Pedagogic Formation Students' Views on Ethics of Teaching Profession and Their Suggestions

Abstract

This study was carried out to explore views of students on professional ethics and the ways it can be established and promoted in schools. The research conducted with undergraduate students who are enrolled in the Pedagogical Formation Education Certificate program and who signed up for elective course of professional ethics. A form consisting open-ended question was used to collects data. This form was distributed to 112 university students and included questions on the necessity of professional ethics, major ethical principles, and the awareness of professional ethics in teaching. The results show that students have associated the concept of "ethics" with morality, justice, norm-based rules, and concepts of good-bad, right-wrong, respect-love and equality. Moreover, students emphasized that teachers should obey the ethical principles such as justice, equality, professionalism. A large majority of participants said that there should be a professional ethics code for teachers in Turkey, but stressed that teachers do not have sufficient knowledge about ethics; they act in favour of their personal interests; they discriminate and do not have a sense of responsibility. In addition, the participants addressed the need for in-service training and seminars in order to promoted importance of ethical behaviours in teaching profession. They further suggested that professional ethics should be taught as a course in schools and there is need to reward ethical behaviours and punish unethical behaviours to establish a culture based on ethics and morality.