مرکز منطقه ای اطلاع رساني علوم و فناوري - The Use of Teacher Candidates Social Networks and Its Relationship between Their Gender and Personality Traits

Abstract :

The aims of this study are to investigate the time teacher candidates spend on social networks and to examine its relationship between their gender and personality traits. The data were collected from 621 teacher candidates studying at 16 different universities through three different scales. The first scale was developed to collect demographic information and the time spent on social network. Extraversion factor from Big Five Inventory was used as the second scale to determine the teacher candidates’ extraversion points. In order to obtain social anxiety scores of the teacher candidates, Inventory of Self-Evaluation in Social Situations was used as the third scale. The results showed that social networks were widely used by teacher candidates, and that approximately one fifth of the students used social networks for 15-17 hours per week. It was also found that male teacher candidates spend less time on social networks. Furthermore, the results indicated a statistically significant negative correlation between teacher candidates’ extraversion scores and the amount of time teacher candidates spent on social networks, and a statistically significant positive correlation between the teacher candidates’ social anxiety scores and the amount of time they spent on social networks.