Professional Teaching Standards: The Case of Turkish Teacher Candidates

Abstract: This study aimed at investigating the extent to which teacher candidates believe they possess the teacher competencies specified by the Turkish Ministry of Education. The study was conducted with senior year students from several departments in a Faculty of Education in Ankara, Turkey. The data were collected through a questionnaire which included 14 categories with 206 competency items. The students were asked to evaluate their own competencies with reference to the given items in the instrument on a 4 point Likert type scale ranging from “poor ” to “excellent”. The instrument used had a 0.98 reliability coefficient. Data were analyzed through a t-Test and one way Anova tests. The findings indicate that in most of the competency areas, students find themselves “good ” or “excellent”. The participants ’ evaluation of their competencies do not show any significant differences based on gender, high school graduated, or GPA; but the undergraduate department