Abstract:

Abstract enThe purpose of the current study is to determine the extent to which elementary school teachers possess professional values. The current research is a qualitative study of survey model. The universe of the study is comprised of Science and Technology, Classroom, Social Studies, Turkish and Math teachers working at elementary schools in 2011-2012 school year. In the determination of the sampling size for the current study, “Sampling Size Table” developed by Cohen, Manion and Morrison (2005) was used and it was found that 384 people would be enough to represent the universe with 5% error margin. In order to determine the distribution of 384 people across the cities and branches “Stratified Sampling Method” was employed. In the collection of data, The Teacher Professional Values Scale (TPVS) developed by Tunca (2012) was used. Descriptive statistics were used to elicit the extent to which the teachers posses professional values. In paired comparisons, t-test and in the comparisons having more than three dimensions, Kruskal Wallis H test were conducted. In the values found to be significant, Mann Whitney U Test was used to determine the source of the difference in paired comparisons. At the end of the study, it was found that the teachers’ perceptions of their possession of professional values are high. On the other hand, the sub-dimensions in which the teachers see themselves the least adequate in comparison to the other sub-dimensions is “Being against violence” and the most adequate is “Respect for diversity”. When the teachers’ levels of possessing professional values were compared according to their genders, only the score they took from the sub-dimension of “Being open to cooperation” was found to be significantly different in favor of the female teachers. When the teachers’ levels of possessing professional values were compared according to their branches, while it was found that their scores taken from the sub-dimensions of “Respect for diversity” and “Being against violence” did not vary significantly depending on the branch, the scores taken from the sub-dimensions of “Personal and social responsibility” and “Being open to cooperation” varied significantly depending on the branch.

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