TURKISH TEACHER CANDIDATES' MOTIVATION LEVELS FOR TURKISH EDUCATION DEPARTMENTS AND TEACHING PROFESSION

Extended Abstract Problem and Purpose: Providing the achievement in Turkish education are based on the education, received during undergraduate period by preservice teachers, and being motivated to their profession at high level. The aim of this study is to determine the motivation levels of preservice Turkish teachers for Turkish education departments and teaching profession and to evaluate it with regard to different variables. Method and Materials: In this research, it has been used scanning model, as one of descriptive research model. The sample of the research consists of 155 preservice teachers who study at Department of Turkish Education, Kazim Karabekir Education Faculty in Ataturk University. In order to acquire data of the research, “Scale of Motivation Level Determining for Turkish Education Department/Teaching Professionâ€?, having 28 items, has been developed by the researcher. Scale items have been prepared by scanning related litterateur and taking academicians' views. For providing content validity of determining scale, the scale has been examined by Turkish teachers and expert academicians studying in Turkish education and educational sciences departments. Factor analysis has been used for testing content validity of the scale, and factor loadings for items have been determined. Reliability coefficient has been found (Cronbach Alpha) as 0,83 at the end of pilot study. In the introduction part of the scale which reliability and validity were tested, some questions have been asked in order to acquire personal information (gender, achievement) of answerers. It has been given place to items related to Turkish teaching profession and undergraduate program in second part of the scale. Prepared scale with its instruction have been reached to preservice teachers in the research sample, and gathered from them directly by the researcher. Data acquired from the scale has been analyzed as calculated mean, standard deviation, Independent Samples t and Kruskall Wallis H value by SPSS 11.5. Results: According to the findings of the research, which aims to research motivation levels of preservice Turkish teachers for Turkish education departments and teaching profession, it can be said that preservice Turkish teachers have a motivation for their department and profession at the level of I accept ( = 3,21). It has been come through that there is not a significant difference on motivation levels in terms of the gender, however for CGPA (Cumulative grade point average) there is a significant difference on motivation level of preservice Turkish teachers. According to motivation level of preservice Turkish teachers in terms of gender, both males and females have close means such as = 3,17 for males and for = 3,10 females. It can be concluded that the motivation levels of preservice Turkish teachers for Turkish education departments and teaching profession are not different in terms of gender (t; 0,488, p>0,05). On the other hand, it has been seen that there is a significant difference between motivation levels of preservice Turkish teachers for Turkish education department/teaching in terms of CGPA (H; 18,531, p<0,05). The results of the research have similarities with the results of some other researches in litterateur. From the findings of the research, it has been made some suggestions for the incoming researches related to this topic. Keywords: Turkish teaching, preservice teachers, teaching profession, motivation.