مرکز منطقه ای اطلاع رساني علوم و فناوري - INVESTIGATING THE SATISFACTION LEVELS OF TEACHERS TEACHING SUBJECT MATTERS OUT OF THEIR AREA OF CERTIFICATION DURING 2012-2013 EDUCATIONAL YEAR IN TERMS OF DIFFERENT VARIABLES

Abstract :

Teachers were given the right by the Turkish Education System during 2012-2013 educational year to transfer their subject matters to the undergraduate minors they received during university years and classroom teachers were given the option of teaching Special Education or Technology and Design classes without extra stipulations. Current study mainly aimed to determine the levels of teacher satisfaction following the change of subject area as well as the reasons for the transfer, the factors that affect teachers’ level of satisfaction and whether there was a relationship between the levels of satisfaction and personal variables such as age and seniority. The study also examined the training needs and teachers’ expectations from the system. For the study, researchers developed two scales that were used in the implementation phase after reliability and validity studies were conducted. The study was undertaken with a total of 1305 teachers employed in a city randomly selected from each of the regions of Turkey. Quantitative data was analyzed by utilizing SPSS 15.00 package program and data analysis included arithmetic means, standard deviation, correlation, multiple regression, independent groups t-test, one way variance analysis and Scheffe test. Results show that 1116 teachers out of 1305 teachers who transferred to other subject matters were classroom teachers and 189 were from other subject matters. Satisfaction levels of teachers were found to be medium and subject matter knowledge had significant influence on levels of satisfaction while meaningful differences on levels of satisfaction were observed depending on gender, age, seniority, type of school and the province of employment. Qualitative data were analyzed via descriptive analysis technique. Findings obtained in this context show that the most important reasons behind the transfer of subject matter area was willingness to work in provinces where spouses currently worked and the desire to transfer from the school where they were made redundant. In addition to these reasons, some teachers were found to change areas due to interest in the new area and based on a desire to be more successful in their careers. Results regarding the training needs of teachers point to the fact that the majority of these teachers did not receive any in-service training or orientation following the required transfer. Most of these teachers confirmed the need for in-service training which can be provided in areas related to techniques, methods and curriculum in the newly selected subject matter area as well as classroom management. Expectations of teachers from the system included the desire to transfer back to their previous fields of teaching and the wish expectation to be regarded with high esteem.