Evaluation of Teacher Candidate's Opinions on Determining the Factors Affecting the Values Formation Process

This study aims to reveal the opinions of prospective teachers regarding the determination of the factors affecting the formation process of values. This research, which aims to reveal the opinions of teacher candidates, has a survey model and a descriptive nature. The research was conducted with teacher candidates preparing for KPSS on the online platform in 2022-2023. The number of participants forming the sample in the research is 605. A questionnaire developed by the researcher was used as a data collection tool in the study. The reliability and validity study of the survey was conducted, 1 item was removed from the survey and the survey was given its final form. Additionally, using exploratory factor analysis, it was seen that the factor loading of each item was 0.30 and above. As a result of the exploratory factor analysis conducted by the researcher, the construct validity of the scale was found to be high. Frequency, percentage, arithmetic mean, t-test, and one-way ANOVA tests were used to analyze the data. According to the results obtained, the opinions of prospective teachers about the factors affecting the formation of values are as follows: 71.2% support the view that "one value can affect the formation of another value." Additionally, 68.6% agreed with the statement "A person's self-perception is effective in the formation of values." In addition, the rate of those who say, "I think social media has a positive contribution to people's value judgments" is 40.3%. When we evaluate the factors affecting the formation of teacher candidates' values in terms of gender, although there is no significant difference, when the average scores are examined, it is observed that men express more positive opinions than women. While there was a significant difference in terms of marital status, it was determined that single-teacher candidates expressed more positive opinions than married teachers. A significant difference was found according to age groups, and it was observed that teacher candidates aged 20-24 had more positive opinions than those aged 25-29 and those aged 40 and over. In addition, it was concluded that the geographical region of residence does not have a determining effect on value formation. As a result, this research has shown that many factors can be effective in the process of formation of values and differences may arise depending on the variables.