AN INVESTIGATION INTO PROFILE OF ELT TEACHER EDUCATION PROGRAMMES IN TURKEY

Abstract

The desired outcomes of educational systems necessitate higher levels of quality in the structure of each undergraduate degree programme of the higher education institutions. Assessing the quality of the departments on the basis of reconciled terms in accordance with the national objectives necessitates a systematic internal evaluation procedure for the programme components as a crucial asset for improvement and maintenance of quality. In terms of the quality in the foreign language teacher education programmes, raising qualified language teachers have an increasing value over the improvement of the learners’ language profiles since the teachers substitute a critical asset in arousing interest of learners, raising their competences and attainments towards languages. This master’s thesis aims to evaluate the efficiency of English language teacher education programmes in Turkey with sets of principles through preservice teachers` perceptions. The study was conducted at 4 undergraduate English Language Teacher Education programmes in Turkey with 116 preservice teachers from Hacettepe, Ufuk, Sabahattin Zaim, and Sakarya University. Throughout the mixed method research design, the quantitative data was collected with 4 questionnaires designed by the researcher while for the qualitative data, in-depth interviews were utilized. The quantitative results indicated that most of the preservice teachers were satisfied with the efficacy of their departments` curriculum, its training in knowledge and understanding, strategies and skills, and values. On the other hand, the qualitative findings proposed some suggestions like rearranging the proportion of theory and practice, increasing connections with other departments and encouraging teacher educators and school mentors for professional development.