Assessment of the Attitude of Prospective Teachers Enrolled in Postgraduate Diploma in Teaching: The Case of Wollega University

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate prospective teachers’ attitudetowards the teaching profession. Moreover, an attempt was made to explore prospective teachers’ attitude towards teaching in terms of some variables: gender, family income, parents’ level of education, reasons for choosing the teaching profession, and perceived problems in the work place. The participants of the study comprised of 146 prospective teachers from the four departments/ programs (Amharic, English, Physics and Chemistry), which were selected using cluster random sampling method. To measure the attitude of prospective teachers’ towards the profession of teaching, a 40 items Likert type scale with 5 points was used. Descriptive statistics, independent sample t-test and one way ANOVA were used in the analysis. Statistically significant difference was observed among prospective teachers in their attitude towards teaching profession in terms of reasons for choosing teaching profession. Moreover, statistically significant difference was also found among prospective teachers in their attitude towards teaching profession in terms of perceived problems in the work place. In this study, there was no evidence shown statistically significant differences among prospective teachers’ in their attitudes towards teaching profession in terms of gender, family income, and parents’ education level.