Primary Science and Mathematics Teacher Candidates’ 21st-Century Skills and Self-Efficacy Perceptions After Attending Career Planning Courses: A Cross-Sectional Study

With its increasing use in the late twentieth century, career planning is a concept that includes too many factors. To understand the concept of career and the importance of career planning, the Career Planning Course has been included in the curriculum of our universities by the Presidency of the Republic of Türkiye Human Resources Office since 2020 under the coordination of Career Application and Research Centers. In this course, with primary science and mathematics teacher candidates, the required skills and 21st-century skills are discussed, and the skills teachers should be trained for needed by the sector. Therefore, this study aimed to determine primary science and mathematics teacher candidates’ 21st Century Skills self-efficacy perceptions who took the Career Planning Course in the 2020-2021, 2021-2022, and 2022-2023 academic years. For this purpose, the 21st Century Skills Self-Efficacy Perception Scale was used to obtain the data for the study. Since the study lasted 3 years, the study was carried out using a cross-sectional study. It has been determined that students’ perceptions of Life & Career Skills increase as they approach graduation. It can be said that when the teacher qualifications required in private schools were researched and presented, teacher candidates’ perceptions of their Learning and innovation Skills were improved, and they realized that they needed to improve some of their skills.