Assessing Field Knowledge in German Language Teacher Candidates at Gazi University

German Teaching Departments of teacher training universities are not enough to train German teachers and the "professional knowledge" and "professional skills" which are some of the most prominent among the minimum requirements for becoming a teacher are not fulfilled successfully. In our study, we have put forward the argument that foreign language teaching, especially German language teaching has not been in the desired levels and that German Teaching Departments are inadequate in training teachers. We have tried to prove our argument with numerical data in different aspects. First of all, we presented the list of orders for the Gazi University German Teaching Department and other teaching departments. In this list, Gazi University was 3 times the top in the list among 16 universities in the last 5 years. Next, we sought an answer to the question “What are the qualities of a good teacher?”

On this topic, we presented the views of different experts as well as the criteria ‘The General Qualifications for the Teaching Profession’ prepared by the Ministry of Education.

The success rates of students for subjects related to field knowledge at Gazi University German Teaching Department have been shown. This detailed table showed that the rate of passing classes was 87.5% and the success rate for the classes passed was 88.3% for the years 2013-2017. Then, we conducted a questionnaire with students at Gazi University German Teaching Department to measure their subject knowledge. We asked 35 basic and elementary-level questions to the students. As a result, we found a shocking result of 66% failure and 34% success. Last of all, we found that the success rates of students in graduate classes, and the results of our questionnaires are not in line with each other. We also found out that the exam results of the Teaching Subject Knowledge Test supported the data found in our questionnaire. We have stated that teachers are not well trained. More than that, if we want to achieve success in education, especially in foreign language teaching, we suggest that the teaching profession receives higher salaries and that intelligent students are motivated to choose foreign language departments.