Journal of Education and Practice

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the interaction effects of gender and programs of study on attitudes of\npostgraduate diploma in teaching (PGDT) students towards the teaching profession. The main aim of the study\nwas to find out whether there are any significant interaction effects of gender and programs of study of PGDT\nstudents’ attitude towards the teaching profession. A descriptive survey was carried out among PGDT students\nduring the year 2016/2017 regular session with a population of 371 students. The survey was conducted between\nscience and non-science students in the department of teacher education at Mekelle University, Ethiopia. Using\na stratified random sampling method, 130 student-teachers were selected as samples for the study. A scale entitled\n“attitude towards teaching profession” was developed and validated by the researchers based on established\nprocedures in the literature (Aliyu Musa and Ado Abdu Bichi, 2015). A scale contained 15 items to be scored on\nthe five-point Likert scale as Strongly Agree (SA), Agree (A), Neutral(N), Disagree (D) and Strongly Disagree\n(SD) was used. The data analysis of descriptive statistics through quantitative analysis by computing SPSS 16.0\n(Statistical Package for the Social Sciences) for Windows 10 was employed. Statistical techniques which include\npercentage analysis for levels, mean, standard deviation, and two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) were also\nused for data analysis and interpretation. The findings of the two-way ANOVA demonstrated that there are no\nsignificant interaction effects of gender and programs of study on attitude towards the teaching profession of\nPGDT students. Correlation analysis of gender and programs of a study indicated that the student teachers’\nattitude towards the teaching profession was positively related to gender and programs of study.\n