Attitudes Toward School Subjects among Students Entering Preschool and Primary Teacher Education Programs
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.37205/TEL-hun.2026.1.01Keywords:
school subject attitudes, school subjects, preschool teacher education, primary teacher education, preservice teachersAbstract
Students entering teacher education bring with them previous school experiences and subject preferences that may influence how they engage with their studies, how confident
they feel in different curriculum areas, and what kinds of pedagogical practices they later develop.
This study examined the school subject attitudes of 528 students entering preschool and primary teacher education programs across 12 school subjects.
The results showed that students’ most favorable attitudes were related to the arts, physical education, humanities, and language, whereas mathematics, physics, chemistry, and technology-related areas received less favorable evaluations. Students’ attitudes were organized into different patterns, suggesting that they enter teacher education with diverse support needs from the very beginning of their studies. Primary teacher education students reported more positive attitudes toward several science- and technology-related subjects, whereas preschool teacher education students had more favorable attitudes toward music.
Compared with Grade 11 students, students entering teacher education had more favorable attitudes toward literature, art, biology, and history, but evaluated mathematics, physics, and foreign language less favorably.
The practical significance of the findings is that teacher education programs should assess students’ school subject attitudes at program entry and provide targeted support in areas where students have less positive prior experiences. Strengthening confidence, interest, and pedagogical self-efficacy in science-, mathematics-, and technology-related areas appears especially important.
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