Educational Goals and Motivations for Training as a Teacher of Student Teachers

Author(s):

Heleen Simonsz(presenting / submitting)

Conference:

ECER 2017

Network:

10. Teacher Education Research

Format:

Paper

Session Information

10 SES 06 D, Engaging with Professional Standards and Educational Goals

Paper Session

Time:

2017-08-23

15:30-17:00

Room:

K5.07

Chair:

Angelika Paseka

Contribution

Student teachers tend to enter teacher education with educational ideals. These ideals shape their educational goals and motivations for training as a teacher. In policy and research in the educational field in various European countries, the main focus is on the outcomes and technical aspects of teaching. However, education is intended not only to provide young people with access to qualifications, but also to be conducive to their personal development and a good society (Biesta, 2010).

This study contributes to insight into the priorities of student teachers: do they value qualifications or goals related to personal autonomy and society more? And what are the grounds for their choice to become a teacher? Is their choice based on desire to support young people or to teach a certain subject? The objective of this study is to gain insight into the goals and motivations of student teachers, which helps teacher trainers to develop meaningful education and informs them about the values of teachers of the future. This study is part of a larger research project which focuses on the content and formation of the educational ideals of student teachers.

The first framework in this study consists of value-related educational goals, developed by Veugelers and Schuitema (2010) and goals related to qualification, developed by Denessen, Michels, and Felling (2000) and Van Veen, Sleegers, Bergen, and Klaassen (2001). Veugelers and Schuitema (2010) distinguish four factors of value-related educational goals: ‘discipline and adaptation’, ‘autonomy’, ‘social commitment’ and ‘democratic attitude focused on social justice’. This scale is used by Leenders, Veugelers, and De Kat (2008). Qualification concerns both the ‘future careers of learners’ (Denessen et al., 2000) and ‘subject matter knowledge’ (Van Veen et al., 2001).

The second framework used in this research is based on the Factors Influencing Teaching theory (FIT-Choice theory) developed by Watt and Richardson (2007). On the basis of this theory they constructed the FIT-Choice Scale, which consists of factors that influence the choice for the teaching profession, such as ‘intrinsic values’, ‘personal utility values’ and ‘social utility values’. As the FIT-Choice scale lacks the factor subject matter and literature (Roness, 2011; Thomson, Turner, & Nietfeld, 2012) shows that subject-matter motivators are highly valued by student teachers and newly qualified teachers in secondary education, the factor ‘subject matter’ developed by Roness (2011) and Thomson et al. (2012) was added.

The FIT-Choice scale was developed in Australia and used in various European countries, namely Croatia (Jugović, Marušić, Pavin Ivanec, & Vizek Vidović, 2012), Germany (König & Rothland, 2012; Watt et al., 2012), Switzerland (Berger & D’Ascoli, 2012) and Norway (Watt et al., 2012). The FIT-Choice scale has already been used in the Netherlands by Fokkens-Bruinsma and Canrinus (2012a, 2012b, 2014), but their studies focus only on students training to become first-degree teachers – who are qualified to teach young people in all secondary educational tracks of the Dutch school system – and students training to become primary teachers. This research concentrates on students training to become second-degree student teachers – who are qualified to teach young people in all four years of the lower secondary educational tracks and the first three years of the higher secondary educational tracks. The results of this research will be compared with the results of the research conducted in the Netherlands and other European countries.

Research question:

What are the educational goals and motivations for training as a teacher of first-year and fourth-year student teachers?

Method

First-year student teachers (n1 = 508, response 75%, 51,8% were female, and the mean age was 20 years) and fourth-year student teachers (n2= 104, response 54%, 50,5% were female, and the mean age was 23 years) from three teacher education institutions in different areas of the Netherlands completed a questionnaire on their educational goals and their motivations for training as a teacher. The students were studying to become second-degree English language (second language) or history teachers. The huge differences in numbers between the samples (n1 = 508 and n2= 104) is due to the large amount of students who quit teacher education. Reasons for quitting are making a transfer to university, preference for another profession, the level is too high and personal circumstances The questionnaire consisted of four sections. The first section contained mainly open questions concerning educational ideals of the student teachers. The second and third sections addressed the educational goals and motivations for training as a teacher of the student teachers. The last section asked about the background characteristics of the students, such as gender and age. Educational goals were measured on the ‘value-related educational scale’ (Veugelers & Schuitema, 2010) and qualification on the scales ‘future career of learners’ (Denessen et al., 2000) and ‘subject matter knowledge’ (Van Veen et al., 2001). The answer categories consisted of a five-point Likert scale ranging from 1 ‘not important’ to 5 ‘extremely important’. The motivations for training as a teacher were measured using a Dutch version of the ‘FIT-Choice scale’ validated by Fokkens-Bruinsma and Canrinus (2012b). The original scale is used and validated in various countries (Watt et al., 2012). Each first-order construct was measured with multiple items on a seven-point Likert scale ranging from 1 ‘not important’ to 7 ‘extremely important’. The variable descriptives were examined to obtain more information regarding the differences in the educational goals and motivations for training as a teacher between first-year and fourth-year student teachers.

Expected Outcomes

The reliability of the scales to measure educational goals was good (lowest ‘qualification=knowledge’: α= .68, highest ‘qualification-career’: α= .84). The highest-rated educational goal was for both samples ‘social commitment’ (n1:M=4.35, n2: M=4.34). The lowest-rated goal for the first-year students was ‘democratic attitude focused on social justice’ (n1: M=3.75, n2: M=3.59) and for the fourth-year students ‘qualification-career’ (n1 :M=3.81, n2 M=3.52). First-year students valued both goals focused on qualification more highly than fourth-year students. The reliability of the scales to measure motivations for training as a teacher was good (lowest ‘fallback career’: α= .67, highest ‘social influences’: α= .88). The highest-rated motivations for both samples were ‘subject matter’ (n1: M=6.00, n2: M=5.95) and ‘shape future of children/adolescents’ (n1 :M=5.70, n2 M=5.89). The lowest-rated motivations were ‘fallback career’ (n1: M=2.92, n2: M=2.85) and ‘time for family’ (n1: M=3.58, n2: M=3.27). First-year students rated, besides these factors, other ‘personal utility values’ and ‘social influences’ more highly than fourth-year students. They rated ‘intrinsic career value’ and ‘social utility values’ as less important compared to fourth-year students. Further analysis will be done in Spring 2017 and presented at the ECER. In this analysis other variables such as discipline will be taken into account. The non-parametric Mann-Whitney test will be used to analyse whether the differences between the two cohorts are significant, as the sizes of the samples were unequal. In the discussion we will link the results to European trends and explore possibilities for the development of meaningful education in teacher training.

References

Berger, J.-L., & D’Ascoli, Y. (2012). Motivations to Become Vocational Education and Training Educators: A Person-Oriented Approach. Vocations and Learning, 5(3), 225-249. Biesta, G. J. (2010). Good education in an age of measurement: ethics, politics and democracy. Boulder: Pardigm Publishers. Denessen, E., Michels, C., & Felling, A. (2000). Opvattingen over onderwijs: een onderzoek naar de validiteit en betrouwbaarheid van een meetinstrument. Pedagogische Studiën, 77, 193-205. Fokkens-Bruinsma, M., & Canrinus, E. T. (2012a). Adaptive and maladaptive motives for becoming a teacher. Journal of Education for Teaching, 38(1), 3-19. Fokkens-Bruinsma, M., & Canrinus, E. T. (2012b). The Factors Influencing Teaching (FIT)-Choice scale in a Dutch teacher education program. Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education, 40(3), 249-269. Fokkens-Bruinsma, M., & Canrinus, E. T. (2014). Motivation for becoming a teacher and engagement with the profession: Evidence from different contexts. International Journal of Educational Research, 65, 65-74. Jugović, I., Marušić, I., Pavin Ivanec, T., & Vizek Vidović, V. (2012). Motivation and personality of preservice teachers in Croatia. Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education, 40(3), 271-287. König, J., & Rothland, M. (2012). Motivations for choosing teaching as a career: effects on general pedagogical knowledge during initial teacher education. Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education, 40(3), 289-315. Leenders, H., Veugelers, W., & De Kat, E. (2008). Teachers' views on citizenship education in secondary education in The Netherlands. Cambridge Journal of Education, 38(2), 155-170. Roness, D. (2011). Still motivated? The motivation for teaching during the second year in the profession. Teaching and Teacher Education, 27(3), 628-638. Thomson, M. M., Turner, J. E., & Nietfeld, J. L. (2012). A typological approach to investigate the teaching career decision: Motivations and beliefs about teaching of prospective teacher candidates. Teaching and Teacher Education, 28(3), 324-335. Van Veen, K., Sleegers, P., Bergen, T., & Klaassen, C. (2001). Professional orientations of secondary school teachers towards their work. Teaching and Teacher Education, 17(2), 175-194. Veugelers, W., & Schuitema, J. (2010). Grenzen aan de pedagogische taak van de docent. Amsterdam: Universiteit van Amsterdam. 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(3), 167-202. Watt, H. M. G., Richardson, P. W., Klusmann, U., Kunter, M., Beyer, B., Trautwein, U., & Baumert, J. (2012). Motivations for choosing teaching as a career: An international comparison using the FIT-Choice scale. Teaching and Teacher Education, 28(6), 791-805.

Author Information

Heleen Simonsz (presenting / submitting)

Windesheim

Zwolle

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