Science and Mathematics Education in Turkey

Abstract

This study aims to determine the demopgraphics of the Science and Mathematics teachers’ woring
at the Ministry of National Education (MNE). In addition, it is aimed to address the quantitative data with
regards to the departments offering Science and Mathematics teacher education departments, the faculties having
the necessary departments to train Science and Mathematics teachers. For this purpose, the teachers who are
employed according to the data gathered from the Ministry of Human Resources (August, 2012) and instructors
employed in science and mathematics departments of the universities in the 2011-2012 academic year were
selected as the participant group of the study. In this descriptive design, the study aims to analyze the current
state of the pre-service teacher training departments of the science and mathematics departments and the teachers
who are currently employed in the MNE. The data were obtained from the frequency and percentage distribution
by examining through a situation analysis and comparisons were made . Universities , in the field of science and
mathematics education within the formal education emphasize the importance of their role and purposes. 51.9%
of theMNE teachers graduated from the faculties of education , 14.1% were graduates from the faculties of
science and letters. It is observed that there is a redundancy in physics, chemistry and biology teachers; however,
in the fields of science and technology, primary-school level of mathematics and mathematics teacher are
lacking. However, considering the number of teacher candidates awaiting to be appointed to become MNE
teachers, the redundancy of the current graduates stand out.