In our daily lives, research is really important. All inventions would not have been possible without the assistance of study. Because of study, humans have been able to uncover cures for flu, polio, and a variety of other dreadful diseases. It was beneficial not just in medicine but also in technology. Technology research has resulted in the ability to communicate with long-distance relatives (Gross, 2001). Research is the process of gathering and analyzing data in order to gain a better knowledge of the phenomenon being investigated (Swindoll, 2012).

Our entire lives are influenced by our attitude, which is a mental condition relating to what to believe. Our attitudes are shown through our words and deeds. It’s a habitual method of thinking that might lean either optimistically or pessimistically. We have the ability to pick our own attitude, whether our thinking is "full-glass" or "empty-glass" in nature. The crucial element in deciding success is attitude. If anyone has the right attitude and approach, he/she can win the world. This applies not only to all the people who go out there and struggle to learn a living but to the ones who are in the field of education, too, especially the teachers who are very strong pillars of the entire system. The need of the hour is to have teachers who are firmly rooted in the system and who have the attitude to change the world (Eggen & Kauchak, 1999).

Research is essential in all fields of life. It is a very useful tool for prospective teachers when they enter the real world because of its ability to uncover causal relationships between variables that are often obscured in field investigations. They can find appropriate ways to solve the problems faced in the institutions regarding the instruction to improve students’ achievement. Teachers are held publicly accountable for student success results and are responsible for making decisions in the running of schools. Therefore it becomes highly essential for the prospective teachers to familiarize themselves with the research methodologies (Creswell, 2012).

Research is what uncovers this “waiting to be unknown”. It means to solution deeply. It is an investigation that helped to revise, accept and reject theories in the light of new information. It is based on practice and thinking and must be regarded as the most successful approach to the discovery of the truth (Okech et al., 2006). Research is carried out to certify that you are going to have a clear understanding of the information that you need to find; it can either help you in general knowledge or if you need to know something for different studies. Research is now easy to do with the introduction of the internet and the different resources that you can find on it (Gay, 2003.)

It is a well-known fact that the development and advancement of a country depend upon the quality of research being done, the one in it, which can only be possible due to the efforts of all the educationists. The whole educational system is responsible for devising such policies which foster the trend of research. The teachers need to encourage their students to venture into the depths of knowledge and explore their horizons through research. And this is only possible through immaculate training of the teachers in the field of research, which will, in turn, pass on to their pupils (Cohen, Manion, & Morrison, 2007).

Research subject is taught in each program of the Institute of Education and Research, University of Punjab. The reason behind it is that they realize the importance of research in every field of life these days. In this Institute, the students are trained as prospective teachers for whom the need to know the Research Methodology is essential. The aim of teaching research is the preparation of competent and capable teaching professionals who can meet the needs of contemporary working life.

Papanastasiou (2005) described the attitude of students towards research. Research attitude explains the person’s feeling, behavior, and actions about research. This is not a new idea, and a lot of researches had been done in Pakistan in this regard. Butt and Shams (2013) investigated the students’ research attitudes at public and private universities in Pakistan and discovered no significant differences in research attitudes. It is very important to have a positive attitude towards conducting research because it enables a person to look deeper into the factors and prospects of anything. Only a positive attitude will take one into further quests of a phenomenon. Research requires a lot of effort, persistence and motivation to continue probing into the different issues. A positive attitude act as a guiding force that keeps one going on. Iqbal (2010) studied students’ attitudes about research. He discovered considerable disparities in prospective teachers’ perceptions across professional education programmes. Saleem, Saeed, and Waheed (2014) also identified that male and female students have different perceptions towards research attitude.

Research in Pakistan has not gained such immense popularity with the teachers yet, as it has in other developed countries. Prospective teachers here are not so inclined towards research due to different reasons. It has been observed that most of the students who study research methodology as a subject developed a negative attitude towards it. This research is aimed at discovering the attitude of prospective teachers towards research. It focuses on verifying the subfactor structure of the attitude of prospective teachers towards research.

The findings of this study may be useful for the head of the departments, students and teachers. The study may fruitful for the teachers to encourage their students and explore their horizons through research. It may help them to identify the problems faced by them during their learning process and find out the solution. The research work may helpful for the administration and curriculum planners to figure out the effectiveness of the subject of research methodology, which is taught to the prospective teachers. The findings of this study may be helpful to the head of departments for devising such policies which foster the trend of research among prospective teachers. This study may provide new ways of teaching subject research methodology to students, which enhance their ability to conduct research in a proper manner. The findings of the study may be useful in explaining the meaning and underlying concept of students’ attitude towards research.

Objectives of the Study

The study was directed to achieve the subsequent objectives:

1. To study the attitude of prospective teachers towards research.

2. To find the different attitude of prospective teachers of different programs of IER towards research.

3. To explore the gender and department differences of prospective teachers towards research.

This study was quantitative in nature, and a survey method was used. The population of the study included all the prospective teachers from eight departments of the Institute of Education and Research. A sample of two hundred and forty students (40 male and 200 female) was randomly selected from all eight departments of the Institute of Education and Research who have studied the research subject. Thirty prospective teachers from each department select randomly. A self-developed questionnaire based on the Likert type (strongly agree to strongly disagree) was used. The researcher visited the departments personally to collect data. After data collection, descriptive and inferential statistics were applied for data analysis.

The detail of data analysis is given below:

Table 1. The demographic file of Prospective Teachers on the Basis of Gender

Table 1 shows the percentage of prospective teachers on the basis of gender. It indicated that there were 200 female and 40 prospective male teachers.

Table 2. Frequencies of Prospective Teachers on the Basis of Departments

Table 2 indicates the different programs of prospective teachers and the percentage of selected respondents. Thirty prospective teachers were selected from each program. There were total of 240 selected prospective teachers.

Table 3. Mean and Standard deviations of Attitude of Prospective Teachers towards Research

Table 3 reveals the maximum mean value of ECE program (M = 4.0241, SD = .33348), Elementary program (M = 3.9253, SD = .36359), and MTE program (M = 3.7805, SD = .35978). It is concluded that prospective teachers of ECE department has more interest towards research

rather than other departments.

Table 4. Means and Standard deviations of prospective teachers Attitude towards Research

Table 4 shows that the maximum mean value of research makes me uneasy (M = 4.50, SD = 0.932), I enjoy research (M = 4.433, SD = 1.095), research worries me (M = 4.362, SD = .949), and it is difficult to understand the concepts of research (M = 4.358, SD = .991). It is concluded that the majority of respondents agreed that research worries them, and for the very problematic to recognize the theories of research. They perceived that research makes them uneasy, and they feel uncertain about the data analysis.

Table 5. Means and Standard deviations of prospective teachers Attitude towards Research

Table 5 explains that mean score of students get benefits from research (M = 3.70, SD = 1.179), and I use research in my daily life (M = 3.66, SD = 1.416). They agreed that research may essential in their professional training (M = 2.441, SD = 1.373), and research is very valuable (M = 2.862, SD = 1.372). It is concluded that the majority of prospective teachers agreed that students get benefits from research, and it helps them in their professional life.

Table 6. Means and Standard deviations of prospective teachers Attitude towards Research

Table 6 indicates that the maximum mean value of I will apply research approaches in my profession (M = 4.00, SD = 1.00), research makes me sometimes bore (M = 4.466, SD = 1.038), and the minimum mean score of I like to conduct research was (M = 3.683, SD = 1.199). So, it is concluded that the majority of respondents agreed that they applied research approaches in their professional life and they like to conduct research.

Table 7. An independent sample t-test for difference in male and female Prospective Teachers about research Attitude

In table 7, an independent sample t-test was applied to find out the difference between male and female prospective teachers about their research attitude. There was statistically significant difference in research attitude of males (M = 3.5052, SD = .31084) and females (M = 3.7747, SD = .35387, t (238) = -4.481, p = .000. It is concluded that female students have more learning attitude towards research than male at the university level.

Table 8. The difference in the mean scores of prospective teachers Attitude towards Research on the Basis of Department

Table 8 shows that a one way ANOVA was conducted to explore the variance in means scores of prospective teachers’ perceptions of different departments like Secondary, Islamic, ECE, MERA, Elementary, MTE, MBE, and ELTL. Perceptions were collected regarding research attitudes from prospective teachers of different departments: F (7, 232) = 10.837, p = .000. There was a statistically significant difference in the perceptions of prospective teachers of different departments. It means that prospective teachers of different departments of the Institute of Education and Research had different research attitudes.

The purpose of the study was to check the attitude of prospective teachers towards research. It was observed that the majority of respondents had a positive attitude about research. They like to take part in research activities. They applied research approaches in their professional life, and they like to conduct research. These findings are similar to the results of past studies. According to Hofmeister (2007), Kakupa and Zue (2019), positive attitudes might be the product of study knowledge (2018). Students who were exposed to more scientific research had a more favourable opinion toward it (Seher et al., 2018). As a result, the study found that self-efficacy is linked to a favourable attitude toward research and that individuals with high academic qualification and grade had a positive image of research (Rezaei, 2013).

The present study explored there was a statistically significant difference in the research attitude of males and females prospective teachers of different programs. The female students have a more learning attitude towards research than male at the university level. This finding is supporting the Iqbal (2010) study, which looked at students’ research attitudes and discovered substantial disparities in potential instructors’ attitudes. Saleem, Saeed, and Waheed (2014) also identified that male and female students of different programs have different perceptions towards research attitude.

Research is necessary for generating new knowledge. This study concluded that the overall attitude of the prospective teachers towards research is quite positive. The prospective teachers of the ECE department considered research more relevant to their lives as compared to the ELTL prospective teachers. They also have a more positive attitude towards research as compared to the students of Secondary Education, MERA and MTE. It is concluded from the study that there was a significant difference between the male and female perspective teachers attitude towards research. It is also concluded that there is a significant difference in the perceptions of different department prospective teachers towards research on the basis of their qualification.

It is concluded from the findings of the study that overall, all prospective teachers of different departments of the Institute of Education and Research have a positive attitude towards conducting research except some individuals. It is also concluded from the findings of the study that research is very important for the survival of prospective teachers in their life. There is a need to encourage the students to explore new things through research. It also concluded that research is useful for the career of teachers. Most of the teachers agreed that research is important for every profession, with research, we can explore new things and made a healthy change in society.

On the basis of the study’s findings, the following recommendations are made:

1. Research methodology may be taught in all departments equally.

2. A new way of teaching the subject research methodology may be adopted, which would increase the motivational level and lessen the negative attitude of the prospective teachers towards research.

3. It is also recommended that the problems faced by the prospective teachers of different departments during research may be identified and resolved for better results.

4. More incentives like scholarships or the chance of participation in foreign conferences should be given to the prospective teachers who conducted research which would enable them to be more enthusiastic towards research.

5. The syllabus of subject research methodology taught to the students of all the programs should be devised in such a way that it should compass all the important aspects of research, including the SPSS and the process of analysis.

6. Another research worth to be done is the identification of the different problems that students face while conducting research. This study would help in resolving those issues and making research easier and interesting for the students.