Anatolian Teacher Training High School Students’ Views On The Effectiveness Of Teaching Practicum Activites And The Impact Of These Actıvities On Students’ Attitudes Toward Teaching Profession

Teaching profession has an important place in the society because teachers train individuals and prepare them for the future. The development of a nation is mostly based on training well-qualified persons. Teachers, as the trainers of future generations, perform that task. In this sense, training well-qualified teachers of future gains importance. Anatolian Teacher Training High Schools are thought as the source of teacher training faculties. Teaching Practicum Activities Course is among the courses conducted to prepare students for the teaching profession in Anatolian Teacher Training High Schools. The better these courses are organized and conducted, the better students will be prepared for the future. The aim of this quantitative and qualitative study is to explore Anatolian Teacher Training High School students’ opinions toward Teaching Practicum Activities Course. It was also aimed to see if students’ attitudes toward teaching profession changed after Teaching Practicum Activities Course. In qualitative part of the study, it was aimed to determine Anatolian Teacher Training High School students’ views on the effectiveness of Teaching Practicum Activities Course. Study group included 11th grade students enrolled at Ergani Anatolian Teacher Training High School in 2009-2010 academic year. All 11th graders were chosen as the sample of the study. There are totally 63 male, 17 female students. Quantitative data were collected by using Attitude Scale for Teaching Profession developed by Semerci (2009). Cronbach Alpha reliability coefficient of the scale was calculated to be 0.68, KMO value was measured to be 0,88, Bartlett’s test was calculated to be 8980,25. Paired groups t test was used to analyze the quantitative data. In qualitative part of the study, an interview form including six semi-structured questions was used. Eighty students were interviewed and content analysis method was used to analyze the qualitative data. Results of the study proved that students had some problems during Teaching Practicum Activities Course such as crowded classrooms, insufficiency of the physical equipment of the schools. But it was also determined that these activities contributed them having more information about teaching profession in practice. They also emphasized that they enjoyed teaching profession. No statistically significant difference was found among students’ attitudes toward teaching profession before and after Teaching Practicum Activities Anadolu Öğretmen Lisesi Öğrencilerinin Uygulamaları İzleme Etkinliklerine İlişkin Görüşleri ve Bu Etkinliklerin Öğretmenlik Mesleğine Yönelik Tutumlarına Etkisi 339 Turkish Studies International Periodical For the Languages, Literature and History of Turkish or Turkic Volume 7/4, Fall, 2012 Course. Based on the results of the study, it is suggested that students should be informed about the activities, practice schools should be selected carefully and there should be effective communication between Anatolian Teacher Training High Schools and practice schools.