INVESTIGATING THE ATTITUDES AND BELIEFS OF TEACHER CANDIDATES ON CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT (ÇUKUROVA UNIVERSITY SAMPLE)

Öğretmen adaylarının sınıf yönetimine yönelik tutum ve inançlarını çeşitli değişkenler açısından incelemek amacıyla yapılan bu çalışma tarama modelinde betimsel bir araştırmadır. Araştırmanın evrenini 2014-2015 öğretim yılında Çukurova Üniversitesi Eğitim Fakültesi İlköğretim Bölümünün 1, 2 ve 3.sınıflarına devam eden öğrenciler araştırmada örneklem alınma yoluna gidilmemiştir. Araştırmaya gönüllük esasına dayalı olarak 599 kadın ve 213 erkek olmak üzere toplam 812 öğretmen adayı katılmıştır. Araştırma verilerinin toplanmasında Martin, Yin ve Baldwin (1998) tarafından geliştirilen ve Türkçe uyarlaması Ekici (2008) tarafından yapılan Sınıf Yönetimine Yönelik Tutum ve İnanç Ölçeği kullanılmıştır. Elde edilen veriler betimsel istatistiklerin yanı sıra bağımsız gruplar t-testi ve ANOVA testleri uygulanarak analiz edilmiştir. Araştırma sonucunda öğretmen adaylarının öğretimin yönetiminde müdahaleci, insan ve davranış yönetimi boyutlarında ise etkileşimci bir tutuma sahip oldukları saptanmıştır. Elde edilen bulgulara göre mezun olunan lise açısından genel lise mezunları, cinsiyet açısından erkek öğretmen adayları insan ve davranış yönetiminde daha müdahaleci bir tutuma sahiptir. Sınıf yönetiminde müdahaleci olmayan tutum ise okul öncesi öğretmen adaylarında görülmüştür. Araştırmadan elde edilen sonuçlar sınıf düzeyi yükseldikçe öğretmen adaylarının öğretim ve davranış yönetimine yönelik müdahaleci tutumlarının azaldığını göstermiştir. Öğretmenlik mesleğini tercih etme ve mezun olduktan sonra öğretmen olarak çalışmak isteme/istememe durumlarına göre adayların sınıf yönetimine yönelik tutum ve inançlarında anlamlı bir fark olmamıştırThis is a descriptive survey-model study aiming to investigate teacher candidates' views and beliefs towards classroom management with regard to different variables. The participants of the study consist of students in their 1st, 2nd, and 3rd year enrolled at the Department of Elementary Education of the Faculty of Education at the Çukurova University during the 2014-2015 academic year. Because of the accessibility to the participants of the study, there was no need for sampling. A total of 812 teacher candidates, 599 female and 213 male, participated in the study on a voluntary basis. The Attitudes and Beliefs on Classroom Control (ABCC) Inventory [Martin, Yin & Baldwin (1998)] developed and translated into Turkish by Ekici (2008) was used in order to collect the data of the study. Besides the independent group t-test and the ANOVA test, descriptive statistics were also used to analyze the acquired data. The results of the study show that teacher candidates employ interventionist attitudes with regards to management of instructional and interactionalist attitudes about people and behavior management. The findings reveal that teacher candidates graduating from general high-schools as well as male students have a more interventionist attitude in the people and behavior management dimensions of the scale. Teacher candidates with non-interventionist attitude, on the other hand, were enrolled at the Pre-school Teaching Department. The results show that the interventionist attitude of teacher candidates decreased as their education advances. There was no significant difference in the attitudes and beliefs about classroom management of pre-service teachers according to their preference of teaching as a job and their wish to work or not to work as teachers after graduation As the responsible person for organizing and administering the educational process, teachers are the most strategic variables in classroom management. In this respect, studies on classroom management usually have focused on the characteristics of teachers and their classroom management behaviors has been investigated with regard to various aspects (gender, status, age, level of classes they teach, job satisfaction, etc.). However, recent studies have concentrated on their attitudes and beliefs (Arastaman, 2013; Çetin, 2013; Güvenç &Güvenç, 2014; Johansen, Little & Akın-Little, 2011; Okut, 2011; Sadık & Sadık, 2014; Sadık & Türkoğlu, 2015; Yaşar Ekici, 2014). The most important reason for that is that the teachers’ beliefs affect their behavior, perception and decisions in the classroom (Hoy & Woolfolk, 1990; Kagan, 1992; Miller, 2003; Okut, 2011). As Kagan (1992) stated, beliefs formed over many years are built-in and teachers tend to base their decisions on these beliefs. Similarly, Freeman (1992) highlighted the fact that teachers adopt the teaching practices around them according to their individual framework and that they can create a protective shell for the practices that do not match their environment (in Yalaz Atay, 2003, s. 44). This is the same for pre-service teachers as well. Research studies reveal that pre-service teachers interpret their education at university, lecturers and their lectures based on their beliefs formed by their educational background (Weinstein, 1988, 1989; Tillema, 2000). With regard to this, it is important to equip teachers with beliefs affecting education in a favorable way. Changing attitudes in a positive way is related to educational settings and the quality of the courses (Ekici, 2008). Therefore, it is essential to understand the attitudes and beliefs of teachers as well as pre-service teachers in terms of planning and performing pre-service and in-service training more effectively. Based on research studies detecting the attitudes of teachers towards classroom management in Turkey, it is seen that these surveys have been mainly done in scientific (physics, chemistry, biology), math and technical training fields (Arsal, 2008; Demir & Maskan, 2007; Ekici, 2008; Güvenç &Güvenç, 2014; Güvenç 2012; Hacıömeroğlu, 2013; Okut, 2011; Okut, 2009; Sadık & Türkoğlu, 2015; Savran, 2002; Savran Gencer &Çakıroğlu, 2007). The teachers’ view on classroom management and their posture as a leader in the classroom is important with regard to the quality of education at every level of study. However, it is more important to organize and manage the educational process for younger age-groups (Gordon, 1996; Martin & Baldwin, 1996) as children are more prone to be affected by their teachers’ intellectual attitude, emotional response, and behavioral patterns due to their development features (Bakioğlu, 2009). For these reasons, this research aims to answer the following questions for detecting the attitudes and beliefs of pre-service teachers towards classroom management, who will deal with younger age groups: 1. What attitudes and beliefs do pre-service teachers have with regard to classroom management, teaching, as well as human and behavior management? 2. Do pre-service teachers’ attitudes and beliefs towards classroom management show significant differences according to gender, prior high school education, field of study, level of classes, preference to become a teacher, and plans to work or not to work as a teacher after receiving their degree? Method The participants of this descriptive survey study consist of 1st, 2nd, and 3rd year students enrolled at the Primary School Teaching Department of the Faculty of Education at the Çukurova University during the 2014/2015 Academic Year. Since the 4th year students leave campus for an internship, they were not included in this study. No sampling method was used for the study at which 812 students in total participated on a voluntary basis. The Attitudes and Beliefs on Classroom Control Inventory (SYTİÖ), developed by Martin, Yin and Baldwin (1998) and adapted to Turkish by Ekici (2008), was used in order to collect the data. The inventory with its 4 point Likert scale consists of the three subscales Educational Management (ÖY-14 items), Human Management (İY- 8 items) and Behavior Management (DY-4 items) and 26 further items. The calculated Cronbach Alpha Reliability Co-efficient of the original inventory was .82 for ÖY, .69 for İY and .69 for DY. The highest score of each subscale reflects intrusiveness while the lowest score reflects non- intrusiveness. Validation and reliability studies of this inventory in Turkish were done by many researchers (Savran, 2002; Savran and Çakıroğlu, 2004; Gencer ve Çakıroğlu, 2007). For the latest validation and reliability studies in Turkish, the Cronbach Alpha Reliability Coefficients was estimated to be 0.82 for ÖY, 0.70 for İY and 0.65 for DY as well as 0.85 for the general inventory and it was decided to be used accordingly (Ekici, 2008). The data for the research study was collected during the Spring Semester of the 2014/2015 Academic Year and analyzed with independent group t-tests and ANOVA tests besides descriptive statistics. Low-middle-high groups were formed for the evaluation of the results and the arithmetic average of the scores were interpreted at (low) non-interventionist ?1.33, (high) interventionist ?2.67 and (middle) interactionalist 1.34-2.66. Results and Discussion Since 2005 educational programs practiced in Turkey have been designed to be student-centred and encouraged educational activities to make students more active, to address personal differences, and to rely on mutual interaction (Çelik Şen & Şahin Taşkın, 2010). However, it was found that pre-service teachers have an interventionist attitude towards instructional management. Corresponding to the literature (Akdemir, 2014; Hacıömeroğlu, 2013; Sadık & Türkoğlu, 2015), these results reveal that pre-service teachers believe that teaching should be teacher-centred. The reason for this result could be the fact that students are required to take a national test to move to a higher level of study in Turkey. The centralized tests push teachers, students and parents to think success-oriented and lay a burden on teachers to complete their syllabus entirely (Baran & Altun, 2014; Şirin, 2000). According to Savran, Gencer &Çakıroğlu (2007), the fact that there are only a few practical courses in pre-service teacher training programs force pre-service teachers to think instruction- and managementoriented about “how is the syllabus designed, how is a subject taught, and how should the process be, etc). Another underlying reason could be that pre-service teacher training programs are based on theory and that students do not have abstract and real-life experiences aimed to develop positive attitudes. According to the findings, pre-service teachers have an interactionalist attitude towards people and behavior management. This result reveals that pre-service teachers are more open to communication in their relations with their students and to share their behavior management responsibilities with them. The sound communication between teachers and students contributes positively to the students’ emotional, social and intellectual development, their participation in class and their academic success (Claus, BoothButterfield and Chory, 2012; Koepke & Harkins, 2008). Considering the practicing-a-democratic-culture mission of schools (Schlechty, 2005), this result could be interpreted as positive. At the end of the study, it was detected that male pre-service teachers have a more interventionist attitude towards people management. In the related literature, there are both studies with the same result (Eliot, 1994; Güvenç, 2012; Martin & Yin, 1997; Savran & Çakıroğlu, 2004) as well as studies with no significant difference between male and female teachers in this respect (Ekici, 2008; Savran, Gencer &Çakıroğlu, 2007; Okut, 2011). The difference could emerge from the fact that the locations, schools, and sampling groups of the studies might be different in terms of social, cultural and economic characteristics. According to the results of the study, pre-service teachers who graduated from vocational high schools and who are enrolled at preschool teaching programs have the lowest control-level in classroom management (non-interventionist). The primary aim of pre-school education is to develop the characteristics of children who are curious about their surrounding and to motivate them to think. The key aspect of the development of intellectual, affective and social skills of children is teachers who work with children, who create opportunities for the children to discover and explain their emotions, and who help them to feel free and to enjoy the activities they take part in (Senemoğlu, 1994). Considering the fact that the majority of the participating pre-service teachers enrolled at the pre-school teaching department in the research study graduated from child development departments of vocational high schools, this is an expected result and the findings of the study are consistent. According to the findings, the higher the level of study, the less interventionist attitude towards teaching and behavior management of pre-service teachers exist. The reason could generate from the fact that they start to understand the nature of teaching when taking more methodology courses as well as from the structure of classroom settings thanks to classroom management course they take in the third year. Findings showing that pre-service teachers’ attitude, belief, and ability perceptions about classroom management change in a positive way also support this view (Ekici, 2008; Kurt & Ekici, 2013; Martin et.al., 1998; Sadık &Sadık, 2014). Conclusion and Suggestions As a conclusion, this research study detected that the pre-service teachers’ attitudes and beliefs about classroom management are interventionist with regard to teaching while they are interactionist with regard to human and behavior management. Male pre-service teachers are more interventionist in human management, and the higher the level of study gets, the less interventionist pre-service teachers’ attitudes towards human management get. However, it was found that pre-service teachers who graduated from vocational high schools and pre-service teachers enrolled at pre-school teaching departments have a more interactionalist attitude. Based on the gained results, the researcher can suggest an increase in practical courses for pre-service teacher training programs (1), to provide opportunities for pre-service teachers to experience student-centered teaching dynamics (2), to give them chances to implement their interactionalist attitudes towards the human and behavior dimension (3). Variables that are effective in building attitudes and beliefs of pre-service teachers about classroom management as well as how and in which dimension their courses at the faculty of education affect their attitudes and behaviors were not emphasized. These aspects could be investigated through qualitative methods and by analyzing the content and implications of the courses