Problems Encountered by Turkish Teachers Entering the Profession: An Investigation Based on the Teacher Education Program

Abstract

The aim of this study was to examine the problems faced by Turkish teachers who have recently entered the profession, based on the teacher education program. For this purpose, the types of knowledge needed by Turkish teachers and the problem areas that these point to in the teacher education program were examined. In the study, a basic qualitative research design was adopted and criterion sampling was used to select the study group. Qualitative data obtained through interviews with nine teachers who graduated from six different universities were analyzed using descriptive analysis. The findings showed that the types of knowledge that the participants needed following their professional experiences and the evaluations they made of the teacher education programs on this basis pointed to five problem areas. These are the identity problem, content problem, learner problem, teaching problem and context problem. The types of knowledge needed by teachers are self-knowledge, content knowledge, general pedagogical knowledge, pedagogical content knowledge, and context knowledge, respectively. Participants stated that the education they received during their undergraduate education did not match the content they used in their professional lives, and that while they should have carried out studies focused on improving their language skills in the classroom environment, they took literature and theoretical courses during their undergraduate education. Participants also stated that due to their shortcomings in teaching language skills, they gave priority to teaching grammar in their lessons and tried to fill the gap they experienced in teaching skills with grammar teaching. Furthermore, it was observed that the participants were also in need of knowledge and skills related to teacher training in subjects such as communication with other stakeholders at school, knowledge of regulations, and communication with administrators and parents.