Abstract

The purpose of the research is to identify the attitudes of the students at Kocaeli University towards closing down of Technical Education Faculty. These faculties were decided to be closed down in 2009. Since then, both the students and the instructors have been in ambiguity about their future careers. This situation has also affected them emotionally. That is why, the students attitudes towards their faculties, curriculum, job opportunities after graduation and the instructors were dealt with in this research. The research was carried out with the scanner model and the universe of this research consisted of 211 students, and the sample included 157 students from TEF at the Kocaeli University.  Students’ attitude scale towards their faculties was used as the data collector. The following symbols were used to express the statistical analysis: (TEF) for the Technical Education Faculty, (f) for the Frequency; (%) for the percentage; () for the arithmetical average; (Ss) for the standard deviation. The data were analysed with t test and Anova. Likert 5 rating scale was used so as to determine the students’ attitudes. The rating for each statement is as follows; ‘I strongly agree’ (5), ‘I agree.’ (4), ‘I am indecisive.’ (3), ‘I do not agree.’(2),’I strongly disagree.’(1). The gap width of the questionnaire was formulated with line width/the number of the groups.  In the evaluation of the findings gained from this research; the gaps of arithmetical average were like this: ‘1.00-1.80’ = ‘I strongly disagree’; ‘1.81-2.60’= I do not agree’; 2.61-3.40’ = ‘I am indecisive ‘; 3.41-4.20’ = ‘I agree’; 4.21-5.00 =‘I strongly agree’. In this research, the following sub dimensions were evaluated to determine the attitudes of the students: attitudes towards the faculty, attitudes towards the curriculum, attitudes concerning the instructors, attitudes towards job opportunities after graduation. As a result, it could be concluded that students do not like their schools; they chose this school because they had to; they cannot make  good contacts with their instructors and they  have concerns about getting jobs after they have finished this school. The students are also worried because of the ambiguity after closing down their faculties. This ambiguity has led them to lose their feelings of belonging to their faculties. Their negative attitudes can be explained with this emotional situation.

Key words: Technical education faculty, vocational technical education faculty, the instructors.