Examining Preschool Teacher Candidates’ Liking Child and Motivations for Teaching Professions

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether liking child of preschool teacher candidates predicts motivations for teaching professions and whether students’ liking child, motivations for teaching professions differ based on qualifications of personnel was investigated. 396 preschool teacher candidates participant attending in two different university . The Barnett Liking Child Scale and Motivation Source and Problems Candidate Teacher Occupation Questionnaire are used as data collecting tool. In this study, independent t-test, one way variance analysis, Pearson Correlation analysis and, basic linear regression analysis were used for analyzing data. In the study, it was determined that liking child and motivations for teaching professions is high of teacher candidates, except negative factors for learning motivation, There is a significant difference between the liking child, motivations for teaching professions of students and their gender, academic achievement, and income level of family. Also, liking child of students significantly predicted motivations for teaching professions.