Attitudes of Post Graduates Diploma in Education(PGDE) Teachers Towards Teaching Profession. Introduction: Attitude is defined as predisposition to respond favorably or unfavorably to specific situations, concepts, objects, institutions or persons. Attitude is developed through experience and it influences the behavior of an individual towards the stimuli. A teacher’s attitudes towards his profession can effect how he perform his duties as a teacher. Present study investigate the attitudes of PGDE teachers towards the teaching profession and some factors effecting to it. Findings can be used to improve the attitude level of PGDE teachers towards their profession.

Objectives of the study Main objective is to study the attitudes of PGDE teachers towards their teaching profession. Specific objectives are To study the attitudes of PGDE teachers towards different aspects of the teaching profession. To study the influence of gender on the attitudes of PGDE teachers towards teaching profession. To study the attitude levels of different degree holders of PGDE towards teaching profession. To study the relation between teaching experience of PGDE teachers and their attitudes towards teaching profession.

Methodology Survey methodology was used. Population and sample: teachers who follow post graduate diploma in education is the population. Randomly selected 100 graduate teachers who follow PGDE week-end (Sinhala medium) 2016/2018 is used as the sample. Likert type attitude scale (five point scale) was used to collect the data. Scale consisted of five sub scales namely academic responsibility, social recognition, professional satisfaction, need for the professional development, financial benefit, recognition for the professional development. Data analyse was done by using descriptive statistics methods and t tests and ANOVA tests.

Findings Level of attitudes towards teaching profession (1-5 scale) Sub scale n Mean SD Academic responsibility 100 3.9 .55 Social Recognition 3.4 Professional satisfaction .67 Need for professional development 4.7 .53 Financial benefit 2.2 .98 Recognition for professional development 1.8 .84 Attitude level is not satisfactory. However Mean values reveals that the attitudes related to academic responsibility, social recognition, professional satisfaction and need for professional development are above average. But attitudes towards financial benefits and recognition of professional development seems to be low.

Gender vice differences of attitudes Sub scale Male Female t p- value n Mean SD Academic responsibility 15 4.0 .56 85 3.9 .55 .50 .61 Social Recognition 3,5 .65 3.3 1.25 .22 Professional satisfaction 4.1 8.9 .70 1.27 .21 Need for professional development 4.7 .40 4.6 .58 Financial benefit 2.4 1.33 2.1 .91 .64 .52 recognition for professional development 2.0 1.09 1.7 .78 .90 .37 Results reveals that there is no significant differences in attitudes related to each aspect between male teachers and female teachers

Attitude level of teachers –Influence of the degree Sub Scale Arts Science Commerc Other F p Mean SD Academic responsibility 3.9 .60 .50 4.1 .23 .33 .34 .79 Social Recognition 3.4 3.2 .51 3.1 1.23 .77 1.07 .36 Professional satisfaction 4.0 .64 3.6 .67 .88 2.68 .06 Financial benefit 2.3 1.01 1.9 .99 2.0 .35 2.2 .98 Need for professional development 4.6 .56 4.7 .48 4.5 .70 5.0 .69 .55 recognition for professional development 1.8 .89 1.5 .71 .97 .42 The kind of degree has no significant effect on the attitude at alpha=.05 level but post hoc test reviled that attitudes of science degree holders with respect to financial benefit and professional satisfaction is significantly lower than arts degree holders at alpha = .05 level.

Correlation between teaching experience and attitudes towards teaching profession Sub scale Pearsons correlation coefficient(r) P-value Academic responsibility .11 .29 Social Recognition .01 .96 Professional satisfaction .09 .32 Need for professional development .02 .78 Financial benefit -.17 Recognition for professional development .18 .08 There is no significant correlation between duration of teaching experience and different aspects of attitude towards teaching profession

conclusions Attitude level of PGDE Teachers is not so satisfactory. Gender or the degree does not seems to be an important factor that affect to teachers attitudes towards teaching profession. Duration of teaching experience also does not correlate with the attitude level significant. findings clearly show the need of giving opportunities to graduate teachers to develop their attitudes towards teaching profession specially with regard to the aspect of financial benefits and recognition for professional development