The Relationship between Pre-service Teachers' Lifelong Learning Tendencies and Teaching Profession Anxiety Levels

The present study aims to examine the relationship between pre-service teachers' lifelong learning tendencies and teaching profession anxiety levels with respect to certain variables (their gender and subject area) and is designed as a survey study. The fourth year pre-service teachers (n=455) in the spring semester of the 2015-2016 academic year at Abant Izzet Baysal University, Bolu-Turkey formed the study group. In the study, Lifelong Learning Tendencies Scale by Coskun [9] and Teacher Candidate Anxiety Scale by Saban, Korkmaz and Akbasli [27] were used as data collection instruments. The data were analyzed through using the SSPS for Windows 20 Program and for the analysis of the data, the mean and standard deviation scores were calculated, an independent samples t-test, One-Way ANOVA and LSD tests were used and the Pearson Product-Moment Correlation Coefficient scores were calculated. The findings of the study indicated a significant, positive and low level of relationship between pre-service teachers' lifelong learning tendencies and teaching profession anxiety levels. Significant gender differences were found in favor of male pre-service teachers when lifelong learning tendencies of pre-service teachers are concerned. Also, significant gender differences were found in favor of female pre-service teachers when their perceptions about their teaching profession anxiety levels are concerned. When pre-service teachers' subject areas are the focus of attention, significant differences were observed in favor of the perceptions of science teaching pre-service teachers when their perceptions about their lifelong learning tendencies and teaching profession anxieties are observed.