مرکز منطقه ای اطلاع رساني علوم و فناوري - Motivation Resources and Problems of Candidate Teachers of Social Studies’

Abstract :

In teaching and learning situation, motivation is defined as the desire to learn which an individual has in order to maintain his needs. With regard to motivation’s effects on the learning process, this study is done in Mugla Sıtkı Kocman University, Education Faculty, Social Studies so as to identify the motivation resources and problems of the students and to present whether these resources and problems differ or not according to class level, sex and learning types. Descriptive method is used in this study. The data is collected by applying for “The questionnaire of Education Faculty Students’ Motivation Resources and Problems”, which was developed with adaptation by Acat and Yenilmez (2004), to 323 candidate teachers in 2010-2011 academic year. The findings of this study are these: The candidate teachers have stated that: Having chosen their job intentionally, working with a person who loves his work, the teaching process being organized according to their expectations, knowing that they will use the information they have learnt in their real life, the used material’s being attractive and their teacher’s desire have a positive effect on motivation whereas the fact that the learning process is based on rote influences motivation negatively. Moreover, the candidate teachers believe negatively against that the teaching will be an indispensable job in the future. It is clearly seen that the candidate teachers’ motivation resources and problems do not differ according to learning types whereas the higher class level gets, the less motivation the students have got. When candidate teachers’ motivation resources and problems are considered from the point of gender, there appeared a significant difference for the benefit of girls. Furthermore, it is determined that there is a meaningful difference between the sub-dimensions of candidate teachers’ motivation.