THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN TEACHER CANDIDATES’ ATTITUDES AND READINESS LEVELS TOWARDS THE TEACHING PROFESSION

Abstract

Training prospective teachers with positive attitudes towards and better readiness for the teaching profession is crucial since their inner beliefs, initial attitudes, motivations, and feelings might influence the way how they complete their works after graduating from universities. Despite the legislative actions and policies to develop positive conditions for teachers to work at educational institutions, Kazakhstani schools lack qualified teaching staff. Therefore, this research aims to investigate the relationship between teacher candidates’ attitudes towards and readiness levels for the teaching profession. Moreover, it tends to determine whether teacher candidates’ attitudes towards and readiness for the teaching profession change in terms of their GPA, gender, and having a teacher relative. The study was based on the quantitative research method with explanatory correlational research design. The online survey questionnaire with restricted items using a Likert scale was developed in order to measure teacher candidates’ attitudes towards and readiness for the teaching profession. The findings of the study indicated a positive relationship between teacher candidates’ attitudes towards and readiness for the teaching profession. Based on the results of this study, it was concluded that teacher candidates’ attitudes towards and readiness levels for the teaching profession may be considered while admitting them into teacher training departments. In addition to that, providing specific courses on improving prospective teachers’ attitudes towards and readiness levels for the teaching profession might be a considerable contribution to training successful teachers.