Abstract:

This study is aimed at investigating the effects of the courses of school experience and teaching practice on the vocational self-esteem of the prospective music teachers and on their attitude towards the profession. In this study, 26 senior students of Dokuz Eylul University Buca Faculty of Education, Department of Education of Fine Arts/Music Education Branch in the school year 2009-2010 were interviewed. For data collection, the Scale of Vocational Self-Esteem and the Scale of Attitude Towards the Vocation of Teaching were used and the participants were asked to write an essay representing their view of the subject. The data collection tools were applied once before and once after school experience and once after teaching practice; and the data collected were compared to see whether any significant differences would appear. It was concluded that school experience and teaching practice did not create a significant difference on the vocational self-esteem of the prospective music teachers who participated in the study and neither on their attitude towards the profession. It was observed that the students` interpretation of this deficiency in obtaining the desired results pointed largely toward the fact that the supervising teachers in the applications were not adequate role models.

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