Abstract
Pre-service teachers with different professional identity may actively construct different subjective profession-related events based on the same objective profession-related events. To explore the priming effect among pre-service teachers with different professional identity, this study examined the effect of positive, negative, or neutral priming sentences in an individualized narration of profession-related events through a priming paradigm. Forty-two female volunteers were asked to complete positive, negative, and neutral priming sentences describing profession-related events. The results showed that, relative to those with weak professional identity, participants with strong professional identity generated a higher number of positive items when primed with different stimuli and displayed greater positive priming bias for positive and neutral stimuli. In addition, relative to those with strong professional identity, participants with weak professional identity generated a higher number of neutral and negative items when primed with positive and negative stimuli, respectively, and displayed greater negative priming bias toward negative stimuli. These results indicate that pre-service teachers with strong professional identity were likely to have established positive self-schemas involving profession-related events, which facilitated active, positive construction of such events.
Highlights
In the field of education, pre-service teachers are the main source of future teachers, and their professional identity is a longstanding topic of concern in all sectors of society (Akkerman and Meijer, 2011; Ma et al, 2013; Wei et al, 2013; Stenberg et al, 2014)
Simple effects analysis showed that pre-service teachers with strong professional identity generated higher numbers of positive items for all stimulus types during primed processing, relative to those observed for pre-service teachers with weak professional identity (p < 0.001; Figure 1)
Higher numbers of negative and neutral items for all types of stimulus during primed processing, relative to those observed for pre-service teachers with strong professional identity (p < 0.001). These results indicated that pre-service teachers with strong professional identity showed a high level of positively primed processing, while pre-service teachers with weak professional identity showed high levels of neutrally and negatively primed processing
Summary
In the field of education, pre-service teachers are the main source of future teachers, and their professional identity is a longstanding topic of concern in all sectors of society (Akkerman and Meijer, 2011; Ma et al, 2013; Wei et al, 2013; Stenberg et al, 2014). Pre-service teachers’ professional identity refers to their positive attitudes toward the teaching profession and their current identity as pre-service teachers (Wang et al, 2017). The formation of this identity involves a process of dynamic change and continuous development (Hong, 2010; Trent, 2011; Izadinia, 2013; Pillen et al, 2013). Surveys have shown that teachers with stronger professional identity were more likely to maintain their enthusiasm toward teaching, exhibited greater job satisfaction, and were less likely to display job burnout or turnover intention, relative to those with weak professional identity (Wei and Song, 2012; Fisherman, 2014; Luo et al, 2014). Pre-service teachers with weak professional identity exhibited poorer academic and life satisfaction and greater concern regarding their future, relative to that observed in those with strong professional identity (Wang et al, 2011). The abovementioned findings indicate that examination of pre-service teachers’ professional identity could enrich and extend current research in this regard, and facilitate the cultivation of pre-service teachers’ professional psychological qualities, thereby promoting their overall development
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