Pixel International Conferences

The main purpose of this studyis to examine the relationships among attitudes toward teaching, liking of children, and occupational anxieties of prospective teachers. A total of 166 prospective teachers participated in the study. Of the participants 64% were female, and 36% were male. The mean age of the participants was 22.32 (SD = 2.94). In the data gathering phase of the study, Barnett Liking of Children Scale (adapted by Duyan & Gelbal, 2008), Attitude Scale for Teaching as a Profession (Erkuş, Sanlı, Bağlı, & Güven, 2000), and Occupational Anxiety Scale (Cabı & Yalçınalp, 2013) were administred to the participants. Results showed that there was a low negative statistically significant correlation between liking of children and attitudes toward teaching (r = -.217; p = .005) whereas there was a low positive statistically significant correlation between liking of children and occupational anxiety (r = .188; p = .015). Results, on the other hand showed that there was no significant correlation between attitudes toward teaching and occupational anxieties of prospective teachers. According to gender, independent t-test comparisons showed that female prospective teachers reported higher levels of liking of children than male counterparts (p = .06), whereas male prospective teachers have more positive attitudes toward teaching than female counterparts. Implications are discussed.