Professional and personal characteristics of excellent teachers: Characteristics of excellent teachers

The aim of this study was to find out about the perceptions of prospective teachers on professional and personal characteristics which make perfect teachers successful. Phenomenological research design which is one of the qualitative research methods was used in the study and the study group was comprised of the prospective teachers attending faculty of education of a public university during 2020-2021 academic year. An interview form was used as the instrument for data collection. The collected data was analyzed using content analysis method. Besides, cogency and transmissibility for validity of the study; consistency and verifiability criteria were used for reliability. According to the results of the analysis; the teachers’ behaviors performed in the classroom and their characteristics were classified under two themes as “professional attitudes and values” and “professional qualifications and skills” based on the perceptions of the prospective teachers who were trained by these teachers during elementary or secondary education. Professional attitudes and values theme was consisted of subthemes such as; caring for each student, allocating time for students outside regular course time and being fair, having professional values and being a positive person. As for professional qualifications and skills, it contained subthemes as; being expert in the subject, managing classroom effectively, being talented to teach in an enjoyable way, using original approaches for teaching and learning process, using teaching materials effectively, using measurement and evaluation in a process driven way. It was suggested based on the finding of the study that policies should be developed in order to increase teacher’s performance and success, educational contents related with professional attitudes and values should be improved during pre-service and in-service training