Abstract:

Teaching proficiency is defined as having the prerequisite knowledge, skills, and attitudes needed to fulfill the requirements of teaching in an effective and efficient manner. This study, therefore, seeks to examine preservice primary school teachers’ (PPSTs)’ Turkish language teaching proficiencies according to multiple variables. The sample group was composed of 274 preservice teachers enrolled in the Faculty of Education’s Department of Primary School Teaching. We employed purposeful sampling to select participants for inclusion in the study group because we wanted to determine the Turkish language teaching proficiency levels of PPSTs of different grade levels who had successfully completed Turkish teaching education class. We used the Turkish Language Teaching Proficiency Scale developed by Yeşiloğlu and Özer (2017) to measure how PPSTs perceived their proficiency levels in teaching Turkish. The findings obtained reveal that those PPSTs who have completed their Turkish language teaching class may be considered adequately proficient in Turkish language education. Still, meaningful differences did appear in the Turkish language teaching proficiency levels of PPSTs by grade level, regardless of the fact that they had all completed the same class. However, although no meaningful difference was found to exist between PPSTs’ GPAs and Turkish language teaching proficiency levels, those PPSTs whose GPA was 2.5 or lower had lower Turkish language teaching proficiency levels. Throughout their undergraduate education, the number of books that PPSTs read has an influence on how proficient they are at teaching Turkish. Furthermore, the differences in how PPSTs perceived their own Turkish language teaching proficiency levels differed greatly between those teachers who were intrinsically driven to study primary school education and those who chose it because they were obligated to do so.

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