them for working life, as well as preparing thesame students for higher education. In order for those teachers to fulfil whatis expected of them, their vocational proficiency needs identifying.The overall aim of this research is to evaluate the vocationalproficiency of the embroidery teachers who are originally the graduates ofvocational education faculties, embroidery departments; as well as otherembroidery teachers who work in the Girls Vocational High Schools in thecity of Trabzon on the basis of importance.In line with this aim, the research is composed of four main chapters.Chapter one describes the problem, significance, hypotheses,restrictions, and the terms used.Chapter two presents the information gathered through literaturereview, and also discusses such issues as vocational and technicaleducation, the historical evolution of vocational education faculties, thedefinition and characteristics of teaching profession, the historical evolution ofteaching, the factors playing a role in the selection of the teachingprofession, role and status in the teaching profession, the society?sperspective and expectations of teachers, and the proficiency in the job.Chapter three explains the research method, research model,universe and sample of the research, data collection technique, thepreparation and application of the data collection instrument, as well as themethods of analysis.This research, which aims at a significance based evaluation of theproficiency of the currently working embroidery teachers as well asembroidery teachers who are graduates of the embroidery department ofvocational education faculties, is a survey model research.The universe of the research is composed of the embroidery teacherswho worked in the Girls? Vocational High Schools in Trabzon in 2004-2005academic year. The number of embroidery teachers was 20. However,three of the data collection instruments were not available to the researcher.Therefore, as can be observed from Table 1.1, the universe comprised 17embroidery teachers from 7 Girls? Vocational High Schools.Questionnaires were prepared as vehicles of data collection in thisresearch, which aims at identifying the occupational proficiency of theembroidery teachers serving in the embroidery department of the Girls?Vocational High Schools. Expert opinion was obtained as to thequestionnaires which were developed in order to identify teachers? views onthe significance degrees of occupational proficiency. Thus, the validity andreliability of the questionnaires were checked. The data were collected byapplying the questionnaires on the source groups.In accordance with the aims of the research - since the questionsconcerning personal information in the first part of the questionnaire were ofclassification scale type-the percentages and frequencies of the datacollected from teachers? views were calculated, tabulated, and illustrated ingraphs. And in the analysis of the data on the teachers? views about thesignificance degrees of occupational proficiency in the second part of thequestionnaire, computers were employed and the necessary statisticalanalyses were performed through SPSS 10.0 version.Chapter four presents the findings and interpretations . Thepercentages, frequencies, arithmetic averages the data obtained arecalculated, tabulated, and interpreted in this chapter.Finally, in the last chapter, the conclusions arrived at are describedand proposals are presented.The majority of the 17 teachers who took part in the research universewere teachers working in Trabzon Girls? Technical Instruction MaturationInstitution and in Practical Girls? Vocational School . As to the educationalorigins of the teachers, it was found out that they were dominantly thegraduates of Gazi University Vocational Education Faculty and had anexperience of 6-10 years.When the significance levels of the major proficiencies concerningteaching and educating competence were examined, it was observed thatthe teachers described the proficiency related to recognising students,planning teaching, serving to the students requiring special education, doingout-of-class activities, making self improvement, and improving schoolprimarily as very important. On the other hand, they described theproficiency regarding material development mainly as quite important.As to the primary proficiency related to general knowledge and skills,they described all of such proficiency as very important.And when the significance level of the major proficiency with respectto the field knowledge and skills are considered, it was found that theydescribed all of the proficiency common to all such teachers ( such asproduct design, needlework, Bartın needlework, Turkish needlework, divalwork, ironing) as very important.