Chinese Vocational School Students' Achievement Motivation in Different Educational Models

Abstract

The Chinese government is currently experimenting with a new approach to teacher training to address the shortage of teachers in rural schools. This model is called the free teacher training model. Students enter vocational schools after high school to train as preschool teachers for five years, after which they can get a steady job in a public kindergarten. The researcher sought to explore whether the achievement motivation levels of these teacher-education students would be affected by such an educational model. In this study, it was hypothesized that students would be less motivated to achieve in their studies because they would not need to find a job. However, the researcher's survey data indicated that there was no significant difference between the achievement motivation levels of these students who did not have to worry about employment and those who had to worry about employment. Such results surprised the researcher, and the researcher believes there are several possible reasons for such results. For example, these students did not have employment as their primary orientation to learning. Or these students did not fill in their real situation because they were concerned about the influence of social desirability.