Students’ attitudes of the Postgraduate Diploma in teaching program towards teaching profession

Abstract The study aims to investigate the attitude of students with postgraduate diplomas in teaching towards the teaching profession and its relationship with specialization, cumulative average, school quality, and school grade variables. The study sample consisted of 300 second-semester students enrolled in the educational training program for the academic year 2021–2022. Students Attitudes Scale towards the teaching profession was applied to identify the attitudes of the students. The results showed statistically significant differences in the attitudes of the students of the educational training program towards the teaching profession on account of the specialization and cumulative average variables. There were no statistically significant differences in the student’s attitudes towards the teaching profession on account of the school grade variable in which the student was trained. The study concluded that various programs, training and activities are required to develop positive attitudes in students towards the teaching profession and to encourage them to adopt the teaching profession.


Introduction
Teacher training programs focus on preparing teachers in an integrated manner, which is the most important element in the educational process. They have recently become a key topic for educational research. Researchers aim at studying teachers as a leader, guides, trainers and facilitators. Students with high self-confidence are likely to develop into good teachers which may help future students to develop their interests and provide them with good opportunities to acquire the required educational competence (Mahato & Behera, 2018). A teacher's attitude towards the teaching profession is very important in the accomplishment of teaching aims and objectives. Education plays the most significant in the development and prosperity of nations (Mahato & Behera, 2018).
The enhancement of the quality of teaching can be accomplished by upgrading the level of teachers and increasing their effectiveness. Thus, the process of improving and developing teachers through "Educational Training Programs" is an important component of educational policies that significantly contributes to the advancement in all fields of life and helps the nation in accomplishing its aims and objectives. It is a fact that teaching is one of the most important fields, and, therefore, preparing competent teachers is a top priority for any educational system (Abu-Jalalah, 2007). The Educational Training Program started by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences of the Department of Education of XXXXXX University in 2010/2011 aimed to provide the community with qualified teachers. The philosophy of the program was to develop an academic Educational Training Program for undergraduate students in science, Islamic studies, literature, and social studies to develop qualified teachers who could significantly contribute to the advancement of the teaching profession in the UAE.
One of the previous studies focused on the postgraduate diploma in teaching program confirmed that it faced several implementation challenges regarding the motives and attitudes of students towards the teaching profession (Alemayehu, 2019). Further, it showed that the postgraduate diploma in teaching program faced a shortage of experienced/qualified mentors (Alemayehu, 2019), a low motivation level of teachers (Kassa, 2014), a shortage of quality training materials (Alemayehu, 2019;Deneke et al., 2015), and inadequate collaboration within stakeholders (Deneke et al., 2015). These studies have provided an understanding of both the impact of the postgraduate diploma in the teaching program and the challenges it faces. Nevertheless, only a few studies have been conducted that focused on the attitudes of students towards the teaching profession. However, the Postgraduate Diploma in teaching program has gained popularity that has led researchers to study the attitudes of students of this program towards the teaching profession. Hence, this study investigates the attitudes of the students of the Educational Training Program of XXXXXX University towards the profession of education and the impact of specialization, cumulative average, school quality, and school grade variables.

Literature review
Studies of education, psychology, and sociology have various study perspectives and for the same reason, their students show different study attitudes. This difference may be due to the way through which each field of study understands and analyses the system of values and ideas of individuals and groups, which constitute a framework that determines the type and shape of the attitude. (Spencer, 1999) was the first to use the concept of attitudes, referring to good judgments of the individual's mental orientation, which he defined as "a state of readiness or mental preparation organized through experience". It was also defined in a study by (Lin et al., 2019) as a state of readiness or mental readiness that is organized through experience and has a directed or dynamic effect on the individual's responses to all subjects and attitudes associated with them.
In terms of the unconscious configuration of these preparations, some individuals dislike dealing with certain subjects without being able to justify this hatred or give false justification. In other words, their preparation for these subjects is negatively driven by unwillingness, and this often results from bad experiences of these individuals that they encountered while dealings with these or similar subjects. In the context of many different theories and definitions, it can be said that the concept of attitude represents the following points (Ibrahim, 2004): A mental-neural state where the experience plays an important role in its formation. A regulation that takes the form of relative stability and continuity of an individual's beliefs towards a subject or position preferred by the individual over others.
An internal tendency of an individual to prepare in advance and to evaluate a subject in a specific way. A positive or negative emotional orientation related to a particular emotionalpsychological matter. A subtle response as a result of a particular motor or stimulus that has a special social significance in the individual. Attitudes play an important role in the performance of an individual and even towards learning and teaching processes. The learners' feelings and attitudes towards the subjects and other educational activities, as well as their attitudes towards their colleagues and teachers, affect their ability to achieve the educational/learning goals. Therefore, a positive attitude of learners towards learning activities leads to more accomplishments in the relevant field. This is because psychological attitudes have their effects for a long time. Whereas, cognitive experiences are generally prone to forgetfulness. Attitudes also influence learners' ability to interact socially and work mutually. Therefore, they affect their ability to adapt and respond to the constant changes, they face in the community around them. The teaching attitudes are particularly important for the attitudes, and academic activities of learners (Ahmed & Nwagwu, 2006).
In terms of the psychology of personality, the researchers believe that personality is no more than a set of psychological attitudes. They are formed in the persons and affect their habits, tendencies, emotions and different ways of behaving. In addition, the compatibility, harmony and consistency of psychological attitudes are the strength of a personality. It is a fact that the attitudes of the individual represent the fact of their personality (Mansour, 2001).
In terms of social views, the importance of attitudes is one of the main determinants of social behaviour. Therefore, any social change requires an understanding of the attitudes of the members of a society and their adaptability to the desired change. It is a basic indicator of the governance and evaluation of the socioeconomic system. It includes the educational system, democracy, women's work, religious ideas and beliefs, and many other aspects of life (Ahmed & Nwagwu, 2006).
Attitude is determined in two frameworks controlled by the experiential factor: cognitive and motivation (Newcomb, 2008). The cognitive framework is related to the process of organizing knowledge irrespective of its content or value judgment. The motivation framework is related to the process of crystallizing knowledge, which is influenced by one's previous experience. Both frameworks have become the norms in directing the behaviour of individuals. They derive their positive attitudes towards the teaching profession and build a system of ethical and professional behaviour such as motivation, love and sincerity. In addition to it, improvement in the teaching process is initiated which is reflected through teachers' performance and effectiveness in classrooms.
(Abu-Jalalah, 2007) explains that attitudes are not hereditary. They are based on how individuals are educated, and the type of socialization they received. Thus, the attitudes of individuals are identical or convergent with the attitudes of the community-except in special cases such as adolescence, the need for stability, appreciation and integration into certain groups. Thus, many aspects of the composition of the attitude are based on the nature of the individual and the social centre. Their living patterns and the nature of interactions influence that may be outside the social pattern (Abu-Jalalah, 2007).
Other factors contributing to the formation and change of attitudes include media, reference groups, and the psychological, social and economic conditions experienced by individuals and communities. It is brought about by various mechanisms adopted in the process of social interaction and communication such as discussion, dialogue, psychological and unconscious psychic. They play a key role in building the attitudes of individuals towards art and politics. The attitude may be strong through the cohesion between its components and the actual behavioural expression, or it may be weak accordingly. Although an individual shows a tendency towards a subject, its behaviour may be contradictory or its views may fluctuate, which makes it easier for an individual to change and adapt. The attitudes may also be positive, i.e., expressive or identical to the subject of attitude, and may be negative when an individual is against the object of the attitude. In addition, teachers serve as a means of adaptability and utilitarianism. Positive attitudes guide individuals towards their profession following the optimistic approach and reflect their adaptive capacity (Mansour, 2001).
In the case of measuring teachers' attitudes, it is necessary to consider it as a cognitive, affective, and behavioural response organized based on experience and knowledge of an individual or event around the environment (Kumar, 2017). Dramatic social, political and geographical changes and events, that occur over the past decades, have played a prominent role in influencing and reshaping the concept of teachers and their outlook and attitudes towards this profession (Guerriero, 2014). An increase in interest and the use of technology also contributed to the development of some negative and positive effects concerning the way through which teachers assume their roles and position (Al-Mijidel & Al-Sheere, 2012).
The study of (Al-Mijidel, 2006) showed that no statistically significant differences were found in the attitudes of males and females towards the teaching profession. The findings also showed that there were no differences in the attitudes of students towards the profession concerning the year of study. (Abu Daqqa, 2005) found that students' attitudes towards the profession of education in general and in the areas of self-acceptance of the profession and practice of the profession were positive. But it was negative in the field of material aspects of the profession. Also, the respondents' estimates of the adequacy of the preparation and training offered by the program were medium in terms of the overall grade, and for the following themes: interaction with the administrative and academic staff within the school, enriching the field of specialization, management of class interaction, and implementation of lessons.
(Al-Zaidi, 2008) determined the attitudes of the students of the faculties of education of the Yemeni universities towards the teaching profession and its relation to achievement in the pedagogy and practical training courses. The results demonstrated significant differences in gender at the University of Sana'a and Taiz University. The study of (Abu Ras, 2009) indicated differences in the attitudes of students of the final year compared to the first-and second-year students concerning practical training in schools in the last years. The study disclosed positive attitudes of the students enrolled in the teachers' college. The students' attitudes vary according to several variables. Referring to males, those with higher scores had higher positive attitudes than those who performed field training in schools. Also, they showed greater positive attitudes than the first-year students.
A study that aimed at identifying students' attitudes to work in the teaching and training profession was conducted at the Faculty of Physical Education of Al-Aqsa University. It revealed differences in females in terms of positive attitudes towards the teaching profession. However, the attitudes towards training were positive in both genders (Abu Salem, 2009). In line with other researchers, (Gultekin, 2006) conducted a study to determine the attitudes of preschool teachers. The results showed that the candidates' attitudes were positive and their levels of awareness of educational competencies were high. In a study on Turkish language teachers who were the candidates for the teaching profession and its relation with the economic and social levels and gender, (Guneylia & Aslanb, 2009) argued that there were large differences between females and males. While the results did not reveal the functions related to the economic and social levels. However, most of the participants in the study expressed their interest in the teaching profession and were more concerned about the future of the profession than education.
The findings of a study that examined awareness level, students' attitudes, training for the teaching profession, and the relation between the academic level, specialization and achievement of a group of students demonstrate the existence of differences between the attitudes of the firstand fourth-years students with exception of specialization (Oruc, 2011). It is attributed to the reasons that new students often have the higher motivation or have no information about the difficulties of the profession. A study conducted by (Abejehu, 2016) examined the challenges experienced by the students of the Postgraduate Diploma in Teaching (PGDT) program of Dire Dawa University. A total of 108 students were recruited and data was collected using a closeended questionnaire. The major challenges identified by this study included institutions, teacher educators, student teachers, and curriculum. Furthermore, (Abie & Serpa, 2019) identified the challenges that caused the failure of students as educators. These challenges included the attitude, commitment, and competence of the student teachers. Therefore, policy and program initiatives need to adopt to bring about new reforms. (Zhang & Zhang, 2020) conducted a study on the student-teachers that had undergone the training in English language teaching in the Postgraduate Diploma in Education programme. This study was conducted at a teaching education institute in Singapore. The study aimed to explore the process of negotiation held among the student-teachers related to lesson planning. The results of the study showed that the studentteachers were more concerned about lesson planning as compared to constructing and delivering knowledge. Another study by (Grant, 2021) has identified that training teacher-education students and multicultural education are coupled with challenges in a multicultural society. Therefore, there is a need to highlight the importance of multicultural education in the training programs of teachers and make them cognizant of ethnocentrism and elitism in academics to advocate coexistence and multiculturalism. (Chen et al., 2021), have explored the perception so of the preservice teachers of STEM. The findings show that professional development is a crucial factor in increasing self-efficacy among teachers.
To sum up, previous studies showed varying results according to the variables studied. It is also clear that the majority of these studies were conducted on the students of the Faculty of Education and few were conducted on the students of educational training programs, including the specialization, the cumulative grades, the school grade variables and the nature of the public or private schools. The hypothesis formulated by the current study are as follows: H01: There is a statistically significant difference at the significance level (α = 0.05) between the attitudes of the students of the PDTP and the teaching profession on account of specialization H1: There is no statistically significant difference at the significance level (α = 0.05) between the attitudes of the students of the PDTP and the teaching profession on account of specialization.

H02:
There is a statistically significant difference at the significance level of (α = 0.05) between the attitudes of the students of the PDTP and the teaching profession on account of the cumulative average.

H2:
There is no statistically significant difference at the significance level of (α = 0.05) between the attitudes of the students of the PDTP and the teaching profession on account of the cumulative average.

H03:
There is a statistically significant difference at the significance level of (α = 0.05) between the attitudes of the students of the PDTP and the teaching profession on account of school type.

H3:
There is no statistically significant difference at the significance level of (α = 0.05) between the attitudes of the students of the PDTP and the teaching profession on account of school type.

H04:
There is a statistically significant difference at the significance level of (α = 0.05) between the attitudes of the students of the PDTP and the teaching profession on account of school grades.

H4:
There is no statistically significant difference at the significance level of (α = 0.05) between the attitudes of the students of the PDTP and the teaching profession on account of school grades.

Study design and settings
The adopted cross-section design. The study population was the students of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences-Department of Education of the XXXXXX University-Al Ain campus during the academic year 2021-2022. Before, the commencement of the study, a written consent form was signed by all the participants and were assured of data confidentiality. The researcher obtained approval from the Institutional Review Board of XXXXX to conduct this study.

Study sampling
The participants of the study were recruited through purposive sampling (Sibona et al., 2020). The study design opted for was more appropriate as the students were enrolled in a specific specialized course over one year. For this reason, a cross-sectional study design was the most adequate one to be chosen (Sibona et al., 2020). To determine the sample size, an online calculator, Raosoft was used. The recommended sample size was 187 with a 95% confidence level and a 5% margin of error. The total number of registered and surveyed students was 363 and the number of questionnaires received was 300 which yielded a response rate of 83%. Table 1 shows the distribution of the participants according to specialization, the cumulative average, the type of school, and the level of students.
The researchers applied the Students' Attitudes Scale towards the teaching profession. A selfadministered questionnaire was developed by the researchers. The components of attitudes included the cognitive, emotional and social components. More than 30 items were prepared in the initial phase and were reduced to 24 items based on the experts' reviews and observations. In its current form, the scale applies the quadratic gradient from (strongly agree, agree, disagree, strongly disagree) and the following scores are given for each response (1=strongly disagree, 2=disagree, 3=agree, and 4=strongly agree) respectively. The instrument of the current study was presented to 10 experienced and specialized experts in the field of education and psychology to assess the content validity of the items. The experts agreed that the items of the study instrument are clear, related and potentially measure the attitude towards the teaching profession. They, however, proposed some necessary modifications in terms of drafting and arranging the items and then finalizing the instrument.
The researchers extracted the correlation coefficient between each item and the total number of individual responses to establish the construct validity of the instrument. All the items were statistically significant with the scale as given in Table 2, which shows that the correlation coefficients of the scale sections with the total score were all statistically significant at the significance level of 0.01. Thus, it provided acceptable indications for the use of scale in the study.

Reliability and validity
The Cronbach-Alpha test was applied to measure instrument reliability. The alpha coefficient represents the extent to which the items are interrelated within the questionnaire as an indicator of internal consistency and reliability (Sürücü & Maslakçi, 2020). The value of Alpha is, however, satisfied at α = .67, given the cut-off of basic research (Ravinder & Saraswathi, 2020). The collected data was coded and fed into the Statistical Package of Social Science (SPSS) and frequency, mean, standard deviations were used to analyse the collected data. The hypotheses were verified by using ANOVA.

Results
The mean and the standard deviation were applied to describe the sample responses to the scale items. (Table 3) shows that the means of participants' responses on the scales ranged between (M = 1.50) with standard deviation (SD = .68) and (M = 4.80) with standard deviation (SD = .475). It is also noted that their answers were positive because their mean was greater than the mean of the scale. The items (6, 8, 10, 13, 14, 17, 21 and 24) were negative because their mean was less than the mean of the scale. This result led to the conclusion that "the students' attitudes towards studying in the PDTP in XXXXXX University is reasonably positive, in almost all items.
To address the hypotheses, Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was applied to determine if there were significant differences due to the specialization variable (Table 4). Results of ANOVA analysis show that there are no statistically significant differences at the significance level of (α = 0.05) between the attitudes of the students of the PDTP of XXXXXX University and the education profession due to the specialization variable.
The second research question was about the relationship between the postgraduate students' attitudes and the profession of teaching and the cumulative average. Table 5 shows that there are no statistically significant differences at (α = 0.05) in the attitudes of the students of the PDTP of XXXXXX University towards the teaching profession due to the cumulative average variable.
Regarding the third research question regarding the relationship between the postgraduate students' attitudes and the profession of teaching and the school type, Table 6 shows that there are no statistically significant differences at (α = 0.05) between the attitudes of the students of the PDTP of XXXXXX University and the teaching profession due to school type variable.
The final research question was to explore the relationship between the postgraduate students' attitudes and the education profession and the teaching level in the school, results in Table 7 show that there are no statistically significant differences at (α = 0.05) between the attitudes of the students of the PDTP of XXXXXX University and the teaching profession on account of the variable of teaching level in the school.

Discussion
The findings of the study revealed that the students of the PDTP of XXXXXX University showed positive attitudes towards the teaching profession. The mean of the answers of the study subjects on most of the scales was high (M = 1.50) and (SD = 4.80), and the means of only eight items were below the general mean. The sample showed relatively high grades which reflects a higher level than the mean. It is in line with most of the studies that confirmed the existence of positive attitudes in students studying the teaching profession. They can be explained based on the fact   that the subjects taught to students develop the knowledge of theories and facts in them. This knowledge reinforces the concept and importance of this profession. The practical application carried out by students in the field may positively affect their passion for the profession. These results may also support the researchers' assumptions that these students accept this field by choice and personal desires. It helps to consider the social and cultural components of this profession. Especially, females have a positive impact on the turnout. The results indicated that there were no statistically significant differences at (α = 0.05) between the attitudes of the students and the profession of teaching on account of the specialization variable. This result confirms the truth about the importance of the cognitive dimension in the formation of attitudes.
Similarly, Oruc (Oruc, 2011) confirmed the high level of awareness of the teaching profession of students who study educational and literature courses. This result was also in line with Al-Mijidel (Al-Mijidel, 2006) and Gultekin (Gultekin, 2006) who agreed on the importance of the knowledge dimension, which increases the level of awareness and knowledge of students studying the teaching profession and, thus, positively affects their attitudes. The second hypothesis investigated the relationship between the attitudes of students towards the teaching profession and the cumulative average. The results showed that there were statistically significant differences at (α = 0.05) between the attitudes of the students and the teaching education profession on account of a cumulative average variable. This result is endorsed by the psychological and educational theories as it depicts a positive relationship between the student rate in the specialization studied and motivation for specialization and excellence. The relationship of motivation as one of the components of the emotional dimension of the attitudes also supports this result as the student who wants to specialize and has a positive attitude gets high marks. These results contradicted the findings of the study conducted by Al-Mijidel (Al-Mijidel, 2006) which highlighted the relationship between motivation and collection with either a positive or negative impact on the formation of attitudes. The third hypothesis was about the relationship between the attitudes of students and the profession of teaching on account of the school type (public/private), this question hypothesised that there were no statistically significant differences at (α = 0.05) between the attitudes of the students of the (DTP and the teaching profession on account of the school type. The results were fully consistent with this hypothesis. There were no studies that revealed or confirmed the relationship whether it existed or not. In a similar vein, this result can be explained by the fact that a student who has a positive attitude towards the teaching profession may not be that much concerned about the school type.
On the other hand, it is expected that schools have a positive and appropriate environment, provide practical training opportunities for students and support them.
The hypothesis investigated the relationship between the attitudes of the students and the teaching profession in the teaching level "grade" in which the student was trained. The hypothesis for this question was that there were no statistically significant differences at (α = 0.05) between the attitudes of the students of the PDTP and the teaching profession on account of the school grade. The results were consistent with the hypothesis, where there was no detection of differences according to the grade variable in which the student takes the training. Regardless of the teaching grade of the trainee, the attitudes of all the respondents remained at the same level and there were no differences between them.
Although the findings of Gultekin (Gultekin, 2006) showed that there are more positive attitudes among those who work or preschool practice. However, this result is not necessarily generalizable. The teaching grades are different and each grade has its own characteristics needs and specific curricula. Thus, there are no differences between the participants. Because most of them involved in this study were trained in the first and second classes and were not trained in the upper classes and pre-schools. It can be inferred from it that this aspect still needs further research. In addition to the study results, researchers believe that attitude is a belief that one has towards people and surroundings. In the case of education, students' positive attitude may influence their academic achievement because of the teacher's attitudes and the way they communicate with them. Also based on the study findings, the researchers may discover that it's important to highlight some prime factors like anxiety, socio-economic status, and cultural background of both teachers and students which may create a barrier to attitudes and academic achievement.
Future researchers can attempt to study the difference between male and female students/ teachers and their attitudes towards teaching and education. The researchers also may need to attempt to find out the correlation between attitudes towards education and academic achievement. One of the previous studies showed this kind of relationship and correlations between attitudes and other factors such as economic status, cultural and family background, gender, etc (Khaled, 2013). However, the results of this study seem to be limited by the specific aspects of the sample in terms of size, method of selection, the study instrument in terms of its development procedures, psychometric characteristics, and the method of data collection and analysis.

Conclusions
The study aimed to identify the attitudes of the students of the PDTP of XXXXXX University towards the teaching profession and its relationship with specialization, cumulative rate, school type, and school-grade level variables. The results of the study showed an impact of specialization variables on literary and educational specializations and an impact attributed to accumulative average on high academic achievement. The study also showed that there is no impact on the type of school, whether it is public or private, nor on the teaching level variable. The findings of the study will provide insights to the academicians, university administrations, policymakers and the government to raise the quality of education and increase the competence and positive attitudes of teachers towards joining teaching as a profession. The findings are also helpful to formulate training programs for the teachers that are in their preservice phase for positive reinforcement. However, the study participants were recruited from the post-graduate program of one university only. Therefore, the study results cannot be generalized. Thus, future studies can be conducted on larger samples of students of the PDTP and should include more universities and teacher training colleges. The instruments of this study can be used to guide students towards positive behaviours and skills that help them develop positive attitudes towards the teaching profession. Further, it highlights the significance of studying more factors that affect the attitudes of students studying teacher training programs to encourage students to turn to the teaching profession.