Motivation to Teach, Personality and Achievement Goals of Student Teachers

Author(s):

Iris Marušić(presenting / submitting)Ivana Jugović Tea Pavin Ivanec

Conference:

ECER 2015

Network:

01. Continuing Professional Development: Learning for Individuals, Leaders, and Organisations

Format:

Paper

Session Information

01 SES 14 B, Developing trainee teachers

Paper Session

Time:

2015-09-11

15:30-17:00

Room:

204.Oktatóterem [C]

Chair:

Eimear Holland

Contribution

Initial teacher education plays an important role in the acquisition of basic teaching competences and in development of teachers’ professional identity. In the context of teachers’ professional development Korthagen discussed the question of essential qualities of a good teacher and offered a framework which takes into consideration various levels important for addressing this question (Korthagen, 2004). This model clearly outlines the significant role of different individual characteristics in development of prospective teachers’ professional identity. Hence, it is important to explore internal (or personal) context during the initial teacher education, with motivation for choosing this profession certainly being one of its significant aspects since it can shape perception of one’s own professional identity. The area of teacher motivation has been increasingly attracting attention of the researchers and practitioners in teacher education from various European countries, as many of them face the challenges of attracting and retaining high quality teachers in the profession (EC, 2012).

Results of the recent TALIS study outline a picture of Croatian teachers as predominantly female population in their early forties, with completed teacher education program and high participation rate in professional development (OECD, 2014). Compared with teachers in other European countries, Croatian teachers report significantly lower teacher efficacy and perception of the value of the teaching profession in society. On the other hand, envisaged policy reforms of Croatian education require well educated, motivated and empowered professionals who could create and implement changes at all levels. These societal challenges set the stage for the rethinking of teaching profession in the country in line with the most recent trends of European teacher policy (EC, 2013). Research on teachers' professional role and their motivation in various stages of their career therefore becomes an indispensable tool in policymaking.

With recent changes in the initial teacher education and challenges of recruiting quality candidates into teaching profession the area of teacher motivation came in the focus of systematic research interest worldwide. Recent research proposed a FIT-Choice model of factors influencing choice of teaching profession in student teachers as a useful theoretical framework for studying teacher motivation (Watt & Richardson, 2007). Model includes following aspects of motivation for the teaching profession: socialization influences, self-perceptions of ability, perceptions of teaching profession, values of the teaching profession and motivation for the choice of teaching as fallback career. Validation study with student teachers from three Croatian universities demonstrated the validity of this theoretical framework for studying teacher motivation in Croatian educational context (Marušić, Jugović, & Pavin Ivanec, 2011). Various aspects of the motivation for teaching were meaningfully related to basic personality dimensions, particularly extraversion, agreeableness and conscientiousness (Jugović, Marušić, Pavin Ivanec, & Vizek Vidović, 2012). Studies with the Croatian preservice teachers also explored the role of achievement goals in the explanation of motivations, after controlling for personality (Jugović, Marušić, & Pavin Ivanec, 2014). In this study mastery approach goals proved to be the strongest predictors of most aspects of motivation for teaching, especially intrinsic and socially oriented motivation. The goal of this study is to explore the role of personality, self-concept or achievement goals - when taken together - in explaining different aspects of motivation for teaching.

Method

Sample The sample included 374 first-year students enrolled in the teacher education programs for classroom teachers in the three Croatian universities: University of Zagreb (56.7%), University of Rijeka (28.6%), and University of Zadar (14.7%). The average age of the participants was 19.6 years (SD=1.26). Given the small number of male students at the faculties of teacher education (around 5%), information about the gender of the participants was not collected in order to secure the anonymity of (male) participants. Instruments Factors Influencing Teaching Choice. The FIT-Choice scale (Watt & Richardson, 2007) is a self-report instrument that measures 12 motivations and 6 perceptions about teaching. Confirmatory factor analysis of the items comprising the Croatian version of the scale provided support for construct validity in this setting (Jugović et al., 2012.) Cronbach's alpha reliabilities demonstrated very good internal consistencies: 14 out of 18 subscales had α > .80, while the remaining four subscales had alphas in the acceptable range between .63 and .73. Personality. The Big Five Inventory (BFI; John, Naumann, & Soto, 2008) is a 44-item self-report inventory measuring five basic dimensions of personality. Internal reliabilities of BFI scales for the Croatian version were .79, .74, .85, .81, and .82, respectively for extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism and openness (Marušić, Jugović, & Pavin Ivanec, 2012). Self-concept. Elements of self-concept were defined according to multidimensional model proposed by Marsh & Shavelson (1985). Verbal, general academic and problem-solving self-concepts were measured with the 10-item scales from Self-Description Questionnaire III (SDQ III; Marsh & O'Neill, 1984). Internal reliabilities of verbal, general academic and problem-solving self-concpet subscales in the sample of Croatian preservice teachers were .83, .87, and .82 respectively (Marušić, Jugović, & Pavin Ivanec, 2012). Achievement goals. Mastery approach, mastery avoidance, performance approach and performance avoidance goals during the initial teacher education were measured with the Achievement Goal Questionnaire (Elliot & McGregor, 2001). Each subscale consisted of 3 items that were, in the Croatian research, adapted to be suitable for the student teachers (Jugović, Marušić, & Pavin Ivanec, 2014). Internal reliabilities of the subscales measuring mastery approach, mastery avoidance, performance approach and performance avoidance goals were the following: .73, .77, .82 and .63.

Expected Outcomes

Eight regression analyses were conducted to explore the predictors of the following motivations to teach: personal utility value, social utility value, intrinsic career value, ability, prior teaching and learning experience, social influences, fallback career and satisfaction with choice. Personality was entered in the first step, self-concept in the second, and achievement goals in the third step of the regression analysis. Percentage of variance explained with all of these variables was the highest for social utility value (26.5%), intrinsic career value (23.0%), ability (20.7%) and satisfaction with choice (20.2%). Other aspects of motivation for teaching were explained to a lesser extent, from 11.1% for fallback career to 4.0% for social influences. Personality traits explained the most variance of these motivational constructs, followed by self-concepts, and then achievement goals. Achievement goals, entered in the last step, after personality and self-concept, additionally explained only personal utility value and social utility value. Agreeableness and/or extraversion, together with academic self-concept predicted social utility value, intrinsic career value, ability, satisfaction with choice (in a positive direction) and fallback career (in a negative direction). Higher mastery approach goals predicted greater social utility value while lower performance approach goals predicted greater satisfaction with the choice of a teaching career. On the other hand, lower openness, higher problem-solving self-concept and higher performance approach goals predicted greater personal utility value. Taken together, relations between personality, self-perceptions, learning goals and motivation for teaching indicate that a more adaptive and proactive pattern of academic functioning is related to intrinsic and social utility value of teaching in Croatian student teachers. Our research provided some valuable insights into the functioning of future teachers as learners during their studies. Findings reveal that some student teachers’ individual characteristics like extraversion, academic self-concept and mastery approach goals reinforce certain aspects of motivation to be a teacher.

References

EC (2012). Supporting the teaching professions for better learning outcomes, http://ec.europa.eu/education/news/rethinking/sw374_en.pdf EC (2012). Rethinking Education: Investing in skills for better socio-economic outcomes. http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?qid=1389776578033&uri=CELEX:52012DC0669 EC (2013). Supporting teacher competences for better learning outcomes. http://ec.europa.eu/education/policy/school/doc/teachercomp_en.pdf Elliott, A.J. & McGregor, H.A. (2001). A 2 x 2 achievement goal framework. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 80, 501-519. John, O. P., Naumann, L. P., & Soto, C. J. (2008). Paradigm shift to the integrative Big-Five trait taxonomy: History, measurement, and conceptual issues. In O.P. John, R.W. Robins, & L.A. Pervin (Eds.), Handbook of personality: Theory and research (pp. 114-158). New York: Guilford Press. Jugović, I., Marušić, I., Pavin Ivanec, T., i Vizek Vidović, V. (2012). Motivation and personality of pre-service teachers in Croatia. Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education, 40 (3), 271-287. Jugović, I., Marušić, I. & Pavin Ivanec, T. (2014). Do personality and goal orientations predict motivation for the choice of a teaching profession? Paper presented at the 2nd Days of Educational Sciences. Zagreb, Croatia, October 16-17, 2014. Marsh, H. W. and O'Neill, R. (1984). Self Description Questionnaire III (SDQIII): The construct validity of mulitdimensional self-concept ratings by late adolescents. Journal of Educational Measurement, 21: 153-174. Marsh, H.W. & Shavelson, R. (1985). Self-concept: Its multifaceted hierarchical structure. Educational Psychologist, 20, 107-123. Marušić, I., Jugović, I., & Pavin Ivanec, T. (2011). Expectancy-value theory of motivation and the choice of teaching as a career. Psihologijske teme, 20(2), 299-318. Marušić, I., Jugović, I., & Pavin Ivanec, T. (2012). Personality, self concept and the choice of teaching profession. Paper presented at the 18th Psychology Days in Zadar. Zadar, Croatia, May 24-25, 2012. OECD (2014). TALIS 2013: Teaching and Learning International Survey, Country Profile Croatia. Retrieved from http://www.azoo.hr/images/IPA/TALIS-Country-profile-Croatia.pdf Watt, H.M.G., Richardson, P.W. (2007). Motivational factors influencing teaching as a career choice: Development and validation of the FIT-Choice scale. Journal of Experimental Education, 75, 167-202.

Author Information

Iris Marušić (presenting / submitting)

Institute for Social Research in Zagreb

Zagreb

Ivana Jugović

Institute for Social Research in Zagreb, Centre for Educational Research and Development

Tea Pavin Ivanec

Faculty of Teacher Education, University of Zagreb

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