Relationship between science teachers’ teaching motivations and career development aspirations

Abstract

ABSTRACT While science teachers play a pivotal role in schools in fostering students’ scientific literacy, interest, and aspirations, many countries face a lack of motivated pre-service teachers (PSTs) for science education. Accordingly, this study aims to explore science PSTs’ motivations for choosing a teaching profession and how these motivations are associated with their aspirations to remain in the teaching profession. The study chose seven factors that were relevant to the Social Cognitive Career Theory framework and investigated the relationships among those factors. The results indicated a positive relationship between the PSTs’ motivation to work with children and career development aspiration, while those who stated having more time for family as the key motivation to choose the teaching profession presented a negative association. Also, this study revealed the critical role of previous learning experiences and perceived teaching ability in increasing the science PST’s planned effort and persistence in the teaching profession.