An investigation of first grade elementary teacher candidates’ perceptions of their teaching profession competencies: A mixed method study

Abstract

Although teaching profession has lost its prestige over the years, the recent studies demonstrate that teaching still ranks among the top of most respected of professions. Teacher candidates’ individual characteristics play a crucial role in choosing teachers and designing curriculum for educating teacher candidates. The present study is of vital importance to identify the perceptions of first grade teacher candidates enrolled in Faculty of Education towards teaching profession and whether they have teaching competencies needed or not. In this research, a mixed research, sequential explanatory mixed design was utilized in which both quantitative and qualitative data were analyzed together. The quantitative data were collected through using teaching competency scale for teacher candidates and afterwards quantitative data was statistically analyzed. It was thus attempted to draw a general picture of the research problem. According to the results obtained, an in-depth analysis of teacher candidates’ perceptions of teaching competencies was required. Employing quantitative data, purposive sampling was identified and semi-structured interviews were carried out with the participants in the purposive sampling. The unidimensional scale developed by [1] and adapted into Turkish by [2] was employed for data collection in the quantitative stage of the research. When viewing teacher candidates’ perceptions on their teaching competencies, first grade teacher candidates stated that they perceive themselves competent in terms of attitude and values and vocation skills.