A different Analysis with the Literature Circles: Teacher Candidates’ Perspectives on the Profession

This study aimed to determine the perceptions of teacher candidates and to use the literature circles method to help them to develop a positive attitude towards the profession. Given that the study of literature circles in the national literature is only for a specific area, this study is the first study in which the literature circles are used for a different purpose. The research was carried out with eight teacher candidates who were studying in two different undergraduate programs of a public university in the spring term of the 2018-2019 academic year. Participants were selected by using convenience sampling and purposeful sampling methods. In the study, which was formed by selecting the case study from qualitative research designs, data were analyzed by the content analysis method. Findings from the books and sessions performed within the literature circles show that the process has a positive effect on the teacher candidates’ perspectives.


INTRODUCTION
The teaching profession is defined as the profession that has social, cultural, economic, scientific and technological qualifications, being self-developed in the field, aiming for originality, taking care of the work, and requiring professional formation and professional effort (Erden, 1998). Not only does it convey knowledge, it also leads the individual to gain different attitudes in certain subjects, to analyze the information objectively and to use this knowledge to realize himself/ herself (Dalgan, 1998). In order for the teacher to lead the student and to shed light on this path, the teacher first needs to develop himself/herself, to have rich thoughts about his/ her profession and to focus on it.
Efficient teaching in our schools depends on qualified teachers who have developed themselves in many ways (Seferoğlu, 2004). The fact that teachers are qualified is closely related to their cognitive, affective and psychomotor skills. In particular, a teacher who has developed his/her affective skills will be able to adapt to the profession more easily, and this will play an important role in increasing his/her professional satisfaction (Semerci & Semerci, 2004). These affective skills can be listed as the interests, motivations, values and tendencies of teacher and teacher candidates (İnceoğlu, 1993). Teaching, as well as having professional competences, is a profession that requires loving the profession and having a strong motivation (Kaplan & İpek, 2002). Considering that a teacher who keeps a high level of attitudes and motivations towards the profession will affect the students positively, it can be said the traditional teacher training curriculum, Published  which only focuses on subject teaching or formation courses, ignores the individual traits of teacher candidates, will lack in educating qualified teachers (Can, 1992).
Since many developed countries insist on educating qualified teachers, many studies emerge regarding the motivation and perspectives of teachers (Jugović, Marušić, Ivanec, &Vidović, 2012). In their study, Çeliköz and Çetin (2004) stated that if teacher candidates developed a positive attitude towards their professions, they would fulfill their duties when they start their profession, develop investigative and original ideas, motivate students more easily, transfer their verbal and non-verbal messages to students in harmony, use time effectively and will be open to innovations. It is clear that if the teachers keep their motivation towards the profession high and develop a positive attitude, the teaching process will improve and the perspectives of the profession will develop in a positive way. As a result, studies that enrich the feelings and thoughts of the teacher about the profession (Ada, Akan, Ayık, Yıldırım, & Yalçın, 2013;Akbaba, 2006;Arslan, Polat, & Satıcı, 2016;İman, 2014;Karakuyu & Karakuyu, 2016;Kocabaş & Karaköse, 2005) affects the quality of the teaching process. This research is planned to enrich the opinions of teacher candidates on the profession. The aspect that distinguishes the study from other studies is the use of the literature circles as a method.
Literature circles, which has names like literary community, book group, book club in foreign sources (Duncan, 2009;Isozaki, 2018;Pei, 2018), is a teaching method that the students come together to read the book they have chosen and make collaborative work by discussing the book they read (Daniels, 2002). This method, in which students make discussions and make inferences about books, has been used around the world for almost 30 years and guides many teachers (AvcıBaysal, Gül, & Akıncı, 2013;Pilav & Balantekin, 2017). The method that can be applied in all education levels and courses starting from the third grade of primary education is very effective in ensuring that students look at the books they are reading in a different way, they can overcome each other's deficiencies, gain reading habit and develop their verbal language skills (Alwood, 2000;Avcı & Yuksel, 2011;Avcı, Yüksel, & Akıncı, 2010;Batchelor, 2012;Blum, Lipsett, & Yocom, 2002;Chiang & Huang, 2005;Ozer & Yilmaz, 2016;Pitton, 2005;Rutherford, Carter, Hillmer, Kramer, &Parker, 2009;Stabile, 2009). In addition, there are studies stating that the method gives students a love of reading (Culli, 2002;Olsen, 2007;Pitton, 2005;Rutherford et al., 2009).
Teachers who apply the literature circles technique in their classrooms can follow their students' progress closely and provide them with a better education in line with their needs (McMahon & Raphael, 1997). Teachers can use the literature circles for different educational purposes, while some teachers use the literature circles for teaching the contents of texts (Highfield & Folkert, 1997), and some of them refer to this technique to support students' literacy studies (McMahon & Raphael, 1997). In addition, the teacher who uses the literature circles can keep his/her communication with his/her students longer and deepen and strengthen his/ her mental connections rather than just waiting for them to get information (Mark, 2007).
Literature circles begin with the generation of groups out of 2-6 students (Brabham & Villaume, 2000;Daniels, 2002). The ideal number of groups is 4-5 (Avcı et al., 2010). Then, the roles divided into two as basic and optional are explained to the students who are given the choice of the role they want. While the main roles are interrogator, connector, illustrator, and literary luminary, optional roles are summarizer, researcher, vocabulary enricher, scene setter, and character sketcher (Daniels, 2002;Guerrero Moya, Muñoz Ortiz & Niño Díaz, 2016). After each book, groups and roles need to be changed in the literature circles (Doğan, Yıldırım, Çermik, & Ateş, 2018). After group selection and roles are completed, group members choose one of the books determined by the field expert. The books should be chosen by considering the variables such as students' levels, interests and subject (Carpinelli, 2006;Daniels, 2002). Students have two weeks to complete each selected book. At the end of each book, a session is held with students. These sessions help students to analyze the book and have a deeper understanding of what they read (Noe & Johnson, 1999;Pambianchi, 2017). Students who come together in the sessions under the leadership of the counselor develop both critical thinking skills (Diego-Medrano, Coneway, & Williams, 2016;Lehman & Scharer, 1996) and exchange ideas with other students to realize their potential (Short, 1990). After the session, students design and present a project such as drama, poetry, puppet play, theater or story writing about the books they read (Moeller & Moeller, 2007). Schools are usually concerned with what students have learned in the process rather than their performance in the process (Short & Burke, 1991). However, literature circles focus on students' inferences in the process, not just their knowledge (Short, 1990). For this reason, both the process and the results are evaluated by using various evaluation methods while the process is completed. This evaluation is done by using evaluation methods such as rubrics, portfolios or projects instead of traditional measurement and evaluation methods (Avcı et al., 2010;Doğan et al., 2018).
When the national and international literature is examined, it is possible to find many different studies on the literature circles. Anderson and Corbett (2008), Doğan et al. (2018), Hsu (2004), Karatay (2015), Maher (2015), Sanacore (2013) Avcı et al. (2010) explained the literature circles as a technique in their studies. Calmer and Straits (2014), Carrison and Slavit (2005) and Straits and Nichols (2006) presented the literature circles as an implementation to improve their reading skills. Avcı et al., (2013), Pilav and Balantekin (2017), Pitman (1997), Sarı et al., (2017), Tosun (2018) and Yüksel and Avcı (2011) searched the effect of literature circles on reading comprehension. Aytan (2018), Levy (2006), Mills andJennings (2011) andCumming-Potvin (2007) searched the effect of the literature circles on the students. Kaysi et al., (2016) searched the effect of literature circles on foreign language comprehension ability. Duncan (2009) looked for the effects of literature circles on the reading skills of adults, and finally Abdelrasoul (2014). King (2002) and McCall (2010) investigated the effect of the literature circles on critical reading and social skills. Furthermore, Doğan et al. (2018), Özbay and Kaldırım (2015) mentioned the importance of the technique by making a study with the teacher candidates. Blum et al., (2002) and Mark (2007) applied the literature circles with the students and observed the change in their thoughts.

Objective
This study investigated the effectiveness of literature circles method in enriching the opinions of teacher candidates on the teaching profession.

Research Model
This research was carried out to examine the changes in pre-service teachers' thoughts about the profession by using the literature circles method. A case study of qualitative research designs was chosen as the design of the study. A case study is an approach where research data collected over a period of time is examined using various data collection tools (Creswell, 2013). The results obtained in the context study are for understanding similar examples rather than generalizing to all studies (Yıldırım & Şimşek, 2006).

Research Group
The study was carried out with eight participants. They were teacher candidates studying in the programs of Classroom

IJELS 7(4):8-16
Teaching and Turkish Language Teaching in a state university. General information about the study was given to teacher candidates, and the participants were selected from the volunteers. The study group comprised two sampling methods from the sample group. Because the researchers knew the students, convenience sampling method was chosen as the first method. In the convenience sampling, which is the least preferred method of use (Patton, 2002), the researcher selects a situation that is easy to reach and provides research with advantages such as speed, practicality and economics (Glesne, 2015;Yıldırım & Şimşek, 2006). Second, to be suitable for the purpose of the study, participants willing to read should be selected and purposive sampling method were chosen. The purposive sampling method is a sampling method chosen for the purpose of the research, which contains various situations and allows an in-depth research to be conducted (Büyüköztürk, Çakmak, Akgün, Karadeniz, & Demirel, 2017).

Procedure of Research
In the scope of the study, necessary information was given to the teacher candidates about the study, and a detailed explanation was provided about how the process would be carried out. In the process of book selection, since the books should be appropriate to the scope and content of the study, books that contain the subject of education or teacher were taken into consideration. The books to be read during the implementation process are determined as eight books in accordance with the opinions of three field experts. The books listed in Table 1 were introduced to the participants at the meeting where the study information was given, and they were asked to review the books and to choose three books to be included in the literature circles. Participants expressed their preferences individually, and followed by a small voting procedure; Our village, Idealist Teacher and Education and Children books were chosen. They arranged these books taking into account the peritextual features. Researchers did not intervene in this process.
During the meeting, the participants were given a role to play in each book. Each participant had an informative form regarding the role they have chosen according to their characteristics and requirements. In the meeting session, the next session date and the type of project were decided.
The following sessions took approximately 55 minutes. In the first 10 minutes of these sessions, general ideas about the book were expressed. During 25-30 minutes, the group members fulfilled the necessary tasks for their roles and in the last 10-15 minutes a short evaluation was done about the process and the sessions ended. In the sessions, first, each participant shared his/her work as a requirement of his/her role with other friends and then a group discussion was held. Finally, the participants evaluated the whole book. After the sessions, the researchers assessed the role of each participant in the group work. The application period of the study lasted 6 weeks. After each group study, the participants presented a project. As a project, groups prepared posters and took photographs for Our Village book, designed logo and newspaper headlines for Education and Children book and they wrote a story and a poem for Idealist Teacher book. All sessions except for the meeting session were recorded in accordance with the consent of all participants.

Data Analysis
The data collected within the research were analyzed by content analysis method. Content analysis is a scientific approach that allows the interpretation of written, oral, or other data types by categorizing them in a way that the reader can understand (Yıldırım & Şimşek, 2006). In content analysis, it is essential that complex data is reviewed and presented more organized way. The data obtained from the study were dictated by the researchers, and then both researchers categorized the data individually and identified the keywords. After this process, they came together and reviewed the categories and keywords.

Findings
The findings of the study were tabulated by analyzing all the expressions used in the literature circles in the written, oral or visual statements of the participants. In order to be understandable, the findings were categorized in books in the literature circles.
When Table 2 is examined, the concepts that are used frequently by the participants in expressing themselves during the sessions about the books in which they perform their readings under different roles can be seen. The concepts of education and awareness may indicate that the study fits its purpose. The research aimed to raise awareness of teacher candidates. At the same time, the frequent use of in the book and the financial problems experienced by the peasant; In addition to these financial problems of the villagers, K6 mentioned that there were many health problems in the village and the villagers remained uneducated. Both groups of participants found that the solution of these problems would be through public awareness of the teacher. The fact that participants show only the teacher to solve different problems at different times is a sign that they understand the importance of the teaching profession and realize their place in society. This indicates that the research has reached its goal. K2, in her role as an artist, painted the family's migration and the cultural shift, the cultural differentiation, and the old-new traditions. K7 portrays a passage in the book and depicts the desperation of the peasant, the difficulty of living conditions and unconsciousness. These pictures may be an indication that the participants started to consider the conditions of the eastern region and put this phenomenon in their minds. The reason for this is that, in today's conditions, it is possible to say that the first work place of teacher candidates is probably East and Southeast Anatolia Regions. However, the book posed a concern for the participants about working in these regions. The second book of the literature circles, Education and Children, is an educational themed book that the author, who is a teacher, presents his professional experience to the reader in short trials. Key words highlighted in this book are awareness, national consciousness, improper westernization, and education system concepts. K1, who is the connector, expressed his sorrow about the fact that the lessons such as sports, physical education and art during his education period were considered unnecessary by the teachers and they were not taught; On the other hand, K6 mentioned that students who were successful in mathematics class were considered smarter than those who were successful in Turkish language. Both participants reviewed their past experiences during the session and emphasized that they would not treat their students in their professional careers. This emphasis is an important situation that demonstrates that participants have learned a lesson from the sessions in order to ensure that they address the negative experiences in their history and do not want to apply them to their students in the future. K7, as an interrogator, asked this question: "Do you think the FATİH project is a useful project for the Turkish Education System?" and the answers were like these: "I think both teachers and students undervalue this project. I think it was a useful project but the system was not ready and the trainings were not enough. Even the teachers could not use the instruments given under the project." On this question of the interrogator, the session was stopped and the need for improvement of the FATIH project was discussed. Participants pointed out that in-service training for teachers in Turkey were not adequate and problems in this project especially arose from this situation. K4, in the role of reading literary luminary, mentioned that when children came to school, teachers selected the book chapters in which children were tried to prevent from asking questions and put their minds on a certain pattern and referred to the incorrectness of this situation. K5 stated that the moral education was not sufficiently given to the students. K5 and other group members stated that we should introduce our national figures to our children and transfer their value judgments to solve this situation. K4 et al. stated that if children asked questions and think freely, they could create their own identity. The participants' awareness of the various problems in the profession and their willingness to come up with a solution to these problems indicate that they have achieved the targeted teaching profession awareness within the research. Finally K3, in the role of illustrator, draws the primary school teachers as a hero who will improve Turkey. K8 addressed the children who had struggle between cursive handwriting and manuscript writing and the negative impacts of this situation. Here, while K3 emphasizes the impression of the teaching profession himself/herself, K8 sheds light on another problem that children are exposed to and offers solutions to this problem. The Idealist Teacher book, which the participants selected as the last book, is about a professor who left his university and went to a village school to improve it; but his colleagues and other people opposed him. It is a book that highlights the ambition, determination and success of a teacher. Underlining the role of the connector in this book, K5 reported how important the teacher's decision to go to the village was, when the teacher showed exemplary behavior to the children, he/she could see the change in them and saw the teacher as a symbol of success and ambition. K3, on the other hand, stated that he absolutely disagreed with the people who tried to stop the professor and appreciated the teacher's determination. The question asked by the K8, who was one of the interrogators: "If you were the professor, could you leave the university and teach at the village school?" Considering that the answer given to this question "Although I became a professor, I would go to the village to teach. Because I think education is a matter of heart." is given in the last phase of the research, it can be mentioned that the study has a positive effect on teacher candidates' perspectives. The K7, who plays the literary luminary role, states that the professor, after leaving the profession, has disagreed with his colleagues and his friends who are trying to convince him that this is not true; K2, on the other hand, commented on the section that academics deem the peasants and described them as ignorant and bad people and stated that this was not true. K1 and K6, who acted as illustrators, presented a work showing that the effect of the teacher on children was really strong. While explaining his/her work, K1 said that: "People don't want to go to the East, they're avoiding this mission. But I think the people in there are more in need of education. I would like to teach at any village school in the east." As can be seen, these and similar expressions indicate that the sessions help participants to develop a sympathy for the teaching profession.
At the end of the process, in the last meeting to evaluate the process, the participants made various decisions in order to be a better teacher in the future. These decisions are as follows: 1. When I become a teacher, I will enter the classroom with a book in order to motivate the children and set them a teacher role model. 2. I will read the columnists of various newspapers on education in order to continue my reading habits influenced by the literature circles. 3. We will continue this technique in our own class or in our community in order to be able to apply this technique more easily in the future as well as to raise awareness among other teacher candidates. 4. We will try this technique with a variety of films, series or different types of reading texts. In this study, which aims to provide teacher candidates a professional point of view using the literature circles method, the participants stated that their point of view towards village and teaching in a village changed in a positive way and that they had better understanding and internalize the affective features required by the teaching profession. In addition, many participants shared that they would like to apply the literature circles method in their class in the future and shared the benefits of this technique on themselves.
Considering the findings of the study, the effect of the literature circles is seen in the comprehension of the importance of the teaching profession, in the enrichment of the teacher candidates' thoughts towards the profession, and in making some important decisions about the profession while they are candidate teachers. When the participants are asked to compare their literature circles readings with their individual readings; they stated that the literature circles disciplined the process, helped people to develop the sense of responsibility for the group since the readings must be completed in a specified period of time. As the role assumed for each book had some requirements, they felt compelled to make a deeper reading rather than skimming. They also stated the positive effects of literature circles by saying they developed their skills of taking notes by preparing in advance to participate in the sessions, expressing their skills during the sessions, being able to see books from different perspectives thanks to different ideas within the group, and they were emotionally influenced because they talked about the book more than once.
In addition, it is possible to say that the study has achieved its goal when the participants stated that their opinions on the profession were strengthened and that they would do their job better when they started the profession.

DISCUSSION
In this study which the literature circles method is used in order to enrich the opinions of the teacher candidates about the teaching profession, it has been seen that the literature circles method contributes to the multifaceted development of individuals.
The fact that the participants stated that Mahmut Makal's character in Our Village book was constantly complaining instead of finding a solution to the problems and that he was not a good village teacher could be a sign of a critical thinking for the book. This finding is in line with the results of the study performed by Kaldırım and Özbay (2015) with Turkish teacher candidates. Besides this, the participants of the study considered the literature circles technique as a useful teaching technique that could improve students academically. This thought expressed by the participants and the views of Doğan et al. (2018) coincide.
At the end of the process, participants stated that they would like to apply the literature circles technique both in their own classes and in the educational community they were a member of. This finding coincides with the findings of the studies proposed by Cumming-Potvin (2007) and Duncan (2009) for the implementation of the literature circles technique in educational institutions.
The participants stated that they read the books more deeply thanks to the literature circles technique and as a result they understood the books better. This finding obtained in the study confirms the studies performed by Carrison and Slavit (2005), Straits and Nichols (2006), Calmer and Straits (2014) and Doğan et al. (2018). In addition, this study supports the works of Pitman (1997) and Avcı et al. (2013), Avcı et al., (2010),Yüksel and Avcı (2011), Pilav and Balantekin (2017) and Sarı et al., (2017) and Tosun (2018) in terms of improving participants' reading habits and attitudes towards reading.
In his research, Levy (2006) stated that students should engage in classroom activities for their academic progress. Activities such as the literature circles can direct students to read books and make them continue to read books. In this study, the participants stated that they wanted to apply the literature circles technique in their classrooms after seeing and experiencing them. In this respect, this study and similar studies can be made more frequently and various techniques can be provided to teacher candidates in the classroom.
The results of this study are in line with the results of the study conducted by Aytan (2018), given that the participants have gained different perspectives after learning the method of the literature circles, and they concluded that their self-confidence developed and they began to recognize the details that they could not before.
In addition, the participants stated that the literature circles method could be developed as multi-faceted if it was applied in classrooms. King (2002) proved that by using the literature circles method, children's speech skills could be improved. McCall (2010) found that the literature circles enabled children to participate actively and to improve their leadership skills and to think deeply about texts. Abdelrasoul (2014) showed that the literature circles improved students' critical reading and social skills. These studies supported the participants' statements.

CONCLUSION
In this study, the effectiveness of the reading circle method was demonstrated, which examined the changes in the perspectives towards the teaching profession of two groups of participants. The participants stated that their thoughts about teaching profession changed in a very positive way as a result of the books they read and the various roles they played. In respect of the reading circle, participants who had the opportunity to examine the events and characters in the books from various perspectives, pointed out that they had not read any book in this way before. If they had read using such a method, it would both increase understanding and contribute to the internalization of the book. In addition, the participants stated that they were emotionally influenced by the books they read, and this played an important positive role influencing their thoughts about the teaching profession.
Additionally, the participants in this study stated that they were able to express their thoughts more clearly, understandable and effectively with reading circle method. In addition to the effects of the books on participants, they expressed that listening to the feelings and thoughts of other participants increased their perceptions and this enabled them to create new perspectives. Moreover, the participants' saying that they will definitely apply the reading circle method together with their students in their professional careers clearly shows the positive effect of the reading circle method on them. The participant stated that, using reading circle method cause an awareness about reading, importance of reading and education phenomenon which also shows the functionality of method. The participants said that the books they read in this process gave them professional consciousness and pointed out their role in the reading circle, the sessions held and the discipline in the process.
At the end of this study, the opinions of teacher candidates about occupation were examined. Based on the findings, it is recommended that teacher candidates familiarize with the reading circle method. Additionally, studies can be carried out in order to strengthen their skills in the implementation of this method. Studies can also be done in new applications with different roles and different books.