INTRODUCTION:

Teachers are the builders of the nation. "The status of teachers reflects the socio-culture ethos of a society; it is said that no people can rise above the level of its teachers. The government and the community should endeavor to create conditions, which will help to motive and inspire teachers on constructive and creative lines. Teachers should have freedom to innovative; to device appropriate methods of communication and activities relevant to the needs and capabilities of and the concerns of the community." -National Policy on Education (NPE, 1986). Thus the future of the nation rests in the hands of human resources raised by the country. The capacities, capabilities and skills are to be traced and nurtured by the teachers. For this, the teachers are to be equipped well. Those having such potentials are to be identified and selected for giving training.

A profession is an occupation, the practice of which requires a more than ordinary amount of complex knowledge, acquired by persistent and systematic study and authoritatively certified (Shils, 1983). Each profession establishes a standard of behaviour to discriminate between those who belong to that profession. A profession has high prestige, earning potential and autonomy. Besides norms of practice and professional ethics are other important characteristics of a profession.

Teaching as an occupation, though very old has got professional status quite late. Surprisingly, divinity, Law and Medicine were considered as profession in comparison to teaching in the 16^th century in England. In India teaching as an occupation has a glorious past. From the Vedic Guru to the modern teacher, the Indian educations have to tread a long path of professionalisation.Though teaching today seems to fulfill most of the criteria of a profession, some people are still there who do not considered teaching as a full fledged profession like Architecture, Engineering, Law and Medicine. Rather they prefer to term it as a quasi-profession. In spite of its many inadequacies, teaching as a profession has been held high in all the civilized societies. This is right because the society has entrusted its most precious resource, the youth to this profession for inculcating in them, Knowledge, Values Social and Moral responsibilities and developing required skills to make them efficient citizens. In fact it is a profession which prepares people for various professions.

Teaching Competency

Competency will refer to appropriate prior knowledge, skills, attitudes, and abilities in a given context that adjust and develop with time and needs in order to effectively and efficiently accomplish a task and that are measured against a minimum standard.

Edmund Short (1985) presented four different conceptions of teaching competence. Firstly, competence is taken as behaviour or performance, the doing of particular things independently of purpose or intent. Secondly, competence is taken as command of knowledge or skills, involving choosing and knowing why the choice is appropriate. Thirdly, competence can be seen as level of capability which has been insufficient’ through some judicious and public process, and this sufficient indicator may fluctuate since it involves a value judgment. Fourthly, competence involves the quality of a person or state of being, including more than characteristic behaviours : "performance, knowledge, skills, levels of sufficiency, and anything else that may seem relevant, such as intent, or motives, or attitudes, or particular qualities". In this study, competence is taken as possessing the necessary Attitude, Aptitude towards teaching and Academic achievement of the student teachers.

Attitude

Attitude means the individual's prevailing tendency to respond favorably or unfavorably to an object (person or group of people, institutions or events). Attitudes can be positive (values) or negative (prejudice). Social psychologists distinguish and study three components of the responses: a) cognitive component, which is the knowledge about an attitude object, whether accurate or not; b) affective component: feelings towards the object and c) conative or behavioral component, which is the action taken towards the object.

Attitudes are rarely individual affairs. Group interaction plays a key role in attitude formation. Therefore, it should be utilized for the development of desirable attitudes.For attitude formation, first of all the learners should feel the necessity of right attitude formation. The overall environment, the cultural pattern of the community and outlook of the whole group need modifications and change before bringing the similar change in the attitude of an individual.

Aptitude

An aptitude is an innate, acquired or learned or developed component of a competency (being the others: knowledge, understanding and attitude) to do a certain kind of work at a certain level. Aptitudes may be physical or mental. The innate nature of aptitude is in contrast achievement, which represents knowledge or ability that is gained.Examination that attempts to determine and measure a person's ability to acquire, through future training, some specific set of skills (intellectual, motor, and so on). The tests assume that people differ in their special abilities and that these differences can be useful in predicting future achievements.

Teaching Aptitude

"Teaching aptitude is a capacity to acquire proficiency or skill, with a given amount of training”. Teaching aptitude is necessary for the teachers to do their holy job a successful one. Without having considerable amount of teaching aptitude, any teacher can not perform his/her duty properly. Identifying the very role of teaching aptitude in teaching profession, this study has been undertaken to identify the teaching aptitude of primary school teachers.

OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

· To assess the attitude and aptitude of the student teachers towards teaching.

· To study the significant difference if any, in the teaching aptitude of student teachers in terms of nature of sex, educational qualification, Subject specialization, type of family, nature of residence, parents educational qualification, parents occupation, and the type of teacher training programme.

· To study the significant difference if any, in the teaching attitude of student teachers in terms of nature of sex, educational qualification, Subject specialization, type of family, nature of residence, parents educational qualification, parents occupation, and the type of teacher training programme.

· To study the significant relationship if any, among teaching aptitude, and teaching attitude of student teachers.

SAMPLE

The sample for this study consisted of 336 student teachers selected from Dindigul District, Tamilnadu. The investigator used stratified random sampling technique to select the sample for the study.

Tool Used

i) TEACHING APTITUDE TEST BATTERY (TATB)

There are totally 120 statements under five areas namely, i) mental ability ii) attitude towards children iii) adaptability iv) professional information and v) interest in profession.

ii) ATTITUDE SCALE TOWARDS TEACHING PROFESSION (ASTTP)

There are totally 55 statements of which 25 statements are favourable and the other 30 are un-favourable statements. Each statement of the scale provides a four-point scale and assigns each of the four positions as scale value. The five points are strongly agree, agree, disagree, and strongly disagree.

Data Analysis and Interpretation

Table 1: Analysis of scores on Aptitude towards teaching profession

Variables		Number	Mean	S.D	t- Value
Gender	Male	83	72.81	8.59	1.98*
Gender	Female	253	74.99	9.00	1.98*
B.Ed Programme	Formal B.Ed	200	74.38	9.62	0.20
B.Ed Programme	Integrated B.Ed	136	74.57	7.87	0.20
Subject specialisation	Arts	130	74.36	7.92	0.16
Subject specialisation	Science	206	74.51	9.55	0.16
Family Type	Joint	52	74.31	8.82	0.13
Family Type	Nuclear	284	74.48	8.98	0.13
Locality	Rural	69	74.81	8.81	0.38
Locality	Urban	267	74.36	8.99	0.38

* Significant at .05 level

From the above table it is clear that there is only a significant difference in the teaching aptitude of the student teachers only with respect to their gender. Female student teachers (74.99) have higher teaching aptitude than the male student teachers (72.81).

Table 2: Analysis of scores on Attitude towards teaching profession

Variables		Number	Mean	S.D	t- Value
Gender	Male	83	169.33	13.37	1.14
Gender	Female	253	171.23	12.56	1.14
B.Ed Programme	Formal B.Ed	200	170.53	13.70	0.42
B.Ed Programme	Integrated B.Ed	136	171.11	11.30	0.42
Subject specialisation	Arts	130	172.07	10.81	1.57
Subject specialisation	Science	206	169.94	13.83	1.57
Family Type	Joint	52	171.78	13.71	0.59
Family Type	Nuclear	284	170.57	12.61	0.59
Locality	Rural	69	170.28	12.88	0.35
Locality	Urban	267	170.88	12.77	0.35

Source: Computed from primary data

From the above table it is clear that there is no significant difference between the teaching attitude of the student teachers with respect to their Gender, B.Ed Programme, Subject specialization, Family Type, Locality

Table 3: Analysis of Achievement Scores of student teachers

Variables		Number	Mean	S.D	t- Value
Gender	Male	83	69.02	6.18	1.38
Gender	Female	253	70.06	5.02	1.38
B.Ed Programme	Formal B.Ed	200	69.88	5.48	0.34
B.Ed Programme	Integrated B.Ed	136	69.68	5.13	0.34
Subject specialisation	Arts	130	70.01	3.98	0.62
Subject specialisation	Science	206	69.67	6.04	0.62
Family Type	Joint	52	71.12	5.19	1.98*
Family Type	Nuclear	284	69.56	5.34	1.98*
Locality	Rural	69	70.28	5.14	0.86
Locality	Urban	267	69.68	5.39	0.86

*significant at .05 level

From the above table it is clear that the academic achievement of the student teachers is greatly influenced by the type of the family. Student teachers belonging to joint family (71.12) have higher academic achievement score than the student teachers belonging to nuclear family (69.56).

Table 4: Analysis Of Variance of Achievement Score of student teachers with Parents Occupation.

Source of Variance	Sum of Squares	df	Mean of Squares	'F' - Value
Between	192.32	2	96.16	3.425*
Within	9349.32	333	28.08	3.425*

* Significant at .05 level

The above table reveals that the F value (3.425) is significant.It implies that there is a significant impact of the parent’s occupation in the academic achievement score of the student teachers.

Table 5: Correlation Table

Variables

r-value

Teaching Attitude

Teaching Aptitude

0.599*

(Significant at .01 level)

Achievement Score

Teaching Attitude

0.216*

(Significant at .01 level)

Achievement Score

Teaching Aptitude

0.337*

(Significant at .01 level)

From this it is concluded that, the Teaching Attitude and the Teaching Aptitude scores of the student teachers are highly related one to one. Also the above table reveals that the teaching attitude, teaching aptitude and achievement score of the student teachers are highly related.

FINDINGS

Ø The student teachers generally have a positive attitude and aptitude towards teaching.

Ø Gender has some influence in their teaching attitude and teaching aptitude.

Ø There is no influence of locality of their residence in their teaching attitude and teaching aptitude.

Ø Previous Educational qualification of the student teachers has no influence over their teaching attitude and teaching aptitude.

Ø Parent’s educational qualification and parent’s occupation have no influence over the teaching attitude and teaching aptitude of the student teachers.

IMPLICATIONS:

The finding of the study implies that, the teaching attitude, teaching aptitude and the academic achievement of the student teachers are interrelated to each other. That is each of the three variables has their own impact on the other two variables. Also the teaching aptitude of the female student teachers is found to be higher than the teaching aptitude of the male student teachers. The academic achievement of the student teachers also vary with regard to their family type, that is the academic achievement of the student teachers belonging to joint family type is higher than the student teachers belonging to nuclear family type.

CONCLUSION:

Education, as an instrument of change, is really one of the major means available to a civilized society for improving the lot of its members. Modern education is based on the worth of the individual. The educator is responsible for shaping the educational process according to the needs of the individual and society by creating a suitable environment.

The future of the nation depends upon the quality of education. To provide better teachers, the upcoming student teachers should have a dedication towards the teaching profession. Dedication in the job comes through the development of proper attitude and aptitude towards the profession. To enhance the number of dedicated teachers the student teachers should be given proper counseling and guidance towards the cultivation of good and positive attitude and aptitude towards teaching profession.

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Kothari C.R, Research Methodology: Method and Technique, Mumbai: Wiley Eastern Ltd, 2001.

National Policy on Education. (1986).New Delhi. Ministry of Human Resource Development, Govt of India.

Report of the Secondary Education Commission (1952-53) (1953).New Delhi: Ministry of Education, Govt of India.

Report of the Education Commission (1964-66). (1966).New Delhi: Ministry of Education, Govt of India.

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Received on 10.08.2015 Modified on 27.08.2015

Int. J. Ad. Social Sciences 3(3): July- Sept., 2015; Page 139-142

DOI: 10.5958/2454-2679.2015.00003.1