A quantitative investigation of prospective teachers' hopes and their motivational forces

Abstract

The present study aimed to investigate the diverse aspects of prospective teachers' dispositional hopes, teaching-specific hopes, and their sources, as well as to explore whether these would significantly predict their preparation for the teaching profession. A total of 851 prospective teachers voluntarily participated in the study. A series of confirmatory factor analyses, multiple regression analyses, and structural equation modeling analyses were conducted to answer the research questions appropriately. The results showed that prospective teachers' dispositional hopes can be examined based on four factors (i.e. active hope, passive hope, internal sources, and external sources), whereas their teaching-specific hopes can be examined based on seven factors (i.e. student motivation, student development, student achievement, teaching, relationships with students, internal sources, and external sources). The results also demonstrated that the teaching-specific hopes in relation to student development, relationships with students, teaching, and their external sources significantly motivated prospective teachers to be involved in a number of activities related to teaching during teacher education.