OPINIONS OF GRADUATES OF SOCIAL SCIENCES TEACHING ON THE PUBLIC SERVANT ELECTION EXAM

Özet

The aim of this study is to determine anxiety and expectations of graduates of Social Sciences Teaching about PPEE and introduce their opinion on the system thereof. The population of the study involved graduates of 2017 and previous years from Social Sciences Teaching Departments in Faculties of Education of Amasya University and Ondokuz Mayıs University (OMU), who attended PPEE, a central examination process for teacher appointment, but have not been appointed. In the study, semi-structured interview technique was employed. The participants were selected on a voluntary basis by using homogenous sampling technique, a type of purposeful sampling. The data collected from the interviews were analysed using NVivo qualitative data analysis program. The findings of the study indicate that the candidates consider PPEE as very exhaustive process, both physically and psychologically. Another finding is that there are disagreements between the newly graduated candidates and earlier graduates at some points. The most prominent opinions by the participants on this examination were that admissions to teacher training programs in the universities should be grounded on the needs and prerequisite criteria, there shouldn’t be an interview process and academic standings of the candidates should be considered as criteria. The findings were intended to contribute to creation of an awareness on the anxiety and expectations of teacher candidates, and to probable future changes to PPEE.