Turkish Teachers’ Beliefs and Attitudes about Teaching and Their Pedagogical Practices: An Analysis Based-on the Outcomes of the Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS)

Abstract

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD) Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) is the first international survey to focus on the working conditions of teachers and the learning environment in schools. The main purpose of this study was to examine the Turkish teachers’ beliefs and attitudes about teaching and their pedagogical practices based-on the outcomes of TALIS-Turkey data. Participants were 3637 teachers from 191 lower secondary schools (6-7-8 grades). TALIS Teacher Questionnaire consists of nine subsections with 43 questions. This study reports on only the outcomes of two subsections: (1) Teachers’ Beliefs about Teaching, and (2) Teachers’ Teaching Practices subsections of TALIS Teacher Questionnaire. Results showed that almost all the Turkish teachers were both inclined to regard students as active participants in the process of acquiring knowledge, and to see the teacher’s main role as the transmission of information. Besides Turkish teachers put greater emphasis on ensuring that learning is well structured than on student-oriented activities which give them more autonomy. Females were less likely than males to see teaching as the direct transmission.