Abstract:

Theology Faculties are higher education institutions that train both Imam Hatip Schools Vocational courses and Religious Culture and Moral Knowledge teachers. However, the fact that the sole purpose of these institutions is not to train teachers but also the new addition of formation courses to their structure arouses interest and curiosity about the competencies of teacher candidates who graduated from these institutions. The research carried out in this context aims to determine the professional knowledge, skills, and attitude competencies of teacher candidates who are studying in the last year and participating in teaching practice. The study group of the research consists of 21 teachers of Religion and Vocational courses, who were selected through purposeful sampling and worked as practice teachers for at least one term. A semi-structured interview form was used as a data collection tool in the research, which was prepared with a phenomenological approach, one of the qualitative research methods. The interview questions were taken from the general qualifications of the teaching profession guide published by the Ministry of Education in 2017. The obtained qualitative data were analyzed by descriptive analysis technique. The findings of the research reveal that teacher candidates' content knowledge, creating learning environments, classroom management, approach to students and communication, and personal and professional development competencies are observed by practice teachers in different dimensions. In addition, 15 practice teachers evaluate it as positive and 6 practice teachers negatively evaluate the increase in the internship period of teacher candidates in practice schools within the scope of the Teaching Practice course from a single semester to 2 semesters.

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