An Analysis of the Relationship between Attitudes towards Teaching and Professionalism in Teaching

Abstract

This research aims to identify teachers’ views about the relationship between teachers’ professionalism and their attitudes towards the profession. The study follows a quantitative research design and is descriptive in its relational model. Research data was collected through occupational professionalism and teaching profession attitude scales. In the data analysis process, frequency (f), percentage (%), and arithmetic average (x̄) were first calculated in order to reveal teachers’ attitudes towards their profession and professionalism. In addition, a Pearson correlation analysis and regression analysis were used to determine the relationship between teachers’ attitudes towards the teaching profession and their occupational professionalism. The analyses revealed a medium, significant and positive relationship between teachers' attitudes towards the teaching profession and levels of occupational professionalism. The regression analysis was conducted so as to identify how teachers’ attitudes towards the teaching profession predict their level of occupational professionalism, shown by the effect of teachers’ professional attitude scores (F (1.257) = 37.08, p = .000) on their occupational professionalism scores. The research findings also show that professional attitude scores predict 13% of total variance related to occupational professionalism. This most likely suggests that teachers’ professional attitude is a remarkable predictor of their occupational professionalism.