INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CURRICULUM AND INSTRUCTION (IJCI), cilt.14, sa.1, ss.579-691, 2022 (Hakemli Dergi)
Having 21st century skills, exhibiting effective classroom management, being able to use educational
technologies, establishing interdisciplinary relations, making process-oriented measurement and evaluation,
presenting values education with activities and using modern teaching techniques are now inevitable for
efficiency in education. This research is based on the results of a series of training activities and workshops
for teacher candidates within the scope of the “Future Teachers Project”. The research, in which the
quantitative method was applied, was conducted with 174 teacher candidates studying in different
departments of universities in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus in 2021. As a data collection tool in
the research, the “Readiness to Be a Teacher Scale” and the “21st Century Learner Skills Usage Scale” was
used. The application of the research was carried out twice -pretest and posttest- at the beginning of the
project and at the end of the project. In the study, it was determined that the education and activities applied
outside of formal education increased the teacher candidates' readiness for teaching and their 21st century
learner skills. Particularly, it was observed that teacher candidates who participated in such a project for the
first time, made significant improvements in their “environment designing the teaching process” and
“collaboration and flexibility skills” skills. In the context of these results, it can be suggested that teacher
candidates participate in activities that will improve themselves in different dimensions of the teaching
profession in addition to the formation courses they take at the university.