Abstract:

This study aims to examine the views of pre-service teachers in their first year of the Department of History Teaching regarding their reasons for choosing, and their expectations of, the department. Furthermore, the research aims to determine the interest level of pre-service teachers in history and their views about the reasons for teaching history. This study is the first step of a longitudinal study that will be conducted for five years with the same study group. Accordingly, the changes in pre-service history teachers' level of interest in the subject, their views on the purpose of teaching history, and their satisfaction levels and further expectations with regard to the department, will be revealed at the end of the longitudinal study. Study group of the research is all of the first gradestudents of Atatürk University Kazım Karabekir Education Faculty Department of History Teaching. 20 of these prospective teachers are male and 19 of them are female. In the study, a qualitative approach was adopted and a semi structured interview form was used as a means of data collection tool. The data was figured out through the method of content analysing and the findings obtained were converted into a table with the percentages and interpreted. According to the obtained findings most of the prospective teachers of the department of history teaching regarded the aim of history teaching as obtaining experience from the past and whereby directing today and the future accordingly. Majority of the prospective teachers are interested in history and they told that the sources of this interest were usually their primary and middle school teachers. Interest in history and employment anxiety are of the most important reasons of prospective teachers to choose the department of history teaching. Encouragers for prospective teachers to choose the department of history teaching are primarily their teachers and their requests. Prospective teachers usually have positive feelings about the department after their admission to the department. The expectations of prospective teachers after their admission to the department are getting a job as a teacher, improving themselves in the field of history and thus become a good history teacher.

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