Session Information
11 SES 11 A, Quality of Teacher Education
Paper Session
Contribution
In a challenging context for the teaching profession and also for teacher education (Carrillo & Flores, 2022), it seems pertinent to highlight the relevance of teachers' motivations for choosing to teach. The factors that are sources of motivation for choosing to teach cover a wide range of nuances that are worth systematically exploring. In this regard, over the last decades, much research has been conducted on the factors that influence teaching choice in the international context (Fray and Gore, 2018; Heinz, 2015; Watt et al., 2017; Navarro et al., 2021). That is why identifying and analyzing the motivations for choosing to teach is a prolific line of research (Shang et al., 2022). Although, a scoping review of the literature shows that the investigations are contextualized in face-to-face teacher education.
From this perspective, the objective of this research is to identify the factors influencing teaching choice through an exploratory study with student teachers in a distance education context. The hypothesis that we posed is that the factors that influence the teaching choice of students in a distance university are different than those motivational profiles that traditional students have (face-to-face education) because the profile of the distance student is very heterogeneous.
Acknowledgments: Teaching Innovation Project supported by the Vicerrectorado de Digitalización e Innovación de la UNED (Spain): "Factors that influence teacher choice: an exploratory study with university students of the Degree in Early Childhood Education" (FIED-EI).
Method
To address the research objective we present a quantitative, exploratory, and descriptive study. This study collected data from student teachers (teacher candidates) who completed the FIT-Choice scale (Watt & Richardson, 2007). The research team selected the FIT-Choice scale because it is an international reference to identify the determinants of motivation for career choice, as well as the perception of the teaching profession. This is an internationally validated scale (Navarro et al. 2021) and in its Spanish version (Gratacós and López, 2016), which measures the following factors: perceived teaching abilities, intrinsic value, job security, time for family, job transferability, shape future of children, enhance social equity, make a social contribution, work with children, prior teaching and learning experiences and social influences. All these factors consisted of 50 items, and scoring was performed on a 7-point rating scale where “1” means “not important” and “7” means “very important” (Watt and Richardson, 2007; Gratacós and López, 2016). Data collection is currently taking place (approximately 200 students will participate), through the FIT Choice scale in an online form. Research participants are previously informed about the objective of the study. Participation will be voluntary and anonymity and confidentiality will be ensured.
Expected Outcomes
The data obtained has been analyzed using SPSS 24.0, through descriptive techniques (mean and standard deviation) and the study of significant differences (inferential statistics) between the variables and factors. Due to it is ongoing research, recently supported by the Office of the Vice President for Innovation of our university, we cannot provide a preview of the results (the project is in the data collection phase). However, our research plan is to have the report by the end of June 2023. The main expected result will be the identification of the most relevant motivations of teacher candidates in a distance education context, these results will be widely discussed considering previous research. The implications for the practice of a better understanding of different motivational profiles are focused on providing support and mentoring, promoting belief changes, and establishing initiatives to improve the attractiveness of the teaching profession, among others.
References
Carrillo, C., & Flores, Mª. A. (2022). Online teaching and learning practices in teacher education after COVID-19: lessons learnt from the literature. Journal of Education for Teaching, 1-13. https://doi.org/10.1080/02607476.2022.2153018 Gratacós, G. y López-Jurado, M. (2016). Validación de la versión en español de la escala de los factores que influyen en la elección de los estudios de educación (FIT-choice). Revista de Educación, 372, 87-105. https://dx.doi.org/10.4438/1988-592X-RE-2015-372-316 Fray, L., & Gore, J. (2018). Why people choose teaching: A scoping review of empirical studies, 2007–2016. Teaching and Teacher Education, 75, 153-163. https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2018.06.009 Heinz, M. (2015). Why choose teaching? An international review of empirical studies exploring student teachers’ career motivations and levels of commitment to teaching. Educational Research and Evaluation, 21(3), 258-297. https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13803611.2015.1018278 Navarro, E., López, E., Asensio, I. I., Expósito, E., Carpintero, M. E., y Ruiz, C. (2021). Metaanálisis de generalización de la fiabilidad del cuestionario FIT-Choice (Factores que influyen en la elección de la enseñanza como carrera). Revista de educación, 393, 231-260. https://hdl.handle.net/11162/210363 Nocito, G., Sastre, S., Gratacós, G., & López-Gómez, E. (2022). “Conoce el atractivo de la profesión docente”: Impacto de un programa de orientación profesional dirigido a estudiantes de Bachillerato. Revista de Investigación Educativa, 40(2), 385-402. Shang, W., Yu, T., Wang, J., Sun, D., & Su, J. (2022). Why choose to become a teacher in China? A large-sample study using the Factors Influencing Teaching Choice scale. Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education, 50(4), 406-423. Watt, H. M. G.; Richardson, P. W.; & Smith, K. (2017) Global perspectives on teacher motivation. Cambridge University Press. https://dx.doi.org/ 10.1017/9781316225202 Watt, H. M. & Richardson, P. W. (2007). Motivational factors influencing teaching as a career choice: Development and validation of the FIT-Choice scale. The Journal of experimental education, 75(3), 167-202. https://dx.doi.org/10.3200/JEXE.75.3.167-202
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