A SURVEY OF ASPIRATIONS AND THE ATTITUDES TOWARD THE TEACHING PROFESSION OF GRADE II STUDENT TEACHERS IN THEIR FINAL YEAR OF TRAINING IN NORTH CENTRAL STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract
This research study is a survey of (a) the aspirations of Grade II student teachers in four teacher training colleges in Zaria and Kaduna, North Central State, Nigeria and (b) their attitudes toward the teaching profession. The researcher hypothesized that: 1. There is no relationship between the high aspirations of student teachers in this study and the educational level of their parents. 2. The aspirations of female student teachers in the study are lower than those of their male counterparts. 3. Female student teachers in this study have a more positive attitude toward the teaching profession than their male counterparts. A 27 item questionare (STAR) was constructed and data was collected from 200 form 5 student teachers from the following colleges: Bassawa Teachers' College, Zaria Women Teachers' College, Zaria Kaduna Teachers' College, Kaduna Women Teachers' College, Kaduna. The sample consisted of 100 male and 100 female student teachers. The analysis of data revealed that from the sample of 200 respondents only 12 of them have parents with university education. The majority of the respondents' parents had little or no education. Out of the 12 respondents whose fathers had university education only one recorded a higher educational aspiration. Higher aspirations were taken to mean an education above the Grade II teaching certificate that the respondents will get at the end of their training programme. The data also revealed that out of 24 respondents who recorded higher aspirations only 4 had parents with secondary or university education. Further statistical tests were carried out to prove the significance of the results. A X2 of 7.12 and a probability of less than .01 were obtained. The resarcher concluded that a probability of .01 meant that there was a significant difference between the tested variables i.e. high educational aspirations of the students and the educational level of the parents; thus the hypothesis was accepted. The analysis of data also revealed that of the 200 respondents, 74% of the males had high vocational aspirations while only 19% of the females showed the same trend. The gap between the two groups was so great that the hypothesis that a lower percentage of female student teachers in the study have high aspirations was accepted. It was also found that there was no difference between male and female student teachers' attitudes toward the teaching profession. Both groups scored (male 44.85), (female 45.30) on the attitude inventory and when these results were treated statistically a X2 of .002 and a probability of -95 were revealed. The researcher rejected the hypothesis that female student teachers had a more positive attitude to the teaching profession than their male counterparts. On the basis of the above findings the researcher made some recommendations.
Description
Submitted In Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree of MASTER OF EDUCATION (GUIDANCE AND COUNSELING) DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION AHMADU BELLO UNIVERSITY ZARIA December, 1975.
Keywords
A SURVEY,, ASPIRATIONS,, ATTITUDES,, TEACHING,, PROFESSION,, TEACHERS,, TRAINING,, NORTH CENTRAL,, NIGERIA
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