Abstract:

The purpose of this study is to evaluate a pedagogical formation program based on the opinions of the pre-service teachers taking it. The study group consists of 36 pre-service teachers from the departments of Turkish Language and Literature, German Language, Philosophy, Mathematics, History and Physics who are participating in the Pedagogical Formation Certificate Program of Muğla Sıtkı Koçman University, Turkey. The study was conducted by using the qualitative research method. A semi-structured interview form was developed by the researchers to collect the data. The preservice teachers’ opinions about the pedagogical formation program were elicited through the focus group interview method. The collected data were analyzed through content analysis, one of the qualitative research techniques. The results of the analysis revealed that although the pre-service teachers think that giving formation education to the graduates of the Faculty of Science and Letters is positive, this education would be best given at the same time with their undergraduate education in an applied way. The most significant problems experienced by the pre-service teachers throughout the program were stated to be that the program is given over a very short timeframe, that traditional lecturing is adopted as the primary means of instruction and that a lot of information is tried to be given in a short time. Moreover, the pre-service teachers stated that the classrooms are very crowded and the education faculty does not have the required tools and equipment, which adversely affects the quality of the educational process. Finally, they stressed that the Public Personnel Selection Examination (KPSS) is quite inadequate to evaluate teachers’ competencies and that an applicationbased evaluation would be better suited.

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