Preservice Teachers’ Professional Engagement and Their Ability to Choose Teaching Techniques

Abstract

This study aims to investigate the relationship between the engagement of the preservice teacher to the teaching profession, and their ability to choose teaching techniques. The study adopted correlational survey research. The sample group is the students studying at the faculty of education of a state university in the Eastern Anatolia Region, and the preservice teachers taking pedagogical formation training. The obtained findings have shown that there are significant differences between the preservice teachers who have taken externally pedagogical training and the preservice teachers studying at the faculty of education in terms of their engagement to the teaching profession, their skills to choose teaching techniques, and other sub-dimensions of the scales. Based on the findings, it was concluded that the preservice teachers who took pedagogical formation training had higher average scores for professional engagement and dedication to the professional dimension; the mean scores were higher than the preservice teachers studying in the faculty of education in terms of the positive prediction and competence perception regarding the technical selection dimension. In addition, a significant relationship was found between the professional engagement of pre-service teachers and their skills in the selection of teaching techniques.