Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
Futuristic Implementations of Research in Education, cilt.1, sa.1, ss.49-59, 2020 (Hakemli Dergi)
The profession of mathematics is known to be difficult in society (Çakır &
Akkaya, 2017). In this direction, in this study, it is aimed to determine the factors
that impact the choices of the students who are preparing for university exams and
considering to choose mathematics teaching department. In this study, where the
qualitative research method was adopted, the focus group interview was used as
the data collection technique. The focus group interviews aim to gain in-depth,
detailed and multidimensional qualitative information about the participants'
perspectives, experiences, interests, experiences, tendencies, thoughts,
perceptions, emotions, attitudes and habits on a given topic (Bowling, 2014;
Gibbs, 1997; Stewart & Shamdasani, 1990). The participants were selected by
purposeful sampling method among the students preparing for the university
exam. In the study, as a data collection tool, firstly, some of the questions included
in ‘the scale of the reasons for choosing the teaching profession’ prepared by
Özsoy, Özsoy, Özkara and Memiş (2010) were compiled and interview questions
were prepared. Afterward, the semi-structured interview form was used as the data
collection tool for the study. the findings show that the reasons for choosing
mathematics teaching profession could be examined under seven headings: The
impact of family and close environment, the impact of the teacher, the interest of
this profession in web-based examinations, the impact of job security, the impact of
students' ideals, the impact of whether the profession is suitable for them and the
needs of the education system and the desire to meet them. Besides, it was
determined that some of the students who prepared for the exam did not have any
negative thoughts about mathematics courses even though they interpreted
mathematics as a difficult course.