VIEWS OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHER CANDIDATES ABOUT PEDAGOGICAL FORMATION CERTIFICATE PROGRAMS IN TURKEY

Abstract

This particular small-scale research tries to scrutinize the teacher training practices and the quality of Pedagogical Formation ELT Certificate Programs from the perspectives of teacher candidates. In this respect, those teacher candidates’ views about the issue will be taken through a questionnaire consisting of 5-point Likert-type items and an open-ended section. The data were analyzed by descriptive statistics as well as content analysis. The number of participants is 63. Some of the participants were currently enrolled in the pedagogical formation program when the study was conducted and some of them were graduates of the programs with several years of teaching experience. The results indicate that the pedagogical formation program helped the participants improve themselves to a certain extent. Another important finding of the study was that the participants who are employed as teachers and have several years of experience valued the outcomes of the pedagogical formation program more than the prospective teachers. Finally, the study also indicated that more teaching practice is needed.